4 ms·

Wouldn't it be fun if electric cars were the same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want, switch motor / battery.. choose a new chassis as you wish. And

Wouldn't it be fun if electric cars were the same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want, switch motor / battery.. choose a new chassis as you wish. And LED lights of course.

tnel77 2y ago
Man I can dream! That sounds incredible.
nottorp 2y ago
They kind of are. But at manufacturer level. Everyone now has like 3-4 chassis options and they build cars on top of that.
kube-system 2y ago
The only reason that exists for PCs is the same reason we even use the word “PC”: they’re all just legacy holdovers from manufacturers copying IBM. And really, the subset of the market that still follows these standards is small, and shrinking. The vast majority of PCs today are laptops with few, if any, swappable parts. Pretty much the only segment where this still exists is the enthusiast subset of the gaming PC market.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  Traditional, expandable towers certainly still exist. I just bought three of them.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    I didn't say they didn't exist, I said the market is shrinking. They used to be an ubiquitous form factor, they're now uncommon outside of the enthusiast market. Only 20% of PCs are desktops of any kind, and a good portion of those are now SFF or other designs.
- creesch 2y ago
  Also, server hardware. It isn't as it is only kept around for those stubborn gamer enthusiast. The enthusiast market more or less is an extra revenue stream for a lot of hardware that is developed for the server market first. It is a bit more complex than that of course and generally speaking you are right.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    Server hardware has abandoned a good bit of interchangeability too. While you can still usually count on socketed CPUs, socketed memory, and interchangeable storage, there's a lot of proprietary components used on servers beyond that. Motherboard and power supply form factors are often proprietary, and it is not uncommon for expansion cards to be proprietary or non-standard implementations. Things like ATX power supplies, ATX/mATX motherboards, tower cases, are pretty squarely for the PC gaming segment now. It's difficult to even find a "business" motherboard these days, where as 20 years ago, they were nearly all designed with this use-case first. There's ASRock Rack type stuff that targets some custom server-type use cases, but the big server manufacturers make their own proprietary stuff.
    - inhumantsar 2y ago
      even supermicro, which used to be the goto for DIY servers, has been trending toward more proprietary (and more expensive) components. there are options out there for itx and matx server chassis, even ATX and EATX. Silverstone in particular has some interesting options for rack mount workstations based around 360mm AIO water-cooling, ATX boards and PSUs, consumer GPUs, etc. though those are meant more for the half and quarter rack enclosures designed to be installed in a home or office environment.
      - kube-system 2y ago
        Yeah, ATX/EATX exist, and they probably will exist in non-zero production for another 50 or more years given the historical momentum. But most of the market is Dell/Lenovo/HP/Supermicro (and in China, a couple other players). Silverstone is an absolutely tiny business by comparison. Their US office is 1/6th of a shared warehouse space in an LA suburb, next to a laminate flooring retailer.
cruano 2y ago
Xiaomi's new SU7 is supposed to support a number of accessories like that: https://www.tiktok.com/@hu_changwen/video/7361544557495864609?lang=en https://www.tiktok.com/@hu_changwen/video/736154455749586460...
badpun 2y ago
And then get bluescreens while driving. Modularity will always come with some degree of flakiness, which is acceptable in PCs, but not in cars.
- olyjohn 2y ago
  You mean like the magic reboot you do in Teslas because the infotainment shit crashes in them? I've seen infotainment systems crash in so many cars, and people have to call the dealer to get the fucking Konami code to reboot the system. Don't you dare unplug the battery to reset it either, because you'll likely fuck something up even worse. This stability thing is just a weak excuse used by car companies.
  - badpun 2y ago
    I may be wrong, but I think infotainment does not have any access to vital parts of the car (engine, brakes, steering etc.) so has no way to mess it up and kill someone. Hence lower quality standards in it, as it's not safety-critical.
ulfw 2y ago
The vast majority of PCs sold today are not that way anymore.
beretguy 2y ago
> same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want That’s no longer true for the most consumer laptops.

Wouldn't it be fun if electric cars were the same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want, switch motor / battery.. choose a new chassis as you wish. And LED lights of course.

tnel77 2y ago

Man I can dream! That sounds incredible.

nottorp 2y ago

They kind of are. But at manufacturer level. Everyone now has like 3-4 chassis options and they build cars on top of that.

kube-system 2y ago

The only reason that exists for PCs is the same reason we even use the word “PC”: they’re all just legacy holdovers from manufacturers copying IBM. And really, the subset of the market that still follows these standards is small, and shrinking. The vast majority of PCs today are laptops with few, if any, swappable parts. Pretty much the only segment where this still exists is the enthusiast subset of the gaming PC market.

JohnFen 2y ago
Traditional, expandable towers certainly still exist. I just bought three of them.
- kube-system 2y ago
  I didn't say they didn't exist, I said the market is shrinking. They used to be an ubiquitous form factor, they're now uncommon outside of the enthusiast market. Only 20% of PCs are desktops of any kind, and a good portion of those are now SFF or other designs.
creesch 2y ago
Also, server hardware. It isn't as it is only kept around for those stubborn gamer enthusiast. The enthusiast market more or less is an extra revenue stream for a lot of hardware that is developed for the server market first. It is a bit more complex than that of course and generally speaking you are right.
- kube-system 2y ago
  Server hardware has abandoned a good bit of interchangeability too. While you can still usually count on socketed CPUs, socketed memory, and interchangeable storage, there's a lot of proprietary components used on servers beyond that. Motherboard and power supply form factors are often proprietary, and it is not uncommon for expansion cards to be proprietary or non-standard implementations. Things like ATX power supplies, ATX/mATX motherboards, tower cases, are pretty squarely for the PC gaming segment now. It's difficult to even find a "business" motherboard these days, where as 20 years ago, they were nearly all designed with this use-case first. There's ASRock Rack type stuff that targets some custom server-type use cases, but the big server manufacturers make their own proprietary stuff.
  - inhumantsar 2y ago
    even supermicro, which used to be the goto for DIY servers, has been trending toward more proprietary (and more expensive) components. there are options out there for itx and matx server chassis, even ATX and EATX. Silverstone in particular has some interesting options for rack mount workstations based around 360mm AIO water-cooling, ATX boards and PSUs, consumer GPUs, etc. though those are meant more for the half and quarter rack enclosures designed to be installed in a home or office environment.
    - kube-system 2y ago
      Yeah, ATX/EATX exist, and they probably will exist in non-zero production for another 50 or more years given the historical momentum. But most of the market is Dell/Lenovo/HP/Supermicro (and in China, a couple other players). Silverstone is an absolutely tiny business by comparison. Their US office is 1/6th of a shared warehouse space in an LA suburb, next to a laminate flooring retailer.

cruano 2y ago

Xiaomi's new SU7 is supposed to support a number of accessories like that: https://www.tiktok.com/@hu_changwen/video/7361544557495864609?lang=en https://www.tiktok.com/@hu_changwen/video/736154455749586460...

badpun 2y ago

And then get bluescreens while driving. Modularity will always come with some degree of flakiness, which is acceptable in PCs, but not in cars.

olyjohn 2y ago
You mean like the magic reboot you do in Teslas because the infotainment shit crashes in them? I've seen infotainment systems crash in so many cars, and people have to call the dealer to get the fucking Konami code to reboot the system. Don't you dare unplug the battery to reset it either, because you'll likely fuck something up even worse. This stability thing is just a weak excuse used by car companies.
- badpun 2y ago
  I may be wrong, but I think infotainment does not have any access to vital parts of the car (engine, brakes, steering etc.) so has no way to mess it up and kill someone. Hence lower quality standards in it, as it's not safety-critical.

ulfw 2y ago

The vast majority of PCs sold today are not that way anymore.

beretguy 2y ago

> same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want That’s no longer true for the most consumer laptops.