this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Are Cars Just Becoming Giant Smartphones on Wheels? (www.carsandhorsepower.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Changelin@discuss.tchncs.de to c/technology@lemmy.world
132 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] floo@retrolemmy.com -3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 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.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

EFI and a radio with a digital tuner does not a "smartphone on wheels" make. This shit didn't actually start until the mid-2010s.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 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.

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Pardon my aggression from the previous comment

I didn’t mean “every car” I just was referring to the fact that cars started to do what OP is referring to a very long time ago. Certainly not every car. It was a luxury option back then. Nowadays, it’s just becoming standard.

Perhaps I could’ve communicated that better

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

No problemo, Cheers!