XPost: alt.autos, alt.business, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc   
   From: fb@bt.co.uk   
      
   Imagine turning the key or pressing the start button of your car—and   
   nothing happens. Not because the battery is dead or the engine is broken   
   but because a server no longer answers. For a growing number of cars, that   
   scenario isn’t hypothetical.   
      
   As vehicles become platforms for software and subscriptions, their   
   longevity is increasingly tied to the survival of the companies behind   
   their code. When those companies fail, the consequences ripple far beyond   
   a bad app update and into the basic question of whether a car still   
   functions as a car.   
      
   Over the years, automotive software has expanded from performing   
   rudimentary engine management and onboard diagnostics to powering today’s   
   interconnected, software-defined vehicles. Smartphone apps can now handle   
   tasks like unlocking doors, flashing headlights, and preconditioning   
   cabins—and some models won’t unlock at all unless a phone running the   
   manufacturer’s app is within range.   
      
   However, for all the promised convenience of modern vehicle software,   
   there’s a growing nostalgia for an era when a phone call to a mechanic   
   could resolve most problems. Mechanical failures were often diagnosable   
   and fixable, and cars typically returned to the road quickly. Software-   
   defined vehicles complicate that model: When something goes wrong, a car   
   can be rendered inoperable in a driveway—or stranded at the side of the   
   road—waiting not for parts but a software technician.   
      
   It’s already happening   
   Take the example of Fisker. In May 2023, the California auto brand arrived   
   in Britain with its Ocean Sport before filing for bankruptcy just one year   
   later. Priced from £35,000 ($44,000)—although top-spec trims pushed the   
   price to £60,000 ($75,000)—the all-electric Tesla Model Y rival featured   
   tech including a partially retracting roof and a rotating BYD-like   
   touchscreen. All cars also carried a six-year/62,000-mile (99,779 km)   
   warranty, with the battery and powertrain covered for 10 years or 100,000   
   miles (160,934 km).   
      
   Before Fisker’s 2024 bankruptcy, just 419 Fisker Oceans made it into   
   British driveways. One unfortunate buyer, a marketing manager from   
   Southampton, experienced the worst of the brand’s teething troubles. After   
   taking delivery, her Ocean was plagued by persistent software glitches.   
   Following a call to Fisker, engineers were dispatched to collect the   
   vehicle for repairs, but when the car was due to be collected, it refused   
   to start. Mere days later, Fisker declared insolvency, leaving the Ocean   
   stranded as a 5,500 lb (2,500 kg) driveway ornament for the next ten   
   months with no solution in sight.   
      
   Preceding Fisker, there was Better Place. Founded in 2007, Better Place   
   wasn’t a car manufacturer but an EV infrastructure and software company   
   that promised to solve range anxiety through battery-swap stations. Its   
   entire model relied on centralized servers, subscriptions, and proprietary   
   software to authenticate vehicles and manage battery exchanges. The   
   flagship car for this system was the Renault Fluence Z.E., an electric   
   sedan sold primarily in Israel and Denmark.   
      
   Better Place filed for bankruptcy in May 2013 after burning through $850   
   million, leading to Renault closing the Fluence Z.E’s Turkish assembly   
   line. Servers were shut down, battery-swap stations stopped operating, and   
   backend software used for authentication, charging, and fleet management   
   disappeared, leaving many cars bricked.   
      
   These cases highlight a broader shift in the auto industry, where long-   
   term ownership is increasingly dependent not just on mechanical durability   
   but on continued access to proprietary software and manufacturer support.   
      
   “When a modern car’s software misbehaves, you don’t fix it yourself—you   
   call the manufacturer,” said Stuart Masson, founder and editor of The Car   
   Expert. “They control the code. At that point, you’re not dealing with a   
   traditional service department so much as an IT help desk.”   
      
   That dependence, Masson warned, becomes a critical failure mode when the   
   manufacturer disappears. “Sooner or later, every owner risks a Fisker-   
   style scenario, where the company is gone and there’s nothing you can do   
   about it.”   
      
   While informal owner communities have begun attempting to reverse-engineer   
   and distribute unofficial software updates, Masson is blunt about the   
   risks. “You’re trusting that someone on the Internet actually knows what   
   they’re doing,” he said. “If they don’t, the consequences might not be   
   that Android Auto simply stops working but instead an airbag deploying at   
   70 mph.”   
      
   While buying a second-hand Fisker in the UK is a high-risk move, more   
   established manufacturers generally have contingency plans if a critical   
   software partner goes under. In practice, that usually means issuing   
   recalls or pushing over-the-air fixes to affected vehicles. Warranty   
   coverage should handle most issues for newer cars, but the story gets   
   murkier on the used market.   
      
   Out of warranty   
   Take a decade-old Tesla Model S, for example: You might snag one at a   
   bargain price, but there’s no guarantee Tesla will continue supporting it   
   indefinitely. When a manufacturer drops software support, the car isn’t   
   just at risk of breaking down—it becomes a potential cybersecurity   
   liability. In a world where vehicles are increasingly defined by their   
   code, running unsupported software is akin to leaving your router exposed   
   to the Internet. You may have a functioning car today, but there’s no   
   telling when—or how—it could stop running.   
      
   “Many teams, such as McLaren, who have F1 cars from the 1990s, require a   
   1990s-era laptop running an old Windows operating system, along with   
   specialized interface hardware, for maintenance and to start the car,”   
   Masson said. “We are up against time here, but it could be that brands   
   like Tesla release its code, allowing people to use it. Who knows?”   
      
   The problem isn’t solely on the consumer; manufacturers shoulder a   
   significant portion of the risk as well. One potential mitigation is   
   standardization. Enter Catena-X, a collaborative data network connecting   
   OEMs, suppliers, and IT vendors. By creating traceable digital records for   
   parts and software—and standardizing data models and APIs for   
   interoperability—Catena-X aims to make supply chains more resilient and   
   software dependencies less catastrophic when a critical partner   
   disappears.   
      
   When asked how OEMs can map software dependencies and mitigate vendor   
   insolvency, Catena-X Managing Director Hanno Focken told Ars that “Catena-   
   X supports software bills of materials and standardizes certain components   
   to make software replaceable, plus a marketplace and open-source reference   
   implementation helps OEMs find alternative vendors.”   
      
   The industry also shares responsibility in defining minimum operational   
   lifespans for vehicle software. “As an association, Catena-X can   
   facilitate shared industry commitments and consensus (e.g., data retention   
   policies like a 10-year battery passport requirement), but it does not act   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)