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This is an interesting idea, but I'd be curious to know what kinds of innovations in car functionality are possible. Also, assuming that you're referring to a k

This is an interesting idea, but I'd be curious to know what kinds of innovations in car functionality are possible. Also, assuming that you're referring to a kind of planned obsolescence, how can a company convince you to replace the entire vehicle if the moving parts are working fine? If the computer is broken, replace the computer. Update the self-driving software over the internet. Why would you need to replace the whole car? Unless, of course, a company tries to integrate points of failure all throughout the body, so that "replacing the computer" of the car or what have you becomes impossible due to the delicate electronic parts. Call me an optimist but at the price of cars today I don't think anyone but the super rich are gullible or decadent enough to fall for something like that instead of a cheaper, more reliable modular alternative. Unless the price of a brand new car becomes similar to that of a new phone, I don't think that future is very likely.

TheLoneWolfling 12y ago
If only it were so simple. You're assuming discrete components. And you're assuming consumer sanity. "Every protocol the car uses is proprietary and protected under DCMA / etc. There are chips in every component that don't allow the car to start if any component isn't a first-party part." We're already seeing this sort of thing. Look at the Tesla. Or the Lightning connector from Apple.
- semi-extrinsic 12y ago
  Cars have been like this for years. This forum post [1] from 2004 discusses VIN specific coding, so that phenomenon is at least ten years old. [1]http://forum.roadfly.com/archive/index.php/t-8237302.html?s=2cf4baa4e0680a41c3e3081ddf49533d http://forum.roadfly.com/archive/index.php/t-8237302.html?s=...
astrocat 12y ago
as automation increases, cars will likely become more computers than cars. And at that point I imagine the advances in computation and sensing will drive product refreshes. Even battery tech. Which all sound familiar... Sure some of it can be over-the-air as Tesla has already shown, but the same happens on our current tech yet we still update the hardware pretty frequently. A new, better autopilot may not be able to run on a 3 year old car processor. Could you swap out the cars brains? Sure. Would that be lucrative for the car manufacturer? maybe not. I think the biggest argument against what I'm proposing is that computers/phones have huge form-factor constraints that favor tightly integrated components - it's why RAM is no longer user replaceable in new, thinner macs. Cars, given their physical size, will likely never face that constraint making the modular approach you suggest much more feasible.

TheLoneWolfling 12y ago

If only it were so simple. You're assuming discrete components. And you're assuming consumer sanity. "Every protocol the car uses is proprietary and protected under DCMA / etc. There are chips in every component that don't allow the car to start if any component isn't a first-party part." We're already seeing this sort of thing. Look at the Tesla. Or the Lightning connector from Apple.

semi-extrinsic 12y ago
Cars have been like this for years. This forum post [1] from 2004 discusses VIN specific coding, so that phenomenon is at least ten years old. [1]http://forum.roadfly.com/archive/index.php/t-8237302.html?s=2cf4baa4e0680a41c3e3081ddf49533d http://forum.roadfly.com/archive/index.php/t-8237302.html?s=...

astrocat 12y ago

as automation increases, cars will likely become more computers than cars. And at that point I imagine the advances in computation and sensing will drive product refreshes. Even battery tech. Which all sound familiar... Sure some of it can be over-the-air as Tesla has already shown, but the same happens on our current tech yet we still update the hardware pretty frequently. A new, better autopilot may not be able to run on a 3 year old car processor. Could you swap out the cars brains? Sure. Would that be lucrative for the car manufacturer? maybe not. I think the biggest argument against what I'm proposing is that computers/phones have huge form-factor constraints that favor tightly integrated components - it's why RAM is no longer user replaceable in new, thinner macs. Cars, given their physical size, will likely never face that constraint making the modular approach you suggest much more feasible.