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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