this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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For over a century, the automobile has represented freedom, power, and the thrill of mechanical mastery. The connection between driver, machine, and road defined what it meant to own and love a car. But in today’s digital era, a different trend is unfolding. Cars are no longer just machines designed to take us from point A to point B. Increasingly, they resemble something else entirely: smartphones on wheels.

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[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago

My car is a 2023 and I pretty much by-pass all the integrated tech and use apple Car Play.

Watching people whine about tech in cars has always been comical to me. The first time I heard it was in the 80s and how cruise control was going to make cars unusable eventually.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago

Combining two of the things I most hate. Makes sense.

[–] PostaL@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago
[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

My radio doesn't even have a screen 😅

The only computer in my car is the radio, and that stays off most of the time. I'm honestly thrilled to not have so much tech in the car. Its nice to be able to fix nearly anything with some pliers, a multi-meter, and an adjustable spanner.

[–] XiberKernel@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I drive a Kia EV6, and love it. Kia pushes like 2 OTAs per year for updates and small bug fixes, but hasn’t rolled out any new features. They have a premium connectivity package, but nothing but remote bells and whistles are behind it.

I use my phone for the infotainment via CarPlay.

My phone acts like a phone, and my car acts like a car.

Now, the reason I have an EV6? I was a happy Chevy Bolt owner looking for a newer vehicle and was eyeing the Equinox EV. I noped out as soon as they announced the Google partnership and decided to remove CarPlay and BYOD as a feature.

The two things that will turn me off from a future purchase is lack of CarPlay, or paywalled “hardware” upgrades, like performance tweaks or locking out something installed like heated seats. Nope.

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

Cars have been giant ~~smartphones~~ {tracking and data collection gold mines} for years now

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Both fit in the same category of unfortunately necessary and terrible goods...so the merger makes sense to me.

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com -3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (6 children)

Yeah, 25 years ago. Where the fuck have you been? Cars were smart phones before smart phones were small enough to be smart phones.

Cars had on board computers standard decades before the personal computer became a fixture in the American home. I mean, the Audi 5000 in 1985 was a pretty famous example. Mostly because of how hilariously the computer fucked up. I should know, my mother had one at the time. Every trip was a real “adventure”.

Everything you’re smart phone does, your car could do 20 years ago. It just didn’t have such a look in her face, and it was a lot bigger than a device you could stick in your pocket.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

My car is from 2014, no "smart" crap in it... So I guess it's to varying degrees. I have the feeling OP isn't talking about the first ever smart car, but that it's become ubiquitous.

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