6 ms·

Man, what a crap article. I'd even go as far as to use the word "clickbait" because of the unnecessary use of the word "electric", because little of the article

Man, what a crap article. I'd even go as far as to use the word "clickbait" because of the unnecessary use of the word "electric", because little of the article is specific to electric vehicles. But let's dig into a few highlights... Cars now use an ETC (electronic throttle control) managed by a computer, as is just about everything else on engines these days. Naturally, this makes vehicles more difficult to repair... Citation needed. Might be more expensive, but swapping out the broken module the OBD reader told you to swap is probably not going to be that hard. The actual module is probably under the dash near the pedal, but that's probably the extent of the difficulty. And that's assuming that you ever need to replace it. You'll probably sell the car first. Throttle cables, OTOH... As technology in our cars continues to advance, repairability and maintenance are becoming a real issue. Just ask any old-school mechanic No, you go ask any old-school mechanic, because this old-school mechanic who quit professionally turning wrenches in the '90s sez "hurray!" to our electronically-controlled low-maintenance overlords. Because I'd rather not spend another evening replacing a set of ignition points so that I can get to work in the morning. We drive our vehicles until the wheels fall off, but for those that lease a vehicle for three years, my guess is you're not doing jack maintenance-wise before the lease is up (you will have to change oil on an ICE). What happens when your fancy electric vehicle stops getting software updates. Ooooooh, scary question! It'll be just like TFA's phone example: hackers will hack my car!!11! No, wait...I know the answer to this one because our Nissan Leaf quit getting updates when the 3G was shut off, and I've not taken it back to the dealer in several years. And the answer is...nothing happens. I mean, what's the assumed answer to what the author must think to be a rhetorical question?

hoosieree 5y ago
I'm more worried about pressing the accelerator and getting an error message pop-up like "it looks like you're using an ad blocker..."
- fhood 5y ago
  That can theoretically already happen, has nothing to do with whether a car is electric, and we already deal with something kind of similar known as "limp home mode"
  - julianlam 5y ago
    Please drink verification can...
    - orangepurple 5y ago
      The mechanism to disconnect the power cord is patented, and the patent is not licensed to the end user. Using it to disconnect the power violates the patent and risks lawsuits. A copy-protection scheme is based on the AC signal sent through the power line. Cutting the power cable or turning off power is a circumvention that violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Bashing the screen in creates a derivative work that infringes on copyrights held by the broadcaster and producer.
  - GuB-42 5y ago
    It has nothing to do with the electric drive train, but electric cars are way worse in that regard. I blame Tesla for it. Tesla essentially made the first electric car people wanted to drive. It did that with a clear inspiration from the smartphone world, hiding and locking away all the ugly internals with a slick touchscreen interface. Of course other manufacturers are going to follow the most successful player, but at the same time they don't want to alienate their already established (ICE) consumer base and its network of dealers and mechanics. Electric cars are a clean slate and they can afford to be bold with anti-features, Tesla have shown that they can get away with it.
jjav 5y ago
> Might be more expensive, but swapping out the broken module the OBD reader told you to swap is probably not going to be that hard. Where are you going to get that replacement module (which is entirely proprietary) after the dealer is no longer selling them? When the throttle cable on my 1950s car snaps I can simply get a new cable from a thousand places. A cable is a cable. A hundred years from now, I confidently bet that there will be a lot more still-running cars from the 1950s-1990s than any newer ones because the newer ones become quickly impossible to fix as soon as the factory and dealer stop carrying those model-specific propietary parts.
- yardie 5y ago
  The old cars (40s and 50s) in Cuba for example are literally held together with ducktape, adobo, and chicken wire. If they even have an engine it's whatever they could find: lawn mower, motorcyle, or tractor engine. The cars from the 50s were incredible polluters. Part of the reason we even have emission standards was because of how much NOx and unburnt fuel came out the tailpipe. When the last one bites the dust I'll miss it as much as I miss a stage coach.
julianlam 5y ago
> No, wait...I know the answer to this one because our Nissan Leaf quit getting updates when the 3G was shut off, and I've not taken it back to the dealer in several years. And the answer is...nothing happens. With your specific example, nothing happened, which is the best case scenario, yes? The problem is the potential for inconvenience and disaster is there. I do not look forward to the day when my auto manufacturer forgets to renew a domain name and all of a sudden every single car by that maker cannot start its engine because it can't connect to HQ. It's a contrived example, sure, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.
- smsm42 5y ago
  It's not as contrived as you think. Some Tesla owners couldn't get into their car on the latest AWS outage because the app to unlock it stopped working and they didn't think to bring the keys, because the app always works. How long before Tesla or somebody else gets a genius idea that since nobody carries around keys anyway, why make them at all?

hoosieree 5y ago

I'm more worried about pressing the accelerator and getting an error message pop-up like "it looks like you're using an ad blocker..."

fhood 5y ago
That can theoretically already happen, has nothing to do with whether a car is electric, and we already deal with something kind of similar known as "limp home mode"
- julianlam 5y ago
  Please drink verification can...
  - orangepurple 5y ago
    The mechanism to disconnect the power cord is patented, and the patent is not licensed to the end user. Using it to disconnect the power violates the patent and risks lawsuits. A copy-protection scheme is based on the AC signal sent through the power line. Cutting the power cable or turning off power is a circumvention that violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Bashing the screen in creates a derivative work that infringes on copyrights held by the broadcaster and producer.
- GuB-42 5y ago
  It has nothing to do with the electric drive train, but electric cars are way worse in that regard. I blame Tesla for it. Tesla essentially made the first electric car people wanted to drive. It did that with a clear inspiration from the smartphone world, hiding and locking away all the ugly internals with a slick touchscreen interface. Of course other manufacturers are going to follow the most successful player, but at the same time they don't want to alienate their already established (ICE) consumer base and its network of dealers and mechanics. Electric cars are a clean slate and they can afford to be bold with anti-features, Tesla have shown that they can get away with it.

jjav 5y ago

> Might be more expensive, but swapping out the broken module the OBD reader told you to swap is probably not going to be that hard. Where are you going to get that replacement module (which is entirely proprietary) after the dealer is no longer selling them? When the throttle cable on my 1950s car snaps I can simply get a new cable from a thousand places. A cable is a cable. A hundred years from now, I confidently bet that there will be a lot more still-running cars from the 1950s-1990s than any newer ones because the newer ones become quickly impossible to fix as soon as the factory and dealer stop carrying those model-specific propietary parts.

yardie 5y ago
The old cars (40s and 50s) in Cuba for example are literally held together with ducktape, adobo, and chicken wire. If they even have an engine it's whatever they could find: lawn mower, motorcyle, or tractor engine. The cars from the 50s were incredible polluters. Part of the reason we even have emission standards was because of how much NOx and unburnt fuel came out the tailpipe. When the last one bites the dust I'll miss it as much as I miss a stage coach.

julianlam 5y ago

> No, wait...I know the answer to this one because our Nissan Leaf quit getting updates when the 3G was shut off, and I've not taken it back to the dealer in several years. And the answer is...nothing happens. With your specific example, nothing happened, which is the best case scenario, yes? The problem is the potential for inconvenience and disaster is there. I do not look forward to the day when my auto manufacturer forgets to renew a domain name and all of a sudden every single car by that maker cannot start its engine because it can't connect to HQ. It's a contrived example, sure, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

smsm42 5y ago
It's not as contrived as you think. Some Tesla owners couldn't get into their car on the latest AWS outage because the app to unlock it stopped working and they didn't think to bring the keys, because the app always works. How long before Tesla or somebody else gets a genius idea that since nobody carries around keys anyway, why make them at all?