Well, the AM transmitter in the old car won’t work anymore as well.

Cars do age the same in terms of user experience - they are simply frozen in the state they are. (And at least within the EU can be operated fully offline)

The author seems to be more concerned that his car might not get “new features” anymore - and that bothers hims as the “free update” culture is extending to a lot of things. Technology advances but nothing has changed about that - that was always the case and now we can at least update some things.

While I would love to have a carnaker offer a open source plattform that would make people able to update and modify the entertainment/navigation part of their car I actually spoke to a car makers product manager about it - and sadly the multitude of regulations cars fall under in their various markets makes that basically impossible.

More important would be that we campaign for other things in terms of laws (some are in place in the EU but are currently under pressure):

• Manufacturers need to provide security updates for online functions for 10 years after the end of production.

• Manufacturers need to provide navigation updates for 5 years after the end of production

• Cars need a designated fully offline mode

• Driving data obtained must not be used for commercial purposes. (Currently already implemented in the GDPR)

• Important and often overlooked: Manufacturers must provide service software tools for cars for ALL repair shops and for at least 20 years after end of production. AND we need to work towards an open source industry standard.