Are Cars Just Smartphones on Wheels? The Driving Soul Debate
www.carsandhorsepower.com
Cars are evolving into “smartphones on wheels” with apps, updates, and subscriptions. But are we sacrificing the soul of driving for digital convenience?

For over a century, the automobile has represented freedom, power, and the thrill of mechanical mastery. The connection between driver, machine, and road defined what it meant to own and love a car. But in today’s digital era, a different trend is unfolding. Cars are no longer just machines designed to take us from point A to point B. Increasingly, they resemble something else entirely: smartphones on wheels.

  • XiberKernel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    I drive a Kia EV6, and love it. Kia pushes like 2 OTAs per year for updates and small bug fixes, but hasn’t rolled out any new features. They have a premium connectivity package, but nothing but remote bells and whistles are behind it.

    I use my phone for the infotainment via CarPlay.

    My phone acts like a phone, and my car acts like a car.

    Now, the reason I have an EV6? I was a happy Chevy Bolt owner looking for a newer vehicle and was eyeing the Equinox EV. I noped out as soon as they announced the Google partnership and decided to remove CarPlay and BYOD as a feature.

    The two things that will turn me off from a future purchase is lack of CarPlay, or paywalled “hardware” upgrades, like performance tweaks or locking out something installed like heated seats. Nope.