They’re going to need to rebrand as Microsoft 363 if they keep this up much longer.

Can’t believe he popped the AI bubble with his dick.

These definitely exist. They are typically referred to as ‘compliance cars’ - i.e. the manufacturer is obligated, usually by regulations, to produce an EV, but they don’t want to spend money designing a new platform for it - so they take an existing model, rip out the engine, cram a motor and batteries wherever they will fit and call it good. Examples: Volkswagen eGolf, Fiat 500e, Mercedes B Class EV. Ford Focus Electric…

However, doing this means you are constrained to the shape of the combustion vehicle it is based on. So the aerodynamics may not be optimal to get the best range, you may have a transmission tunnel taking up space in the interior that is no longer necessary, directly swapping the position of the engine and the motor/inverter means you lose the opportunity to repurpose the front of the car for additional storage - ultimately it ends up compromised in one way or another.

If on the other hand you design the platform from the ground up to handle an electric drivetrain then all of these points can be taken into account.

(And regarding cars in general becoming rolling computers: this is not an EV specific issue, unfortunately.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism

See also: Sam Alt(ernative to)man.

• Tesla absolutely sell software locked heated seats as DLC, as well as subscriptions for “self driving” packages.
• They will advertise/upsell their own services in their app, including free trials of their “premium” features.
• If you think they are using your driving data (including camera feeds) in any responsible way then I have a bridge to sell you. There have been documented cases of Tesla employees watching their customers fuck on the interior cameras.

For context - I used to own one.

If this works in any way, shape or form for BMW then you can bet that any other manufacturer selling “connected vehicles” will sit up and take notice.

If my brand new car started pushing dashboard ads to me, it would be rejected and returned to the dealer immediately. That is the only kind of pushback they would pay attention to.

Apart from the times that the US applied export controls to encryption software.

Same, I set it up a few years ago and both me and my partner have been using it since then with no issues at all, it’s completely replaced Google Photos for us.

We’ve also set up immich-frame and repurposed an old Google Nest hub to use as a digital photo frame.