Technology

59123 readers

2299 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

617

Cars Are Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates? (www.wired.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

151 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Phones are supported well beyond their average ownership lifetime.

Are they?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

My hunch is that "average ownership lifetime" for mobile phones is MUCH lower than you or I (or anyone who is careful with their phone) probably expects. There is probably a too-big segment of the market that is trading in yearly for a newer model.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Supported in the sense that "We will update your device and deliberately slow it, break it, or brick it because fuck you."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

By communities, but not the manufacturer. Custom ROMs is the only way to keep it up to date for long enough for the hardware to become too old to be worth it.

No custom ROM for cars anytime soon.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

There's plenty of custom ROMs for cars from all major manufacturers, you just don't know where to look.Google "ECU remap" or "dpf delete" for an idea. ECU remapping has been done by bold individuals ever since there were programmable ECUs, around 1985.

Apart from engine/drive line tinkering, there are also plenty of third party software that can tinker with body computers for "lifestyle" adjustments.

Is it easy and accessible? No. Because of environmental laws - and vendor lock in - you can't generally and easily dick around with the control software in your car. But it does exist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I know, but there us as quiet war going on between the chippers and manufacturers. EV is a new battle front and we the consumers are losing right now.

Law makes need to join this century and get involved ensuring competition and longer product lives.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Some certainly are. Most consumers keep their phones 2-3 years. Many are supported well beyond that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Many now. Up until recently it was pretty common for manufacturers to leave you SOL after 2 major Android releases.