[rkangel]

The big thing for me is that the lifetime of a car is a lot longer than the technology development lifecycle.

I just bought a 10 year old Toyota estate (station wagon). It's got a reasonable screen and Bluetooth implementation etc. But I'm never going to want to use the built in navigation because it's just not as good as what my phone will do. And the audio integration isn't as sophisticated as it might be - I have to choose the app on my phone.

Whereas CarPlay/AndroidAuto is generic from the car point of view, and as phone features and software improve your car capability evolves too.

[titanomachy]

I’m sure the car manufacturers would much prefer if you updated your car as often as you do your phone.

[bluGill]

They want everyone to, but they also know that the cost of cars, it's not realistic for that to happen. The only way even people on the upper middle class can afford to be buying or leasing cars every three years is because at the end of those three years the car still has a lot of value left to sell on to someone who is more middle class. And that middle class person will likely sell it again to someone who is a little bit lower down and at about 10 to 12 years it finally reaches someone who is poor.

The only way someone could buy a car more often is if they became a lot cheaper. That would mean doing away with a lot of the luxury parts of the car that are where the profit is.

[xp84]

They’re working on it. I follow a mechanic on YouTube who has shared dozens of examples of manufacturers seemingly intentionally shipping deeply flawed components for seemingly no reason other than to push the average lifespan of a vehicle back downwards from the high levels we’d reached by about 2012. Cars are being junked with less than 100k miles because the original parts fail, replacement parts are hard to get, and now manufacturers are making it so you need an expensive piece of software which they completely control to program a new part to the car, without which, it’s a brick. So essentially they can drop support for a car from that software, and make it near-impossible to replace those parts even if someone reverse-engineers aftermarket parts.

[SoftTalker]

This isn't new. Automakers have always wanted to build to price and to survive the warranty period. Only competition works against it. Japanese makers competed on affordability and reliability from the 1970s through the 2010s or so, but now they've adopted the same compromises and are skating on their reputations. Honda for example is no longer affordable, nor as reliable or well made as they used to be, though everyone still thinks they are. Even Mercedes, once the king of overbuilt cars, are now just overpriced tin and plastic like any other car.

Hopefully some makers will start competing on affordability and maintainability again. Slate might be one.

[jaskerr]

Care to name the mechanic on YouTube?

[LgWoodenBadger]

This isn’t to whom parent is referring, but you can watch this video about wet timing belts for an idea https://youtu.be/0SASSFjIt5I

In short, it’s an awful idea because even if the belt doesn’t fail early, debris from the belt will clog oil pickups, galleries, and passages.

[hnburnsy]

Mat Armstrong is one, car companies refuse to sell him parts or manuals, and he find parts that are needlessly cryptographically signed to a car.

[xp84]

Yeah, he has the handle @justcallmeeddie1

[hamdingers]

On the other hand, dealerships would rather you keep bringing your car back for repairs and maintenance for 10+ years.

This was a fruitful conflict for the consumer until dealerships started steering buyers away from EVs.

[swiftcoder]

I’m sure they would, but they also know their new car prices would be unsustainable if you couldn’t sell your old car… and that means everyone in the second hand car market is running stale infotainment stacks

[linzhangrun]

Current State of Chinese EV Manufacturers

[xp84]

Source? They’re cheaper, but I’ve seen zero proof they are less long-lasting than our cars. If anything, those who have tried them say they’re better cars, including the Ford CEO, who imported one and can’t say enough good things about it.

[linzhangrun]

Believe me, I am a Chinese who follows the Chinese car market quite closely.

Since the endless price war started in 2023, many cars in the tens-of-thousands to low-hundreds-of-thousands RMB range (affordable by most people) have had serious quality problems because of price cuts, including joint-venture cars (foreign-brand cars produced in Chinese factories).

This is the world’s largest car market, where the best-selling ICE car last month could only rank 17th overall. It is also a market where you can buy an Accord for under $20,000, and a Corolla for a little over $11,000. And both are going to be discontinued because it is no longer competitive and sells badly.

When the price goes up, the car itself is usually much better. At least it is not like earlier cheap BYDs, which could start rusting everywhere after just one year.

But the very short development and production cycle is another big problem. In this fiercely competitive market, sometimes it takes less than half a year from the birth of a car brand to a model launch. Recent examples are Huawei GT7.

Because new cars are getting better so quickly, many cars cannot keep sales for more than six months. Some are discontinued in less than a year, like Han L and Tang L. Some cars even get three updates in one year, like Zeekr 001, just to keep up with new cars.

This obviously creates maintenance and after-sales problems.

By comparison, Xiaomi, which changes generation every two years, is already one of the most traditional and conservative ones. This is also the car Ford’s CEO “imported one and can’t say enough good things about it”. I have driven it too, haha.

[HPsquared]

Some of which are also phone manufacturers.

[loloquwowndueo]

Make them cheaper and I’m game.

[doxeddaily]

This is a good point. It's a form of future proofing. Hopefully Apple doesn't drop the ball too hard on backward compatibility.

For me I just want a set of consistent things from car to car. I have a few different vehicles I might switch between on any given day. Carplay works in all of them.

[darrylb42]

I added a new head unit to my 13 year old Santa Fe, it is like a new car now, wireless Android Auto. Connects quick, bigger nicer screen. Should allow me to keep the car for another 10 years assuming I don't blow up another engine, only the first one is free.

[nradov]

Updating the infotainment head unit on most newer vehicles is effectively impossible due to the way they're tightly integrated into the rest of the vehicle's systems and controls.

[maxdo]

Well, not every car brand suck at that. My 6 y.o tesla still delivers me updates, and new features.

[theshrike79]

To be honest, Tesla is a computer with a car as an add on. That’s why it works.

Traditional companies do it the other way around.

[polarix]

I’m not sure it “works”. I would still drastically prefer if Tesla had CarPlay.

[tensility]

Agreed. Lack of CarPlay support is just one of the reasons that I won't own a Tesla. (Also, I prefer not to support anything tainted by Elmo's toxicity.)

[maxdo]

Are you seriously arguing that two loosely integrated systems, one of them needs a proper connection, battery state, ToS agreement accepted before you need to drive is better vs OS that integrate hardware, software, charging network and gives you 99.99% of functionality, including mobile app?

It's not even apples vs bananas. It's a rock vs computer.

- Just a single fact you don't have to deal with cable/bluetooth/charging troubles is already saves you hours of quality life over CarPlay. It's hours of life you enjoy driving, music. and yeah from that standpoint, CarPlay does not work.

- Internet: I use T-Mobile. My car use AT&T with very affordable bill, that single fact helped me to listen to music in remote areas where my cellphone din't work and other way around.

- Features like Joe mode simply not possible with CarPlay. And yes, i use it every time my kid is in the car.

- Theater mode & Karaoke. No brainer for kids. Turns your distant driving from Cry and Fight into fun family experience.

- Navigation + Charging. this integration alone saved me hours of life, because it route me automagically away from busy charging stations.