For many of its quick life, my Tesla Mannequin 3 has aged fantastically. Since I purchased the automobile, in 2019, it has obtained a variety of new options just by updating its software program. My navigation system not simply directs me to EV chargers alongside my route—it additionally exhibits me, in actual time, what number of plugs are free. With the push of a button, I can activate “Automotive Wash Mode,” and the Tesla will put itself in impartial and disable the windshield wipers. Some updates are extra useful than others: Because of Elon Musk and his middle-school humor, I can now play an up to date array of fart sounds when an unsuspecting passenger sits down.
However Musk is already beginning to depart my automobile behind. In July, Tesla rolled out a model of Musk’s AI assistant, Grok, to its autos. Whilst a chatbot skeptic, I might see the usefulness of asking my automobile for info with out having to fumble with my telephone. Alas, at current Grok runs solely on Teslas made prior to now few years, which have a extra superior processor to energy their infotainment system. My sedan is just too outdated.
Vehicles was totally mechanical objects. With onerous work and experience, principally any outdated car could possibly be restored and operated: On YouTube, you possibly can watch a person drive a 1931 Alvis to McDonald’s. However the automobile itself was caught in time. If the automaker added a characteristic to the next yr’s mannequin, you simply didn’t get it. Issues have modified. My Mannequin 3 has few dials or buttons; practically each characteristic is routed by means of the large central contact display screen. It’s not simply Tesla: Many new vehicles—and particularly electrical vehicles—are actually full of software program, receiving over-the-air updates to repair bugs, tweak efficiency, or add new performance.
In different phrases, your automobile is lots like an iPhone (a lot in order that within the auto business, describing EVs as “smartphones on wheels” has turn out to be a go-to cliché.) This has loads of benefits—the improved navigation, the fart noises—nevertheless it additionally signifies that your automobile could turn out to be worse as a result of the software program is outdated, not as a result of the elements break. Even top-of-the-line telephones are destined to turn out to be out of date—nonetheless in a position to carry out the essential features like telephone calls and texts, however caught with an outdated working system and failing apps. The identical wrestle is now coming for vehicles.
Software program-dependent vehicles are nonetheless new sufficient that it’s unclear how they may age. “It’s turning into the ethos of the business that everybody’s promising a frequently evolving automobile, and we don’t but know the way they’re going to drag that off,” Sean Tucker, a senior editor at Kelley Blue Guide, instructed me. “Vehicles last more than know-how does.” The issue with vehicles as smartphones on wheels is that these two machines reside and die on very totally different timescales. Many People commerce of their telephone yearly and lower than 30 p.c maintain an iPhone for longer than three years, however the common automobile on the street is almost 13 years outdated. (Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark about how its vehicles age.)
Automakers have a authorized requirement to supply free repairs on security remembers for 15 years after a automobile was offered to its first proprietor. Many will situation remembers or updates for vehicles which are even older than that. “Nevertheless it’s a unique query on the subject of one thing just like the Grok improve,” Tucker stated. “Tesla by no means promised you Grok.” Future updates could possibly be too computationally demanding for a automobile’s {hardware} to deal with—particularly as automakers race to introduce AI and autonomous options. Though lacking out on such options wouldn’t damage the driving expertise, the apps that incorporate these enhancements may get gradual or buggy on vehicles with older computer systems. “Sure fashions are destined to age their method out of compatibility with the newest software program. It’s like attempting to place Home windows 11 on a PC from 2010,” Nick Yekikian, a senior information editor on the automobile web site Edmunds, instructed me. “It might in all probability lead to one thing fully unusable.”
Automotive corporations have already signaled their intent to let older vehicles turn out to be out of date. All through the 2010s, many autos got here with 3G connectivity to energy a bunch of in-car options, equivalent to the power to lock or unlock the automobile from one’s telephone. Lapped by superior 4G and 5G, the community shut down in 2022—a lot of 3G vehicles have been nonetheless driving round. Subaru upgraded a few of its autos to the brand new commonplace without cost, and Tesla let its drivers pay for the higher {hardware}. However when the 3G shutdown got here alongside, corporations together with Ford, Hyundai, and Audi canceled providers for the related autos. “Most automakers’ response,” Tucker stated, “was, Properly, you don’t have connectivity anymore.” These vehicles remained drivable, however in some circumstances, options that relied on the 3G community—together with SOS emergency help and automated crash notifications—simply stopped working.
Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s chief software program officer, instructed me that the EV firm is attempting to fight the obsolescence situation by giving its pc techniques “headroom,” a coder’s method of claiming house to develop and add new options. His acknowledged aim is to maintain Rivians updatable for seven to 10 years. However what about after?
The worst-case state of affairs for immediately’s software-dependent automobile is the destiny of Fisker, which went bankrupt in 2024—leaving nobody to ship out software program patches or repair glitches. A few of the roughly 11,000 Fisker SUVs on the street “had software program points that, if not corrected, would’ve ultimately made the automobile ineffective,” Cristian Fleming, the president of the Fisker House owners Affiliation, instructed me. His group of homeowners banded collectively to replace Fisker’s software program. The long-standing auto giants, in addition to the established EV start-ups equivalent to Rivian and Lucid, are in a much better place than Fisker to stay round for the lengthy haul. However, though IT help will very doubtless be there in your EV a decade from now, it isn’t assured.
Most individuals simply wish to make the grocery run, whether or not they have a 2011 Toyota RAV4 or a brand new, six-figure Rivan. A car that routes all of its primary features by means of a contact display screen can’t afford for the software program to get laggy like an outdated iPhone. Bensaid guarantees that decade-old EVs gained’t flip into pumpkins simply because they get outdated. “You’ll be capable to drive your automobile in a secure and secure method,” he stated. However as soon as software-dependent vehicles cease receiving updates, they may begin to worsen. Perhaps the navigation system begins to crash, or the Netflix app in your Tesla turns into so buggy which you could’t play KPop Demon Hunters whereas ready for the automobile to recharge. These are the type of nuisances many smartphone house owners know properly: not dangerous sufficient to make the gadget unusable, however annoying sufficient to make you consider buying and selling it in.
Making use of the identical logic to an car threatens to wreck among the best issues about vehicles, particularly electrical ones: They endure. In contrast to gas-powered vehicles—which have a conglomeration of timing belts, spark plugs, and mufflers—EVs are easy, with just some dozen transferring elements. Which means they’ll final even longer than conventional autos, changing the battery, electrical motors, and some different parts when needed. However as vehicles turn out to be smartphones on wheels, they could not get that shot at longevity.
