What about navigation, should it be updated forever by the manufacturer? Should Lexus provide updated maps for 30yo cars?
That’s data vs function, navigation will still function it might just not know of some changes to roads or be missing/have inaccurate POIs but the functionality will still be there. Yeah it’s fine to charge for data updates since they aren’t part of the core functionality.
What about satellite radio? A lot of new cars come with free trial subscriptions that expire after a year or two.
That’s a subscription service by definition, manufacturer put hardware in the car but it requires subscription to use. No different from having to fill up my car with gas if I want to keep driving it.
As opposed to say Ford remotely turning off 2 cylinders and saying “well you didn’t pay for the V8 upgrade”
To my knowledge Tesla's autopilot is not a subscription service, all the processing is done on board by the car's computer without a requirement to phone home.
This is an especially interesting topic as cars are becoming more and more computerized. If my computer and my phone need software upgrades, then cars will too sooner or later. Yet, Microsoft doesn't support XP anymore..
You are muddying up things here a little bit. MS is a software company and as such they can’t keep supporting older software for a long time as they have to focus on newer software. Even then XP didn’t run out of support for way longer than one would expect. Longer than average car stays on the road really.
There is also the fact that when your main product is software you have to make changes and updates on a semi-constant basis simply to not be left in the dust by your completion (Google Maps vs Apple Maps come to mind)
Hardware and embedded systems are a little different in that regard, there aren’t too many changes needed to the firmware that runs on them and there is a value in long term as that can be seen as a value to your customer. Ford had an update for the ancient Sync in my car just last year.