Stellantis wishes to sell new car subscriptions, Nvidia has a game-changing new chip, Hertz and GM make an EV deal. All this and more in today’s issue of The Morning Dump.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Stellantis Wants You To Subscribe
The Detroit News reports that Stellantis wants to get into the game of subscriptions. Not like BMW’s microtransactions, mind you, but new car subscriptions with the option to swap out models.
Stellantis NV has piloted a subscription-based model at a few dealerships nationally, Jeep CEO Christian Meunier told The Detroit News from the floor of the Detroit auto show. The program would allow owners to swap out vehicles from within the Stellantis family of brands, giving a Jeep Wrangler owner, for example, access to a Chrysler Pacifica minivan or a Ram 1500 or Jeep Gladiator pickup truck for a limited time.
Having too few vehicles on dealership lots, however, is holding up the launch of the program. That stems from a global microchip shortage that is hindering production and is likely to continue into next year. Meunier said he expects the offering to launch nationally once more vehicles are available on dealer lots.
“The problem is the dealers didn’t have enough to make it really successful,” he said. “The concepts are good. Execution is not the right moment for it.”
While the concept of a subscription-based model is neat, it’s probably a good thing that the chip shortage is holding Stellantis back on this one. Previous new vehicle subscriptions from brands like Cadillac, BMW, and Audi have folded due to lack of demand as consumers turned up their noses at pricing. If luxury vehicle buyers aren’t biting due to high costs, how could Stellantis expect retail-grade car buyers to play ball with subscriptions?
Of equal importance, there isn’t a ton of variety in the Stellantis range that could really support subscriptions with a swap model. The automaker doesn’t really make anything too small to do an IKEA run with, so how often would swapping a Jeep Wrangler for a Chrysler Pacifica actually happen? While a few automakers like Porsche and Volvo still see value in selling subscriptions, those are luxury brands with a very different clientele than Stellantis normally sees.
Nvidia Has A New Chip For Cars
In the midst of an industry-wide chip shortage, Automotive News reports that Nvidia has a new automotive chip capable of 2,000 teraflops. If you don’t know what a teraflop is but reckon 2,000 of them sounds mighty impressive, you’d be right. Chips like this could change the car as we know it.
Nvidia’s latest tech, called Drive Thor, can control automated driving, driver-assist systems, infotainment, digital instrument clusters, occupant-monitoring and more from a single computer. This permits multiple vehicle functions on a single system-on-chip instead of spreading them across several electronic control units, lowering costs and streamlining development.
Drive Thor follows other Nvidia tech advances that debuted this year, including a graphics processing unit called Hopper and a central processing unit called Grace.
“What they’ve done with Thor is taken Grace and Hopper and put those onto a single SOC along next-generation technology they haven’t detailed yet,” said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Guidehouse Insights.
So what does this mean in simple terms? Well, get ready for lots of little modules to become one massive one. Picture less wiring, faster communication, and reduced costs, albeit at the expense of some serviceability. Instead of simply replacing one wonky module for a couple of hundred dollars, expect to replace one system-on-chip that costs much more.
Mitsubishi Gets Badge Engineering-y
Mitsubishi recently unveiled the 2020 Renault Captur, a subcompact crossover that competes with models like the Kia Stonic and Volkwagen T-Roc. Sales of this little crossover began in 2019 and let me tell you, it looks quite competitive.
Let’s start with the big news, the oily bits. No fewer than four engine options are on tap. The cheapest option is a one-liter unit, while a 1.3-liter mild hybrid is available for those looking for more pep. Add the dual-clutch gearbox to that 1.3-liter mild hybrid model and output jumps from 138 horsepower and 192 lb.-ft. of torque to 156 horsepower and 199 lb.-ft. of torque. Stout numbers for the mid-range engine option. Rounding out the range is a 1.6-liter hybrid model and a 1.6-liter plug-in hybrid model, for those seeking an extra dose of electrification.
On the inside, a seven-inch landscape-oriented touchscreen infotainment system is standard, although a 9.3-inch portrait-oriented infotainment system is available. For those who really want to splash out on some fancy tech, a digital instrument cluster is also on offer in higher specifications. This fresh debut has already picked up some fairly impressive hardware, scoring Auto Express’ 2020 Small SUV of the Year award. Nicely done, Renault.
What’s that? Oh. I’m being told this is the Mitsubishi ASX, set to replace what we know as the Outlander Sport in the European market. It seems that Mitsubishi has changed the badges, and that’s about it. Still, the new ASX seems like a perfectly nice car, even if Mitsubishi hasn’t gone to great lengths to make it unique.
Hertz And GM Make A Deal
Everything in the automotive world seems to be going electric, and that includes rental fleets. Reuters reports that GM has inked a deal to supply rental company Hertz with up to 175,000 electric vehicles over the next five years.
The multi-billion dollar, multi-year deal could be the first of many GM agreements to supply electric vehicles to rental car companies, said Steve Carlisle, the automaker’s North American operations chief, on a conference call.
“It’s an enormous first step,” Carlisle said, adding that GM is in talks about similar deals with other rental car companies.
While promising big fleet sales in the midst of a car shortage may seem unusual, it’s likely a good hedging bet. New car supply is expected to return to normal right as many economic forecasters expect a recession to hit. Any potential economic event that could severely impact consumer buying power is bad news for automakers who’ll have cars sitting around on lots. Shuffling some of this newfound inventory off to fleet customers is a great way to keep things moving through a downturn. Plus, it has the opportunity to be a great marketing play.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a statement “each rental experience will further increase purchase consideration for our products and drive growth for our company.”
While electric rental cars make great sense for about-town use, there is one big downside here. The more EVs make it to rental fleets, the lower the chances are of renting a combustion-powered car for long road trips you wouldn’t want to make in an electric daily driver.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Wednesday, everyone, we’re halfway through the week. With the middle of the week comes a question on mid-cycle refreshes. It’s customary for automakers to give models facelifts mid-way through their production cycles, and some of these facelifts work better than others. I want to ask, what’s your favorite mid-cycle refresh of all time? I’m partial to the 2005 facelift of the Acura RSX. The updated headlamps worked wonders on cleaning up the front end, while fresh alloy wheel designs still look wonderful.
Lead photo credit: Stellantis
TODAY:
GM has inked a deal to supply rental company Hertz with up to 175,000 electric vehicles over the next five years.
The multi-billion dollar, multi-year deal could be the first of many GM agreements to supply electric vehicles to rental car companies, said Steve Carlisle, the automaker’s North American operations chief, on a conference call.
YESTERDAY:
“For years, GM in particular had terrible residual values. As recently as 2009, GM’s average residual value was just 36.5%. (The top mass-market brands have residual values just over 50%.) That was due in part to the relative undesirability of GM’s vehicles, but it was also due to the fact that the market was flooded with recent used GM products, because rental-car companies sell off their cars in bulk after a couple of years.”
The Nvidia thing doesn’t seem all that useful… the main benefit of multiple boxes is redundancy and failover. If it’s all in one unit, the best you can hope for is SAE level 2
Swapping out vehicles every so often for a monthly subscription fee? Isn’t this basically what most leasees do anyway?
Hertz is buying a billion $$$ worth of cars from GM? Weren’t Hertz in full bankruptcy just recently? How are they doing this?
Oh yeah, BK allows a company to discharge all of their debt onto us, and then they go and make more……
Between region locks, black-out restrictions, false positive rights denials, and format support, the most consistent, reliable method of consuming content from subscription based media services is to steal it. Easy to do, generally has all the ads and cruft cleaned out of it, frequently has better availability than legitimate channels, and works almost every time.
I think that car companies should think a few dozen times before deciding they want to be more like media companies. Car companies have had pretty stable valuations for a very long time – make your numbers and you know what you’re worth. The *aaS segment bubble is going to pop eventually. Why try to be floating on it when it does?
If I may mix a metaphor: Don’t rock the gravy train.
“The Detroit News reports that Stellantis wants to get into the game of subscriptions. Not like BMW’s microtransactions, mind you, but new car subscriptions with the option to swap out models.”
Yeah, go ask Nazi-cheerleader Bernie Moreno how that worked for him. Or any of the other dozen plus companies that faceplanted with that idiocy. It doesn’t work. Customers don’t want it. High end customers don’t want it, low end customers don’t want it, nobody wants it.
FCAtlantis: two steps forward, nine steps back. Right off a cliff.
In the midst of an industry-wide chip shortage, Automotive News reports that Nvidia has a new automotive chip capable of 2,000 teraflops. If you don’t know what a teraflop is but reckon 2,000 of them sounds mighty impressive, you’d be right. Chips like this could change the car as we know it.
If these things were true or relevant, which, they are not. NV relies on their own cult of fanbois and an incurious and uneducated press to spread their lies, and distract from the many SEC investigations for fraudulent accounting and collapsing markets.
They literally just got told their absolute largest customer by volume and profit is no-go; the entire country of China. Fucked doesn’t begin to describe their situation. This is also trying to distract from the fact that their largest North American partner by volume, EVGA, just very publicly dumped them the day before the 40-series launch. And came right out and said that NV was beyond terrible to work with, had squeezed their margins to negatives, and was now forcing them to eat hundreds of dollars of loss per GPU sold.
2000 teraflops, big deal. At what precision? With what error rate? What benefit does this have when the software already is proven to not fucking work? (NV was Tesla’s SoC supplier before the cult of Musk decided they could do better themselves with a $3.50 investment.) And who the fuck is going to agree to be their partner when the terms are “NV gets to set your prices”?
“What’s that? Oh. I’m being told this is the Mitsubishi ASX, set to replace what we know as the Outlander Sport in the European market. It seems that Mitsubishi has changed the badges, and that’s about it. Still, the new ASX seems like a perfectly nice car, even if Mitsubishi hasn’t gone to great lengths to make it unique.”
Mitsubishi has never recovered from the last bubble popping, and we’re going right into another one. They have to do something – anything – to stay in business at this point. They don’t have the money to design a bread-and-butter commuter from scratch at this point, and they don’t have the brand cachet to risk a halo car like a new Evolution.
And being 34% owned by Nissan – who is deliberately crippling them – makes the keiretsu disinclined to provide support. Nissan’s the ones who basically forced Mitsu to waste shitloads of money on obviously doomed plans and products, and consistently refuse to share any platforms or technologies that could revitalize the company.
I truly hate to say it, but I think at this point, Mitsubishi’s days may be numbered.
“Everything in the automotive world seems to be going electric, and that includes rental fleets. Reuters reports that GM has inked a deal to supply rental company Hertz with up to 175,000 electric vehicles over the next five years.”
Hertz was quick to tout the benefits of electric vehicles. Now police can conveniently recharge their tazers from the cars after violently assaulting customers when Hertz “mistakenly” reports the car stolen.
They also touted the new revenue stream that ‘the car was not returned fully charged’ will bring, expecting their $9.99 per kilowatt hour rate will provide a steady stream of income for years to come.
(Seriously. Fuck Hertz.)
“I want to ask, what’s your favorite mid-cycle refresh of all time? I’m partial to the 2005 facelift of the Acura RSX. The updated headlamps worked wonders on cleaning up the front end, while fresh alloy wheel designs still look wonderful.”
The final generation Buick Regal mid-cycle facelift. It’s one of those facelifts that was so subtle, 99% of people missed it, but which also tremendously improved the car’s looks and function.
The biggest pieces of the refresh were the front fascia, headlights, taillights, and instrument cluster. The early Regals have what can only be described as an ugly front end, particularly the GS. And the headlights were awful. The refresh saw entirely new front lighting with greatly improved projectors, the restoration of cornering lights, fog lights that actually fucking work, much cleaner integration with the body lines, and a more subdued look overall. The late taillights are very much proper Buick. The early ones were more “we had some leftover Pontiac shit, just throw it on.” And the less said about the early IPC and interior, the better. Let’s just say: don’t buy a pre-2014 ever. Even if it has a manual.
A lot of these EV partnerships feel a lot more like a public relations move than a company getting cars that fill a demand from their customers
Flipping the script, my least favorite is the 1st gen Cruze. They took a solid design and slapped these gaudy giant chrome LED DRL’s onto it. It looks like factory applied AutoZone trash. And didn’t change anything else outside because they had designed the 2nd gen already but wanted to squeeze one more year out of the 1st gen tooling. Sigh, GM. Why? Why?!?
Bleep this subscription trend. Rental car companies exist for that reason.
Lastly, the SOC thing is whatever. Yes, it will stink to replace. But we’re already at that point of some car parts being so expensive they total the car anyway when they fail. The additional reliability outweighs the increased cost IMO.
To piggyback on your first point, the lights of the facelifted Sonic turned weird-but-charming into a puddle of bleh, in my eyes.
I can recall some of my past car rental use cases where 250 miles would have been plenty for a week of use. Airport to the hotel, run around the city for a week, and back to the airport. Fine.
But even more times where an EV would have been impractical. Next month I fly to St. Louis for a couple days, then drive to Kansas City, then back to STL to catch my flight home. No way would I accept an EV for that rental. It’s easy to find a gas station in an unfamiliar city, but I sure don’t want to have to hunt for a charging station.
Every story I read about road tripping an electric car, the problem isn’t finding a charging station. It’s finding a WORKING charging station.
It’s hard to do anything other than roll eyes at another subscription model. Can’t see how they’d manage demand, plus it wouldn’t actually be like always having the newest car, it would be always driving a rental. You’ll request a Pacifica for a weekend trip and get “upgraded” to a two door wrangler with someone else’s radio presets and a dirty kleenex under the seat. And it’ll cost more than an equivalent lease
Car companies tripping all over themselves to try and appear like tech companies to investors is just so stupid.
They’re trying (and failing) to invent U-haul + Hertz/Alamo/Enterprise.
Even for towing or hauling duties, most rental companies offer full-sized SUVs that are equipped with standard trailer hitches. I’ve towed a boat from new England to Florida and back with a rented Tahoe (Yukon? Suburban? I refuse to learn the difference). I only added a trailer ball to the existing receiver to do this. I was able to shop all the auto rental companies to find the vehicle I needed, without being tied to a specific brand and / or location.
I also rented a minivan for a week when I we bought a house because our Miata / FR-S combo was useless for the Home Depot runs. Again, I was able to go with the most convenient option.
That’s two instances in probably a little over a decade when I needed a specific type of car as a rental. I have to think if I had any consistent need for a different type of vehicle, I’d buy a vehicle of that type.
Definitely the Sn95 mustang new edge. Quite drastic and improved the looks a lot in my opinion.
Regarding subscription cars: setting aside the the novelty ride factor, and additional to the rare need for haulage or towing capacity, a daily electric city car, swapping to an ICE/hybrid cruiser whenever leaving town sounds like a valuable incentive. I’m sure weekend reservations would need to be made well in advance.
As an urban dweller with a tiny one-car garage, I may only have oversized cargo a couple times per year, but i make 600-1200 mile road trips fairly often. Most of the complaints i hear or read of electrics are range and recharging issues. Take that anxiety away though? Adoption rates might explode.
This is a great point. I don’t want to own more than one car, and because I need to move roughly every six months and I own a toolbox I have to own a truck (or a hearse). If I could have a BEV when I just need a commuter, something at least vaguely sporty during the summer months and a truck when I actually need one I would be willing to pay a premium for a subscription based model.
Best refresh for me is by far the Porsche 997.2 – it brought the PDK and adaptive suspension.
I have been an Acura fan for most of my life and while I agree the RSX was a nice midcycle I think the bigger change was the 2017 MDX. It got rid of the stupid beak and went back to a more traditional, and I think attractive, design. The MDX was the first Acura to remove the beak and set the course for all of their other models to do the same.
I wonder about electrics as rentals. Y’know how you have to return a rental car full of gas or face an upcharge? How is that going to work with a BEV?
Are you going to have to find a charging station close to the airport? You better be AAAAALLLL kinds of early for your flight.
And if the rental company drops the full charge at drop-off requirement, the turnaround time lengthens.
In a sane world, they would charge a reasonable amount to recharge it after you drop it off and you just wouldn’t worry about it. Since we’re dealing with rental car companies, though, that’s the last thing they’ll do.
Hot take: I don’t necessarily hate the car subscription service idea with a big IF….and that’s if it makes financial sense. I think it would be cool to pay a flat fee every month to be able to drive a range of cars from one manufacturer….and I believe Volvo is talking about wrapping insurance costs into their plan, which is neat.
But it would need to be less than buying or leasing would cost, because you’re getting absolutely no return on your investment. You’re essentially paying to rent. If I could pay like…$500 ish a month to move between sub 60k BMWs or something like that with insurance wrapped in, that might be cool…because I’m sure several of you are afflicted by the same disease I am that causes you to want a different car every 18 months or so….not to mention it would give you an easy out if your financial situation changes.
But we all know it’ll never work that way and manufacturers will use it to prey on the financially illiterate. Oh well. Anyway, my favorite mid cycle refresh has to be the current Genesis G70. I’m not sure if you all have seen them in person…but they are GORGEOUS cars. I thought that pre refresh the design was a day late and a dollar short.
They didn’t look bad, but they looked generic…like someone typed “$40,000 luxury sedan” into an AI program and it barfed something out. But the refresh might as well have been a whole new generation. It now has more of the Genesis design language and it looks good from every angle. One thing I think Genesis has done very well is not leaving any stone unturned with their designs.
Everything about them is intentional. There are no phoned in areas, but they never fall into the “let’s design every part of this 7 times” trap that a lot of modern Bimmers and Japanese cars do. I’d happily consider a base AWD one if they put the damn 300 horsepower 4 from the Stinger or the rowdy N powertrain in it…but sadly they get a pretty anemic 250 horsepower corporate turbo 4….and once you spec the 6 cylinder decently you’re looking at 50-60 grand and the “good value” part of the Genesis appeal doesn’t hold up quite as well.
Plus that engine is THIRSTY…I’d struggle to choose it over something with a B58 or Audi’s supercharged 6, which have more character and better mileage. The Hyundai/Kia/Genesis turbo 6 makes good power but it just feels like a bit of a dinosaur at this point. I’d probably even rather have the Type S 6 cylinder Acura has been using. It’s also long in the tooth but at least I know I won’t have to worry about it long term.
I’d expect that the subscriptions would be priced at a premium when compared to purchasing or leasing (leasing is probably a better point of comparison) because what you’re really buying is flexibility (you’re not getting a “return on investment” when buying or leasing a car either). If it were to be priced less than a lease, then a driver who doesn’t care about swapping cars out could just pick the one model he wants and keep it for 3 years or whatever the duration is and save on the lease payments.
Such a service is definitely not for me. I crave stability. I love being able to jump into my car and knowing where my sunglasses are. I hate picking up a rental car and having to adjust the seat, fix the mirrors, pair my phone, etc. But as a one-car man, I could understand the appeal to certain people. You may need a pickup to move some stuff one weekend, a minivan to shuttle visiting guests around town, and a comfortable cruiser to take to work during the week. To try to find a single vehicle that does it all would necessitate making compromises in at least a few areas, so the flexibility of this service would be good for someone with frequently changing vehicle requirement situations.
While the service isn’t for me, I won’t get too bent-out-of-shape about it as long as regular leases and purchases remain available. It’ll just be another service that I opt not to use. Heck, if car dealers / manufacturers start making extra money off of people swapping out their subscription cars every other day, maybe that’ll open the door to a better deal on a regular car purchase (lol, yeah right).
An issue I see is that a lot of folks are going to get a wrangler, beat the shit out of it for a while and then switch back to a normal car or truck.
For sure! Rental cars are the most abused vehicles on the road, and what’s described is essentially a rental program. Who knows what sort of condition the vehicle will be in when you go to pick it up!
Volvo’s “Care by Volvo” subscription does indeed include insurance. The bad thing (from my POV) about that is that it’s a flat rate. So if you’ve got a great claims record, or an average claims record, or a kinda bad claims record, they charge you the same amount (they flat-out deny folks who they find uninsurable). So if you can find good insurance rates on your own, you’ll probably find the Care by Volvo price quite high compared to just leasing and finding your own insurance.
Another negative – I believe Volvo tried to launch Care by Volvo with the model that the cars would remain registered to Volvo (or a holding company or something), and the subscribers would just essentially be renters. Apparently various states didn’t like the idea of not having long-term drivers on the registration for the cars, so Volvo changed it so that Care by Volvo is simply a lease. It’s a lease with provisions for early return of the car, but it simply is a lease. This was really bad news for folks in states like Maryland that tax the entire value of a car as part of a lease transaction. That sales tax bullet is especially hard to swallow for short lease terms.
So yeah, it’s neat that companies are trying different subscription models but so far they often make terrible financial sense.
I think the idea of a car subscription is genius, and I will die on that hill. I do not see it as analogous to renting, and I very much doubt that the automakers do, either — and I would expect to see some limitations in the contracts to that effect.
For example, I would expect to keep my subscribed car for up to several years, but since I do not know what the future holds, what I want out of the service is the ability to quickly get out of the service. In other words, I turn in the car, sign one piece of paper (or screen), and walk away. No transactions to close, no residuals to calculate, I’m just done. As someone who likes driving a late-model, warranty-covered car, but is forever paranoid about my future earning capability, this is crucial. Or, perhaps a new model comes out that meets my needs much better; all I’d need to do is swap them out and go on my merry way.
When the Volvo subscriptions first came out, I priced them out versus a lease plus our exorbitant insurance rates in Southern California, and it was basically a wash. What I would wish for is a subscription service for the mainstream segment rather than luxury or near-luxury like Volvo.
Oh, and guess what ultimately stood in Volvo’s way — it wasn’t customers who balked at the price, but *dealers* (of course) who balked at the lost opportunity for gouging customers directly.
Yeah, I like the idea too, I’m just not sure if the numbers will work out for me. I personally like the idea of a service where you can swap cars often, especially from one make to another. As a dad who prefers small, sporty cars, I’d like to daily drive something like a GTI but have the option to swap into an F-150 if there’s an ongoing project on the house, or maybe even into an Odyssey if the in-laws are coming and it’d be convenient to be able to get everyone into one vehicle.
I’ve seen Drive Flow, which seems to be trying something like that in NC, but the prices are eye-watering: https://www.driveflow.com/pricing
Not related to anything in the article but no where else to put it. I am going to put a deposit down on a Maverick XL 2.0 today. (last day to do it if the articles are to be believed). What do you think the chances are I am able to get it for something close to MSRP when it comes in like a year from now? Deposit is refundable so I am fully prepared to walk, and looking at used prices right now has me kind of doubtful this goes through.
I’d say high, to absolutely. I ordered ours, got a written agreement to sell at dealer invoice, not even MSRP, and already have the order confirmation from Ford. No deposit.
Shop your dealers. If they don’t want to play, find another one.
Thanks, I’ve never ordered a car (and most of my car buying is in the 1k-2k range). I put in a request with another dealership as well, but I shouldn’t have waited so long if they really are going to stop taking orders today. C’est la vie I guess.
I know that sometimes when you reserve a rental car you end up getting something other than what you requested. The replacement is supposedly an upgrade. What happens when you reserve a gas vehicle and they try to substitute an electric? (Or vice-versa, but that doesn’t seem like quite as big of an issue.)
The first-gen Chevy Volt’s mid-cycle refresh was a banger. No styling changes, but this was one of those rare instances when a company looked at how people use their products and responded quickly. They up sized the battery, expanded the usable charge range without hurting battery reliability, and added a forced-ICE hold mode so you could use the full battery capacity once you reached EV-only urban zones.
Yes, this actually a very lame refresh, and yes, I’m just an energy nerd. Sorry.
Didn’t they also squeeze in a fifth, very small, seat that customers wanted on that refresh too?
What’s sad about the Stellanis idea is that a few years ago it would have been awesome.
Besides the Wrangler, Ram, and Pacifica they still have, imagine cycling through a Challenger, Fiata, Alfa 4C, Maserati GT, Trackhawk, and Viper!
Most of their interesting stuff is gone now.
I think the 2010 Fusion was a successful mid-cycle update. It took the car from a cheap looking Caddy knock off to something stylish and unique.
Stallantis is the car-company equivalent of a kickball team made up of all the kids who didn’t get picked to be on anybody else’s kickball team. Except for Jeep, which is the car-company equivalent of the kid who’s popular because his parents were big shots in town a couple generations ago but the family has kinda dissipated and sold everything off and now just owns the Dairy Queen.
COTD
They also have Henry Winkler in full Fonz regalia circa 1985 playing 3rd base (Charger Hellcat).
Every Stellantis brand had their glory days 1 to 3 generations ago.
Chef’s kiss.
Chip manufacturers have been pushing the one chip to rule the car for years now. The idea still hasn’t really caught on.
I’d only like the idea if they made a redundant system using TWO chips. So you’d have a failover in case the one went down, and you could just mail order to replace the failed one or schedule a repair at your convenience. I like the idea of reduced complexity, but I don’t like the idea of a single point of catastrophic failure. Make it redundant and that’d be a win for everyone.
That second chip will never save you from the most likely failure scenario though. Which is some executive rushing out an OTA update with an ad for Taco Bell in it.