This is a perfect example of why the market doesn't always produce the kind of product that consumers would prefer. Despite this sort of server integration being a terrible design for customers, investors absolutely love a platform like this for lock-in and rent extraction.
A company needs funding before it can even start making a hardware project on the scale of a car, and it is vastly easier to obtain funding for a project like this than for one that would not screw over customers. Free markets are usually great, but they can have terribly misaligned incentives at times.
By a narrow definition of 'worked'. There are a lot of bricked cars out there, unless someone cracks them or the new buyer can revive the systems needed.
I don't think there's much "free market" here at all considering how much government money, tax breaks and other incentives are provided by the government for "green energy".
He's just pealing back the layers of absurdity. They intentionally released a totally broken by design product so now people don't have to guess if they're stupid.
EV is relevant because all of the bricked Fisker cars are EVs. Nothing stopping something similar from happening to modern ICE vehicles.
TFA doesn't say that all Fisker cars are bricked - It says that they become unusable do to minor maintenance issues that can't resolved without Fisker servers being online.
I wish I could buy an electric car with no radio transmitters and no ways to install software other than JTAG ports. I think that'll be possible in the relatively near future through EV conversions of legacy vehicles, though that route may have crash safety concerns.
I’m not even convinced that the cars won’t work without working servers. All of the links in TFA are behind a paywall I’m not going to bother working around, but is there any evidence that Fiskers need a home to phone in order to keep working? Or is it that one can’t remotely start the vehicle (as one example) without working servers?
‘Cuz $DEITY knows that “bricked” has a very wide range of colloquial definitions.
Wonder if we should have a dedicated agency that for keeping control server up.
Allowing manufacturers to open/close your vehicles at whim sounds putting too many eggs at same basket. DMV is the one who knows who actually owns the car after all...
This is a perfect example of why the market doesn't always produce the kind of product that consumers would prefer. Despite this sort of server integration being a terrible design for customers, investors absolutely love a platform like this for lock-in and rent extraction.
A company needs funding before it can even start making a hardware project on the scale of a car, and it is vastly easier to obtain funding for a project like this than for one that would not screw over customers. Free markets are usually great, but they can have terribly misaligned incentives at times.
the company went bankrupt- i think the market worked in this instance.
By a narrow definition of 'worked'. There are a lot of bricked cars out there, unless someone cracks them or the new buyer can revive the systems needed.
I don't think there's much "free market" here at all considering how much government money, tax breaks and other incentives are provided by the government for "green energy".
Genius use of stable diffusion for the article’s cover art.
> its products, which retailed for $40-70k in the few short years before the company collapsed
Ouch
Related:
Bankrupt Fisker says it can't migrate its EVs to a new owner's server
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41795075
> A "software-based car" gets to mobilize the state to enforce its "IP," which allows it to force its customers to use authorized mechanics...
Doctorow has a good point here.
That's pretty cruel of Cory Doctorow.
He's just pealing back the layers of absurdity. They intentionally released a totally broken by design product so now people don't have to guess if they're stupid.
Parts pairing is rampant in the automotive industry. Why isn't that banned in Oregon?
What does being EV have anything to do with bricking it?
Why was it bricked in first place? Cars don't brick themselves by entering tunnel or driving in wilderness.
I get it, he has to keep stirring up controversy to stay relevant, but Cory sometimes looses his marbles over irrelevant crap.
EV is relevant because all of the bricked Fisker cars are EVs. Nothing stopping something similar from happening to modern ICE vehicles.
TFA doesn't say that all Fisker cars are bricked - It says that they become unusable do to minor maintenance issues that can't resolved without Fisker servers being online.
I wish I could buy an electric car with no radio transmitters and no ways to install software other than JTAG ports. I think that'll be possible in the relatively near future through EV conversions of legacy vehicles, though that route may have crash safety concerns.
I’m not even convinced that the cars won’t work without working servers. All of the links in TFA are behind a paywall I’m not going to bother working around, but is there any evidence that Fiskers need a home to phone in order to keep working? Or is it that one can’t remotely start the vehicle (as one example) without working servers?
‘Cuz $DEITY knows that “bricked” has a very wide range of colloquial definitions.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/fisker-bankruptcy-hits-maj...
Not all the links are behind paywalls. Fisker themselves are among the groups saying they don't know how to get the cars running again.
Wonder if we should have a dedicated agency that for keeping control server up.
Allowing manufacturers to open/close your vehicles at whim sounds putting too many eggs at same basket. DMV is the one who knows who actually owns the car after all...