Quote:
Originally Posted by KRS_SN
Would in the future cars be all about software with little emphasis on hardware thrown in? not that I can imagine.
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That's exactly right for multiple reasons!
Future vehicles will be two new things:
(1.) Extensions of consumer's mobile digital lives.
For example, as assisted-driving advances and becomes more prolific, consumers will expect less out of the driving experience because they'll only be actually driving the vehicle 50% of the time they're in it. This will only expand with V2V and V2X software - it's why Blackberry and Amazon are teaming up. A model 3 is no porsche, but it's as fast and for most consumers it'll be supercar fast for an everyday price. The vehicle will become a device.
(2.) Extensions of energy storage and management - both at the consumer level and the infrastructure level.
For example, power companies need a place to store excess capacity since they can't instantly produce infinite energy - right now that's expensive & complex. BEVs, which sit idle 90% of the time - because they're cars - are the perfect place to do that and pay consumers a subsidy. If you could get a 50% discount on your next vehicle in exchange for hooking it up to grid x% of the time would you? Most people will.
In 1900 vehicle functions were mostly wetware with a little hardware; by 1930 they were mostly hardware; by 2030 new vehicles will be mostly software.