Your car is no longer hardware, it is software. Soon it will be landfill unless you do something about it. And Sonos: please don't make cars, ever

Let’s start with a tiny bit of history before I come across as a major technophobe.

I was a dot-com baby. I had just finished uni and then with a big bang followed by a tiny whimper there was the Internet. And it was everywhere. It was great, I built a whole career out of it right up to today where I’m lucky enough to have a dream job running DriveTribe and FoodTribe.

Thanks Internet, you rock.

Back in the good old days of Web 1.0 we were all busy trying to work out how to shop online without our credit cards appearing on teen hacker bulletin boards. How to create content and get paid for it. How to watch films without the suits knocking down our doors. And more time than any of us will admit, wondering how big the porn industry would get when a nipple could be shown in more detail than one big garish pink pixel.

And then some bright spark came up with the Internet of Things. All our dumb devices would become smart. Our white goods, lights, phones and cars would all talk to each other (and us) and our lives will be all shiny and wonderful.

We tech-heads loved the idea, and boy did we get it wrong. Really, really wrong.

Check out the comments on this Intel video from 2014. "It is an extremely exciting time to be a computer scientist!" ... "Impressive how much automotive will impact IoT" ... "a revolution in our way of living".

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The reality is that everything now sucks.

This is life now: my hugely expensive Sonos speaker system is about to stop working unless I spend thousands upgrading it, my very expensive robo-hoover is just grinding around the carpet making sad noises, my smart fridge is the plaything of Russian hackers, my smart lights are stuck on Amsterdam red, my washing machine will only do a cold wash, my smart TV is audio only and yep – my car won’t start until it gets a software update. I’m exaggerating (slightly), but you get the idea.

Sonos showed us how it's [not] done

Take an example from the past few weeks that is a sign of things to come – Sonos. Sonos makes speakers for listening to your music in your home – back in the day they were one of the first Internet of Things success stories. A couple of weeks ago they caused uproar among their customers by telling them that speakers that were only five years old and cost hundreds to purchase are going to stop working in the middle of this year. The customer response was so negative the CEO had to climb down (a bit).

It is not just Sonos, your connected car will become landfill

Most smart tech has, or will have, exactly the same issue as Sonos just enjoyed – "software obsolescence" – including one of the biggest purchases you will ever make – your car.

A connected car you buy today will no longer get software updates at some point. Maybe in three years, maybe in 10. But it will happen. And then your car will not be a car anymore. It will not work, it will be “obsolete”, with no resale value and leaving you with no choice but to crush it into landfill.

There will be nothing physically wrong with your car that cannot be fixed with a few replacement parts. The hardware is fine, but the software is broken. Your car is no longer a car, it is a bunch of broken software wrapped in metal and rubber.

So what should we do? Some commentators have suggested being up-front with customers, telling us that our new connected cars are only going to be usable for 5-10 years and then you’ll need a new one. Fine, but what if I rather like my car? What if I cannot afford to upgrade? And what about all that landfill we are creating?

Your car is no longer a car, it is a bunch of broken software wrapped in metal and rubber

We need to separate the hardware from the software

The answer has to be to make hardware and software two distinct things – like two Lego blocks, to componentize. When my Sonos speaker stops working because of software I want to remove the software Lego block and use it as a regular speaker, with wires and stuff.

When my connected car stops working because the software is no longer supported I want to get rid of the “software lego block” and use it as a regular car to drive around in, (albeit without Alexa talking to me or Spotify soothing my ride – I can live with that).

Let’s support manufacturers who give consumers the ability to remove the “smart” and keep the “dumb”. Let smart hoovers be “downgrade-able” to hoovers if the software stops working, let connected cars become “dis”-connected cars again and let me turn my bloody TV back on if you cannot be bothered to update the software anymore – I'm looking at you Phillips.

Connected car development is still in its infancy. Car manufacturers have a shot now to become superstars in our Internet of Things world by allowing consumers to remove the car smarts once the software stops working and allow the hardware in the car to become "just" a car once again. Or even better, remove the "software lego block" and replace it entirely with a new one.

The Internet of Things has its uses. The philosophy needs to change though, I suggest let’s start by making things that are designed to keep delivering their core function – and stop making things designed to fail because of functions that we can live without.

And please Sonos / Microsoft / etc: don’t start making vehicles.

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(Main image credit: u/Kruzat / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)