[thorntonbf]

It strikes me as terribly inefficient to house the software on dealerships' servers - not to mention a change management nightmare given the different competency levels amongst dealer IT personnel.

I'm also curious about the size and scale of all of this. 8,000 developers/engineers isn't that many when you measure that cost against a $3B/year HP deal. But, it seems like it's way more than it needs to be. And, the costs associated with this bloat is going to be absorbed by consumers.

[pavel_lishin]

It sounds like it's done for legal and financial reasons, rather than technological ones.

[wvenable]

What's the story with GM creating dealer protection laws? Don't those laws exist to protect dealers from the manufacturers.

[deeviant]

That's how they started(and with a heavy lobbying effort from dealers), but it's lately been used to attack Tesla's business model, which does not use in independent dealers.

[wvenable]

The dealers, I'm sure, are doing more lobbying against Tesla than the other manufacturers.

[cheriot]

They're going to be the face of the lobbying because they're local to legislators being lobbied, but I wouldn't assume that means anything about who pays the bills.

[thorntonbf]

You're correct. Edited above. Made a mental association equating NADA with the manufacturers and that's inaccurate.