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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I work in the automotive industry. I believe we could be there in 10 to 20 years, but I’m not convinced we will be there.

    Specifically, because vehicle autonomy has been a big buzz word in the industry for a decade or so, and it’s starting to lose its zing. And when buzzwords lose their zing, the money dries up and the industry moves on.

    Things like speed-adjusting cruise control and lane-keeping assistance, for example, are trivial to implement from a technological standpoint and don’t cost much to add. But they don’t show up in too many vehicles, because consumers stopped caring. I worked on a trailer backup assistance feature in a 2015 pickup that added zero production cost, but very few vehicles implement anything like that. Not because they’re not valuable features, but because the industry loses interest and moves on.

    The automotive feature that boggles me most is 4-wheel steering (where the rear wheels can move about 10 degrees or so). I’ve driven a vehicle with this feature, and it’s an absolute game-changer. And it doesn’t cost that much to implement either. Too bad the big OEMs don’t care, because once you’ve driven one, you want it on every vehicle ever. Sigh.

    End rant.