Now that cars have become rolling smartphones, it's been pretty disappointing to see them copy some of the worst practices from the smartphone world. I wrote an article that talks about some of those problems. [CW: Tesla negativity] https://puri.sm/posts/locked-in-a-remote-control-car/
@kyle this is a big part of the reason I will keep paying to fix my Tacoma for a long time to come. It doesn’t have GPS or an infotainment center. It does however have some surely proprietary sensors that I’m screwed if Toyota ever stops making (and one of mine breaks). In the early days of EVs many SUVs and trucks had conversion kits to electric drive, and in the future I may look at doing similar with my Tacoma if batteries ever get light and (power) dense enough.
@kyle getting the Librem 14 was in no small part so I’d have the power to do some (mechanical) modeling and embedded programming on a system completely removed from $dayJob (my work AppVM was not and will not be part of the restore). Helping move electrification forward in a meaningful and open way is somewhere I think I can contribute.
@ajmartinez Maybe one day I'll look into a kit like this for my Ghia: https://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=220&osCsid=c60e66975fff1c66517a58bab4c4eefb
@kyle very cool, looks like AC charging only but with planning that’s not a problem really. Looks like a solid kit!
@ajmartinez I'm thinking of doing a similar thing down the road if the situation doesn't improve. By the time I actually need a new car hopefully there will be a few common conversion kits and I can decide which old car+kit works for me.