I know this is probably off topic but I’m always stunned in these articles how simple things like this cause peoples (the authors) brains to just meltdown. They seemingly become so helpless when they don’t have a screen to tell them what to do and where to go. As a species we have been so heavily spoiled that simple inconveniences are seemingly incomprehensible to people who are surrounded and coddled by technology at every moment.

That’s not to say I’m perfect and haven’t fallen victim to these things myself, but I at least try to make do and overcome without complaining to the world how hard it is, since it’s not hard at all, just a bit inconvenient. At least I’m not making sandals out of discarded tires, shit could be worse than my car not being able to tell me where to go for a few minutes. (Not trying to say people in those conditions live shitty lives, they’re just subject to their environments; they very well may enjoy their way of living but from my western, coddled perspective, it sounds subjectively unpleasant and I’m greatful for what I have) /rant

More on topic, it’s really sad and unfortunate that so many software based products are shipping in such abysmal and borderline useless states until months after release. Too many things are made now with the presumption that “we just gotta ship it and we’ll fix it later”. It’s annoying as hell but understandable with games, it’s not a critical piece of software. A car though? Even if it’s the infotainment system it’s still awful. I love my '06 car, works great, gets me where I need to go, doesn’t harvest my data or relies on a battery to open the door.

I’m reminded of an article from 2015 about how a Jeep could be “hacked” while in motion and the attacker could apply the e-brake or kill the engine. Scary stuff, and with a thousands of pound rolling machine, it better not have such flawed software.

Anyway, I wish we could go back to an engine on wheels and a protective shell, don’t need all the “gizmos” so to speak.