Cars, Software and the Internet

Just a few years back, we lived in simpler times when what Dan Moren wrote still held true:
“Most automakers aren’t exactly consumed with a passion for developing software.”
Not anymore. Today’s cars have a lot of software in them. Further, that software has started connecting to the Internet. Does all that open up cars to security/ virus/ hacking risks to cars? Absolutely, as these recent hacks proved. In two different cases, the hackers managed to shut down the engine and got the ability to open and start the car.

Sound scary? So why connect cars to the internet at all? Are the risks worth the benefits? Russell Brandom tries to answer these questions:
“Given the choice between two nearly identical minivans, buyers are apt to choose the one that can be unlocked from an app on your phone or remotely started on a cold day.”
And customers now expect everything to be like (what else?) their precious smartphones!
“Your phone might grow more useful every year, as you install more apps and updates, but without connectivity, a car will never be better than the day you drive it off the lot.”

In fact, Version 2.0 of the connected car is already on the horizon: self-driving cars, like the ones from Google. Sebastian Thrun cites some of the advantages if such cars could “talk” to each other via Wi-fi or whatever:
“All self-driving cars learn from (a) mistake, not just one. Including future, “unborn” cars.”
Plus, connected machines learn really fast. Or as Thrun says:
“The self-driving car is the Gutenberg Bible, on steroids.”

Sound far-fetched? Or is John Biggs right when he writes (about a different technology, but the analogy applies here too):
“Remember that we’re chortling from the seat of our horse-drawn buggy as the first Model T chuffs down our country lane.”
In case you didn’t get that: the Model T was Ford’s first car…

Or is all this all just about money, as Alex Balk asks:
“If we’re able to, we’re going to, especially if we can charge extra and jack up ludicrous valuations by using the amazing buzzwords of the day—you know, the ones that seem to work as talismans to ward off critical thinking?”

It’s a bit of both, I guess.

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