The pros and cons of software running your car

Over the air updates for vehicles are considered an undisclosed recall and are illegal in Japan, as the local Tesla importer has discovered to their cost.

Also, just like a note PC or smartphone, if the car's battery voltage drops too far during a software update (they can take ages) you can consider the vehicle bricked.

If the battery goes dead, then what?

I love that term, "Software Defined Vehicle". It holds great promise for the motoring public. Right now it's like the wild, wild west with everyone trying to outsmart and outbrand the next guy. But the root idea has the real possibility for giving the future a renewed direction...

Software can track who you are and where you are 24/7. If the police want to stop you, they can have your software slow and stop your car and lock the doors. In an emergency, you can't just hop in someone else's car and use it. You can't speed, even if your wife is giving birth in the back seat, or the Yaks are after you. And let's not forget software updates, which don't always work.

You will need complete connectivity, which may rule out usage in remote areas. The government can also prevent you from travelling more than a certain distance per day, at night, in wet weather, or out of your prefecture with a mouse click. Or at all, if your jabs are not up to date. Your car may only stop and the doors unlock in designated parking places. And you won't be able to skip servicing. If your manufacturer goes out of business, your car will need to be recycled, you can't mod too much of it, and foreign models won't have the right software. Car parking fees, fines and tolls can be deducted from your bank account automatically.

It's all about control, sold as convenience. Like apps and digital money.

Software can track who you are and where you are 24/7. If the police want to stop you, they can have your software slow and stop your car and lock the doors. In an emergency, you can't just hop in someone else's car and use it. You can't speed, even if your wife is giving birth in the back seat, or the Yaks are after you. And let's not forget software updates, which don't always work.

Seems a valid payoff for when cars are all able to talk to each other, nearly removing car accidents and vehicle deaths altogether.

quote: Seems a valid payoff for when cars are all able to talk to each other, nearly removing car accidents and vehicle deaths altogether.

They may also not let you exceed the speed limit when you are attempting to drive away from an incoming tsunami wave.

It’s really very simple and easily to comprehend. A car shouldn’t be used as a computer and a computer shouldn’t be used as a car.

Software can track who you are and where you are 24/7. 

Telematic systems like GM's On-Star have been able to track cars for decades. Most cars have a recording device buried somewhere in their electronics that insurance companies and law enforcement can access. That too has been around for a decade or more.

I remember seeing such a prediction on TV as a little kid. The detective crime drama show 'Kochack: the Night Stalker' featured a self-driving car if I remember correctly. Kochack himself was BLIND. He couldn't see but he 'drove' around NYC and solved crime cases. Some of them were really weird - for instance one episode had a headless motor biker and another had a Greek 'goddess' who seduced and murdered men (when her temple was destroyed, she froze into a statue).

And now there are special shades being made for blind people where they can 'see' images in their brains like Georgie LaForge of STAR TREK TNG. Self-driving vehicles can be beneficial at least for people like this. And maybe they could prevent some DUIs in the future too. Maybe.