What if upgrades were done over the air, so you didn’t have to go to a dealership. And the base cost of the vehicle comes down, now that there’s a recurring revenue component?
I think Ford's system circa 2012/2013 did OTA updates, but the problem is that they stopped making updates.
Further, there was no modularity to the hardware running the nav/entertainment/app platform, so the hardware got outclassed very quickly for apps anyway, with no ability to swap in a more powerful system.
Which is ironic, because in the 2012 Fords, it's literally just a PC behind your dash, USB ports, hard drive, and all running Windows. It sucks that people are compelled to upgrade a $50k vehicle for lack of $1000 in PC components.
I can understand why that would be a business model, but I really think the vehicle is like a smart TV - nobody should use the junky built-in "smart" platform, but instead use platforms like CarPlay and Auto to bridge/mirror their modular phone capabilities into the vehicle. Vehicles in time just need something like the OBD standard for connecting external processing/info platforms. CarPlay and Auto are steps in the right direction, but.. more abstraction/standardization/modularity please.
Volkswagen has a system like this in production already with CarNet with subscription pricing for things like better voice control, tracking, and maps.
Further, there was no modularity to the hardware running the nav/entertainment/app platform, so the hardware got outclassed very quickly for apps anyway, with no ability to swap in a more powerful system.
Which is ironic, because in the 2012 Fords, it's literally just a PC behind your dash, USB ports, hard drive, and all running Windows. It sucks that people are compelled to upgrade a $50k vehicle for lack of $1000 in PC components.
I can understand why that would be a business model, but I really think the vehicle is like a smart TV - nobody should use the junky built-in "smart" platform, but instead use platforms like CarPlay and Auto to bridge/mirror their modular phone capabilities into the vehicle. Vehicles in time just need something like the OBD standard for connecting external processing/info platforms. CarPlay and Auto are steps in the right direction, but.. more abstraction/standardization/modularity please.