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Comment by great_psy | Hacker News Reader

Just curious about the car maintenance, do you think it is something younger people will not get to experience as much?

I am not super familiar with newer cars, but it seems there is a lot more software in there, and I am wondering if that makes it much harder or impossible to fix some of the newer cars.

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> Just curious about the car maintenance, do you think it is something younger people will not get to experience as much?

Yes and no.

Even with electric cars, stuff like brakes won't go away. Some even have drum brakes as I recall.

But gone are the days of using a few screwdrivers, wrenches, and odds and ends to fix most problems. But most of those problems are solved by software.

I'm not hoping to get my kids into this, just teach them some basic skills.

I don't think software gets in the way of getting some experience working on cars. Cars still need their tires rotated, alternators swapped out for new ones, new brake pads, oil changes, refilling liquids and occasionally troubleshooting issues with OBD II. These are are all fairly basic things that don't require an armoir full of tools and can be done on a weekend.

No, mostly the software makes working on modern cars easier and more rewarding. Everything has built in diagnostics so it’s a lot easier to pinpoint what is wrong and fix it. Old cars would often never quite run correctly and there was no straightforward path to figure out why except tediously swapping parts out.

I have a different perspective. I'd rather work on cars with less software. Just spent months working on a car full of computers, had to use an old windows laptop to run a GM Tech II emulator and other bits of hacky tools to reprogram different modules after replacing one. Ultimately, I was able to get the car to start, but that victory was soon lost because the next day the new and old modules went offline after attempting to put the car in gear, and of course the car won't start any longer. Could be faulty wiring or faulty modules... This is why I like to work on simpler cars where every function does not need a computer module.

The quality of these systems varies a lot… and so does the quality of the cars themselves. A highly connected computerized car needs bulletproof wiring with waterproof corrosion resistant connectors everywhere. Etc. Try a German car with the factory manuals and software and you won’t have an experience like this.

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