[xp84]

Seriously. I don't know anything about mobile development, but once it's working in the first place, how hard is it to just NOT delete its API hooks from the codebase. As a developer, I can only guess that maybe the code which supports it, or the code where it has to poke its fingers into into in order to be able to draw its UI, is poorly-architected and removing the Car Thing code across the board will allow them to more easily refactor or something.

[dylan604]

My guess was that it was sending back analytics which was developed in such a way that if the servers are not responsive, the thing won't work. So if they unplugged the servers, then no more working Car Things. However, I wouldn't not consider that being bricked. So maybe they plan on pushing on OTA firmware update to brick them???

What would happen if you just stored the unit so that it was not able to receive OTA updates? How long would they keep the OTA update server up and running before assuming all units were bricked and could retire that server? Does part of the bricking process collect the serial number to add to a completed list that your rogue unit would not show updated?

Just curious how far one needs to go to avoid it getting bricked if it would be possible to avoid at all

[troupo]

(as a continuation of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=troupo)

> how hard is it to just NOT delete its API hooks from the codebase.

Someone has to maintain that API. Not only on mobile, but also potentially on the server as well. Those "hooks" become a nuisance and a hindrance when services change or get deprecated. When data schemas get updated. When new data types get introduced etc.

And that's before we get into discussion about architecture, code quality etc.