The following animation is very cool, showing the development of the Ford pickup truck through the ages.
But what got me puzzled is what the poster meant by “software defined vehicle”?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vinc...ource=social_share_send&utm_campaign=whatsapp

 

The following animation is very cool, showing the development of the Ford pickup truck through the ages.
But what got me puzzled is what the poster meant by “software defined vehicle”?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vinc...ource=social_share_send&utm_campaign=whatsapp

My guess is that it's an attempt to co-opt concepts like "software-defined radio" and convey the notion that a large fraction of the vehicle's behaviors and capabilities are defined by the software running on various processing nodes in it and, hence, it can be modified and extended significantly with little or no changes to the hardware.

 

Yours is a very plausible explanation.
And that is exactly what I was concerned about.
Meaning that those behaviors and capabilities may be enabled/disabled remotely, opening up subscription capabilities.
You want heated seats? Yours for $7.99/ month. Want those extra 50 HP? Simple, only $24.99/ month. And so on.
Plus tax, of course.

 

Yours is a very plausible explanation.
And that is exactly what I was concerned about.
Meaning that those behaviors and capabilities may be enabled/disabled remotely, opening up subscription capabilities.
You want heated seats? Yours for $7.99/ month. Want those extra 50 HP? Simple, only $24.99/ month. And so on.
Plus tax, of course.

That is certainly a concern, though being "software-defined" does not require "remote administration" (in theory, at least).

As with so many technological advancements in the past, laws, regulations, customs, and expectations lag behind. I suspect that what we will see, eventually, are requirements that the features that a vehicle is sold with be clearly stated whether or not they are permanent or for a trial period requiring a subsequent purchase and whether or not that purchase is one-time or on-going. They will probably also require a default of permanent, such that any feature not listed cannot be subsequently removed (except, perhaps, as a result of a recall).

My bigger concern is the long-term maintainability of vehicles. What kind of aftermarket support will there be? This is especially the case if the manufacturer goes out of business.

On the silver-lining side, these things will probably push right-to-repair legislation forward at a much faster pace than we've seen so far.

 

Yours is a very plausible explanation.
And that is exactly what I was concerned about.
Meaning that those behaviors and capabilities may be enabled/disabled remotely, opening up subscription capabilities.
You want heated seats? Yours for $7.99/ month. Want those extra 50 HP? Simple, only $24.99/ month. And so on.
Plus tax, of course.

And before long someone will be selling a box for $79.99 that turns on the heated seats without having to pay the subscription.

 

I believe Tesla is charging for software options, such as the autopilot.