What happens when your car lasts longer than its connected services?

[Syphon]

Modern cars are increasingly reliant on apps, cloud servers and software supplied by multiple companies, but the vehicle itself may remain on the road long after those services or suppliers disappear.

This article looks at what owners could lose when support ends, including remote features, software updates, diagnostics, and security fixes. It also raises a bigger question for buyers: should manufacturers be required to guarantee that essential vehicle functions remain usable throughout the car’s realistic lifespan?

An interesting read, particularly as today’s connected cars begin moving into the used market.

When your vehicle outlives its cloud: What happens next?

Automakers love connected vehicles, but support isn't open-ended.

arstechnica.com

 

[alanjs]

I ran into this issue when the 3-year Cupra Connect subscription on my Born expired in January. I got the warning messages, but I let it expire to see what the effect would be. I didn't care about stuff like pre-conditioning and aircon, but I found that it affected the automated charging setup on my home charger so I renewed the subscription. I believe that new Cupras now have free 10-year subs.
I don't anticipate keeping a car long enough for the compatibility issues between software updates and obsolescent hardware to be a problem, but it will happen. Software companies really don't like maintaining backwards compatibility with older hardware. I guess the car will still run but will lose some functionality, especially if you have one of those vehicles (like BMW) that sell you add-on functionality for extra payments.
Interesting indeed.

 

[SkysTheLimit]

Modern cars are increasingly reliant on apps, cloud servers and software supplied by multiple companies, but the vehicle itself may remain on the road long after those services or suppliers disappear.

This article looks at what owners could lose when support ends, including remote features, software updates, diagnostics, and security fixes. It also raises a bigger question for buyers: should manufacturers be required to guarantee that essential vehicle functions remain usable throughout the car’s realistic lifespan?

An interesting read, particularly as today’s connected cars begin moving into the used market.

When your vehicle outlives its cloud: What happens next?

Automakers love connected vehicles, but support isn't open-ended.

arstechnica.com

This is my conern with having the main systems of the car running on Android Automotive. I don't trust car makers to make it secure, or guarentee it'll be patched for the lifetime of the car (I think you'll be lucky to get 5 years at best). For infotainment purposes, let me just mirror my phone and have the main car's systems independant and more basic.

It would be good if manufacturers keep connected services like remote AC, parking maps etc going forever, but there's not a lot of incentive for manufacturers to keep these services online for cars that were sold 5-10 years ago ....