I’M NOT SURE I WANT A “SOFTWARE DEFINED VEHICLE.” Hyundai Previews Next-Generation Infotainment System for Software-Defined Vehicles.

Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t want one:

We’ve grumbled about this in the past but the push toward software-defined vehicles is effectively to make automobiles into smart devices. Vehicle features will be gatekept behind subscriptions and will likely need to be purchased via connected services.

We’ve seen this in modern cars via companies forcing customers to purchase things like remote start using a subscription and making activation exclusively available via a phone app. This not only has you paying more for hardware that has already been equipped to the vehicle, it also creates additional avenues for the manufacturer to harvest information about you. Exactly how far the industry plans on going with this isn’t clear. However, the assumption is that it will be as far as possible because that’s been the trend thus far.

Yuk.