Am I the only one who hears "Software Defined Vehicles" and thinks, "wow, these companies really have entirely lost touch with what everyday people need and/or want" ?
Anyway such tiny vehicles do exist in Europe and Asia. The Citroën Ami (the new EV one) comes to mind in Europe, where it's had some success, but is still kinda expensive for what it is.
The problem is whether the barking is effective.
And software doesn't actually cost that much. Just look at the Chinese market.
I regularly get mind-blown by the number of anti-features of modern cars v.s. my 32 y/o Camry.
Some that come to mind: no physical buttons, no right/possibility to repair the car yourself, can't replace the car stereo by something else, extremely slow unusable navigation systems even in 2024 models (I just use my smartphone and put it where the screen would be in a modern car), beeping when not wearing seatbelt even at 5 km/hr on a parking lot, data plans/simcards to enable car spyware, extremely expensive tires with (broken) pressure sensors in them, headlights made of plastic instead of glass that get ugly after a couple of years, use of rusting materials instead of aluminum for body, active suspension systems that are extremely expensive to service, tons of unnecessary electronics that will break as the car gets slightly older and extremely expensive to service. I could go on and on.
New cars are reintroducing physical buttons again.
> no right/possibility to repair the car yourself
Unless you're talking about electric vehicles, this isn't true. You can buy diagnostic equipment and do the repairs yourself on most modern cars.
> can't replace the car stereo by something else
Huh?
> extremely slow unusable navigation systems even in 2024 models
That's why you don't buy a car without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. It's especially good on newer vehicles as there are integrations with the dashboard and HUD too.
> beeping when not wearing seatbelt even at 5 km/hr on a parking lot
This is because of government regulation.
> data plans/simcards to enable car spyware
You're not obligated to buy them. I don't think their software package is good enough to warrant such a purchase, but if they would be able to bring it up to what aftermarket guys are offering it would be a great addition.
> extremely expensive tires with (broken) pressure sensors in them
Huh?
> headlights made of plastic instead of glass that get ugly after a couple of years
You can restore them fairly easily. It's funny you ignore that the same issue happened to old cars too, on top of the fact their headlights were horrible to begin with.
> use of rusting materials instead of aluminum for body
This is partly because of regulation and partly because of cost-cutting.
> active suspension systems that are extremely expensive to service
Buy an expensive high-performance vehicle and it'll be costly to service.
> tons of unnecessary electronics that will break as the car gets slightly older and extremely expensive to service
The regulatory environment has changed significantly. Without these sensors you'd have a very inefficient or very slow car. Furthermore, the vast majority of these sensors you can change yourself.
But any vehicle with software running which controls the brakes is either correct or unsafe when it ships - but you would never need regular maintenance updates to it.
The vast majority wanted the baseline, barebones. However, Ford produced the least of these, and gave people 1 year lag times.
Most people who bought higher models did so begrudgingly. Yet Ford will claim higher sales on these upper models, so obviously "what the consumer wanted."
Selling them through fleet programs only doesn't really count.
I recently purchased an 1981 Vanagon, and it's made me happier than any car I purchased new. It's not without a computer... it does have electronic fuel injection, but I think that's mostly a lookup table of pulse length given airflow and temperature. There's an aftermarket replacement if it goes bad (but let's hope it doesn't).