I agree the majority of car companies in the industry could benefit from not trying to be software companies. As a matter of fact I was a Subaru enthusiast and owner (3 different cars) over 20 years until we moved to Tesla around 2019. Historically, Subarus have been very reliable until everything became more digital. They are still very reliable car, but their software definitely suck. My mom still has a Subaru and used it a few times and the software is still crap. Carplay comes to the rescue but even then, it would work "most of the time" but not always. Not sure if the culprit was Apple or Subaru.
Tesla is actually the exception to the rule that you should split software from the car. They are actually a good electric car and software company made better by having everything fully integrated. I've even learned to find Apple CarPlay antiquated compared to the Tesla UI. Also, dealing with service, ll service requests are app-based and both the service centres and yourself have a full history of every complaint or service requests. And that's without mentioning service at home or work (with the ability to remotely unlock the car for them if you don't want to move) for most of the little problems/kinks you could potentially experience with a car. As for the car, remote software updates and diagnostics eliminate a lot of friction with service centres. Actually, a lot of their "recalls" are solved with over the air updates. Not to say everything is rosy, as we've had quite a few more services requests than with a Subaru but the positives make you forget about the few negatives that were experienced.
They are basically the exception to the rule in the industry that in a lot of ways are a glimpse in a possible future future for the industry available today. Quite a few incumbents are trying to go in the same direction but old habits don't make this easy.
Good timing, there is was a anti-law project that was made public a few days ago: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/planned-obsolescence-bill-quebec-1.6862121
I agree the majority of car companies in the industry could benefit from not trying to be software companies. As a matter of fact I was a Subaru enthusiast and owner (3 different cars) over 20 years until we moved to Tesla around 2019. Historically, Subarus have been very reliable until everything became more digital. They are still very reliable car, but their software definitely suck. My mom still has a Subaru and used it a few times and the software is still crap. Carplay comes to the rescue but even then, it would work "most of the time" but not always. Not sure if the culprit was Apple or Subaru.
Tesla is actually the exception to the rule that you should split software from the car. They are actually a good electric car and software company made better by having everything fully integrated. I've even learned to find Apple CarPlay antiquated compared to the Tesla UI. Also, dealing with service, ll service requests are app-based and both the service centres and yourself have a full history of every complaint or service requests. And that's without mentioning service at home or work (with the ability to remotely unlock the car for them if you don't want to move) for most of the little problems/kinks you could potentially experience with a car. As for the car, remote software updates and diagnostics eliminate a lot of friction with service centres. Actually, a lot of their "recalls" are solved with over the air updates. Not to say everything is rosy, as we've had quite a few more services requests than with a Subaru but the positives make you forget about the few negatives that were experienced.
They are basically the exception to the rule in the industry that in a lot of ways are a glimpse in a possible future future for the industry available today. Quite a few incumbents are trying to go in the same direction but old habits don't make this easy.