-J-P-L-

Good thing Tesla's screens aren't that important to the car's function.

geko29

But charging is kind of important. And that doesn't work either.

-J-P-L-

I was being sarcastic as the screen does everything.

UDel

That is the problem with putting every function of the car in touch screens, if it goes out or is broke you lose just about all functionality in the car and they are very expensive to replace.

-J-P-L-

It's my biggest concern with future cars. Who's going to support a broken infotainment system in a 12 year old car? It would be the equivalent of Apple still servicing and updating a 2007 iPhone. Will a huge 3rd party marketplace exist to support hundreds of different systems? The complexity just seems to great.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Cars won’t be long ownership items. Most young people have no interest and will probably think of them like a phone, if they have a car at all. Plus leasing will grow, and cars will have more interchangeable parts and upgradeable parts to keep them going for longer.

EZZ

Car warranties are a little different than phone warranties Id imagine at 12 years, it's cheaper to find a wrecked Model 3 and buy the screen than its to get it straight from the manufacturer. Also, Tesla will probably keep the same interior design for 7-10 years so they will probably have a ton of parts available anyway.

LeX2K

Since when it Tesla the only one with a screen that controls almost anything? Have you SEEN the latest cars, or the EVs from Mercedes, BMW and Audi?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

'almost anything' is different than 'almost everything'

maybe that's what you meant, but you're right, in 2030, an 11 year old s-class screen dying will be a challenge for the owner. and a taycan has better odds of losing a screen since it has, what, 5?

-J-P-L-

People keep predicting the idea that car ownership will greatly decline in the future. I tend to not believe so. I think that's a view focused on city life. Most of the country is still going to be suburbs and rural landscape in the future where ride sharing isn't preferred. American lifestyle is largely based on having a car in the driveway and going wherever whenever.

The problem is the cars will be far out of warranty when your infotainment screen dies. And where not talking about the screen itself being the thing that goes. It's the software and computer hardware that powers it. These things are changing dramatically quickly and companies stop support after a relatively short period of time.

The average age of a car on the road today is 12 years old and are very functional and easy to fix. When a car's basic functions work based on software written today, how are those functions going to work when that software hasn't been supported for a decade? We can't be scrapping otherwise nice cars because the screen no longer boots. What's not so promising is that these systems often are buggy right out of the gate. So they sometimes lag or freeze even when new.

It's not an issue we deal with when it comes to computers and phones. We just replace for new. Cars can't become disposable tech gadgets when they average $40K.