That’s more or less the summary of J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS), which highlighted quality declines in eight out of nine key categories. Driving…
I am working in the auto industry in R&D. I can tell you that the big trendy thing, next to autonomous driving, is “Software Defined Vehicle”. Essentially, how to lock-up feature via Software while all the necessary hardware is present and functional in the vehicle.
This isn’t a good time to be dependent on a car. I am glad I leave in an area with top-notch public transports.
Is this like the BMW heated seats thing from a couple years ago?
Typically yes. Although SDV could also be use for more legitimate purpose, like tuning some parameters based on the country the vehicle is sold in (e.g: adapt Lane-assistance to the specific road markings of each country).
This is why I think I’ll stick with Subaru for a while yet. The important knobs are still manual! Heat, volume, etc. I don’t want to be fiddling with a touch screen while driving down the freeway.
Had a 90s Honda, was awesome. Had a 00s Subaru, was awesome except on fuel consumption and power. Have a late 10s Honda. Is awesome on power and fuel consumption. And has important buttons for the most part. One button for AC unless it’s specifically changing parts. Will probably be a plugin hybrid next, depending on when Subaru release one, if ever.
But they’re getting more and more expensive.
I work in marketing with car manufacturers. What I’ve got from working in the industry is that all the techbro shit has coopted the way of thinking in the industry in a desperate bid to differentiate the offering by any means necessary - whether it works or not.
What engineers say in meetings about the “tech” is quite frankly scary.
One of the companies I work with just straight up admitted that their lane keeping assist doesn’t work in real life situations but they will sell it anyways with “disclaimers”. Their fine print is 10 pages long.
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
Every time I see a Tesla I wonder how many of the same cars will be on the road twenty years from now. I drive a car that can legally drink in the states and it still runs decently well and parts to fix it are reasonably easy to source and I just don’t see these relatively poorly, hastily built “let’s put an alpha and beta version of this car on the road and let’s see what happens lol” versions being anything but e-waste further down the line.
Also good luck on depending on a hundred different little computers in a vehicle that doesn’t really need them to function next time there’s a logistically disruptive event and you can’t get those chips in for a while. Like, you know, what we just went through.
Car quality is suffering as automakers shift focus to
technologyprofitYes ofc, their focus used to be fun and balloon animals
