Ask HN: What's broken about the software side of car ownership?

[samsullivan]

I've been increasingly frustrated with the disconnect between my car and my digital life. Modern vehicles are essentially computers on wheels, yet the software experience feels stuck in the past.

What aspects of car ownership do you find most annoying that better software could potentially solve? Are there problems with maintenance tracking, diagnostics, dealer relationships, or the in-car interface itself?

I'm curious if others share similar frustrations or have found clever solutions. For those who've built their own tools or workarounds, what motivated you and how did you approach it?

My personal pain point has been the fragmentation - having to use one app for the manufacturer, another for service history, something else for fuel tracking, etc. It feels like there must be a better way.

[chrisjj]

> Modern vehicles are essentially computers on wheels

Essentially someone else's computers. Not yours.

That's the root problem.

[toast0]

We can all brainstorm about this, but are you in a position to do anything about it?

Modern vehicles certainly could include a maintenance and fuel log and essentially a built in code reader, but unless a manufacturer decides that's a priority, it's not going to happen.

From a driver's perspective, the less software I need to be aware of, the better. My ancient vehicle has electronic fuel injection, but that pretty much just works; otherwise, there's no software. Modern cars have so much software, and some of it is just there and just works and often improves the driving experience, but the software that is in your face is often a negative. My last nice car would detect which keyfob was on the person who opened the driver's door and set the memory seat for them; my current nice car wants you to login to the center console and tries to figure out who is opening the driver's door and login as them, but sometimes it gets confused and it's a lot of button presses to fix it, and you have to do it with the car in park. More advanced features, but less useful because it's more intrusive.

Navigation is about the only useful intrusive feature. Unfortunately, integrated navigation tends to require map updates for money. Pushing to Android Auto avoids the costs, but then you get things like weirdness with intermittent connections, and inconsistency between phones --- the spouse's phone has a nice button to quickly get to the car ui, but for mine, I have to go to 'all apps' and then select the car ui app --- no way to put that on the launcher either.

[hideload]

My personal opinion here. Electronics last for 10 years while a good car can last for 50 years. By time, the electronics part of your car will require more maintenance than your car itself. So I always prefer cars with less electronics!

[impendia]

Apparently ads are starting to pop up, unbidden, on cars.

When the day comes that I have to replace my 1999 Camry, I will be sure to buy a car without software with this capability. I consider any software that permits ads to be irreparably broken beyond repair.

If I can't obtain such a car, then my clever solution will be to smash the infotainment system with a hammer. If that renders the car undriveable, I will start walking everywhere.

[hello_computer]

Firmware for things like fuel injector or ABS is fine. Outside of that, better software is no software at all. Keep that shit out of my car. The phones are bad enough. Now the bastards are trying to build another phone into the dashboard to DP us with.

[neilsimp1]

If I get a car with an advanced computer, I expect to be able to install and run whatever software I want on it. Just like any other computer. If I can't, then I don't own the device.

[mindwork → neilsimp1]

When the car malfunctions mechanically it can be a basis for a lawsuit for the manufacturer. There is a practice of recall in the industry. So what would happen when software that you run on the car's computer malfunctions or you accidentally install malware on that computer? Do you blame yourself or manufacturer? What if there was a loss of life because of this malfunction?

[JohnFen → mindwork]

The same thing that would happen is you modify the mechanics of your car (which is entirely allowed, as it should be) in a way that causes breakdown or even loss of life. It's on you, not the manufacturer.

[neilsimp1 → mindwork]

It's on me.

[uberman]

In car ads.

Anything subscription based.

The fact that my car does not act as a wifi hotspot.

The move to require my phone to provide services to my car like navigation.

[babyent → uberman]

I like Apple car play. I’m sure android auto is similar.

It works fine and uses my phone. Give me knobs for ac and other controls, and just give a screen that can show apple car play.

[uberman → babyent]

It works fine, I just dont want it. As was stated, cars are rolling computers but still want to interact with my phone for "reasons".

I'll take my older truck with proper in car navigation rather than my new commuter car that requires pairing with ever driver in my family.

If you want to give your car access to your phone, power to you.

[aynyc]

In the USA, I honestly don't want another software to track of something like this.

I mean, service your car every 5-6K miles, by taking it to someone you trust or have a good relationship with. They usually put a sticker on your window telling you when the next service is due. If you take it to a dealership, they usually update Carfax with your services. In my experience of owning cars, service history doesn't matter much to anyone but you, but that's easy to track.

Unless you drive full time for a living, I don't see the point of fuel. The only time I care about mileage tracking is when I made the mistake of leasing a car.