Its entire model relied on centralized servers, subscriptions, and proprietary software to authenticate vehicles and manage battery exchanges.

I would otherwise be excited about the idea of getting an electric car but the way they are steeped in bullshit like this makes me end up planning to only drive old cars indefinitely.

Been like this forever... Version 1.0 always sucks. Even worse is when a company ships a 0.4.2.1 beta and still calls it 1.0.

Testing costs a lot and hey, why not let your early adopters pay the price in return for having something nobody else has yet.

This article feels a bit like ragebait.

Yes, this happened once with a company that went bankrupt 2 years after launching their product. They seem to have designed an exceptionally poor product. How does this mean that the enormous engineering failures of this small startup applies to all other car brands?

Most cars have a very clear separation between core driving software and the infotainment, and the vast majority will never have any software updates so what works, will continue to work (or the other way around). At worst you'll loose stuff like remote commands, wheatear info, list of charging points/map updates.. Things that are kind of dynamic and needs to be regularly updated.

existentially necessary for someone to live their life

A bit much don't you think?