Bonum Certa Men Certa

Newer is Not Always Better (the Case of Automobiles)

The car drives you!



Summary: Techrights recommends caution against 'tech maximalism'; not everything that can be done with/on a computer should, in practice, be done that way; a careful balance is needed, taking stock of pros and cons

TODAY in IRC we had a lengthy discussion about the downside of supposedly "modern" or "smart" cars*. It'll be in the IRC logs tomorrow. It's very informal. It's going way beyond aspects like cost and privacy -- those two are commonly discussed these days. We did a series about it over a year ago.



"People are simply asked to buy the "latest" -- no matter what Trojan horses are included (mandated) in these."What compels people to blindly assume that newer is always better when it's perfectly clear that users aren't in control and products are tailored (over time) to better suit the manufacturers, the stores etc.? People are simply asked to buy the "latest" -- no matter what Trojan horses are included (mandated) in these.

This subject keeps coming back. People who drive need to buy cars (occasionally) and there are many things they see which they strongly dislike.

"The one [new article] about cars can be motivation for revisiting cars/embedded systems and software freedom," one person told us this week, suggesting it as a topic and stating that "the focus was in-house expertise vs outsourcing, in cars."

To quote the portion we've already included in Daily Links:

I would argue relying too much on external software vendors and not seeing software as a first-class citizen is the root cause. But Volvo Cars is wisely moving away from that model by bringing software developers in-house. Google and Apple partner with vendors for commodities. Software and data just happen to be too key to treat it that way. As I argued in a previous post, the automotive industry needs to own their data and set up to make it to the mobility-driven phase.

Having someone from software-only companies tell Volvo how to do software is not that different from having someone from Foxconn coming to Cupertino telling Apple how to do hardware. Personally, I approach Volvo from a position of respect and will do my best for it to achieve its vision. And I’m not alone. There’s a whole army of us.

Having done this for more than 2 decades, I don’t buy the argument that “it’s rocket science, you do cars, pay us to do it for you”.



Cars have long been marketed and merchandised as tools of freedom (mobility) and independence (no public transport). But if entering a car means being spied on in all sorts of ways (by third parties!), then taking a long walk might be more emancipating an experience. As a teenager, when I drove my car I brought a laptop into it (for music; no need to touch anything while driving). Back in the 90s it was possible with universal ports. There was no DRM. I could take the laptop anywhere I needed it afterwards, so I wasn't paying for a computer that only works inside the car.

"Cars have long been marketed and merchandised as tools of freedom (mobility) and independence (no public transport)."Tech maximalism typically results in tech fascism. It's the misguided belief that everything should be digitalised, no matter what the extra complexity may entail. In the case of voting machines, it begets mistrust and uncertainty; media moguls are happy to exploit that to discredit entire elections. This morning at 7AM I went to vote (I was the first person at the polling station) and all I needed was my passport. They gave me a piece of paper, a pencil, and I put the paper inside a physical box. They didn't mind me wearing a hoodie (whole head covered) and two masks. The passport is hard to forge and I knew how to answer questions when quizzed verbally (name, address etc.) so a bit of privacy is possible and society can function just fine this way.

I'm not against technology but as a passionate technologist I know where technology neither belongs nor is needed. There are companies trying to sell a bunch of useless "solutions" and councils/people eager to show it's worth the money by imposing these "solutions" on unsuspecting users (maybe they even get kickbacks for introducing these "solutions").

While we're on the topic of 'tech maximalism', yesterday TechDirt said goodbye to Twitter. TechDirt kept defending TikTok from bans, but maybe TechDirt is coming to realise that social control media is a bad idea. Outsourcing communications to it is a mistake. _________ * An associate reminded us of the horrifying nature and worrying trajectory of such "smart" cars. Buyers ought to check the number of sensors in each new car. They have some kind of jargon name -- ECU (Electronic Control Unit) -- and six years ago there were 80+ microcontrollers in your average new car. Some other sites put that number at over 100 microcontrollers. The diagnostics codes are proprietary and there was a requirement that they be accessible but that law did not specify wireless connections so the car companies block non-dealers from accessing wireless diagnostics and have taken away wired diagnostics.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
 
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigatio
Links for the day
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR
To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force
These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025