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When your vehicle outlives its cloud: What happens next?
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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They make it go through an app and a cloud service on purpose these days so they have an excuse to upsell you on a subscription.
Not all brands sell these features as a subscription.
I chased this up with Ford over my car. They said we get them for free for the life of the vehicle, and as long as the 4g it needs to work exists. That's got atleast 10 to 20 years left in it.
Why would you buy anything that requires and app, let alone a car? I haven't bought a new car in a while, but if it requires and app, I'm not buying it. I bought a pergola, and originally they said I could use an app to turn the lights on. But I made them install a switch instead. Maybe consider unlinking your life for important/expensive purchases?
Because if literally every new car on the market is doing it, you don't have much of a choice.
(Okay, sure, you could resolve to drive old cars forever -- and that's what I do -- but let's not pretend that's possible for everyone. Even if people were willing and able to accept the maintenance/reliability/safety tradeoffs, which many are not, there simply aren't enough old cars for everybody to drive one.)
There are a lot of 2026 cars that don't require a phone app. They may have other shitty internet connectivity features, but they dont' require an app. And the next time I buy a car i will 100% not be getting one that requires a phone app.