Only technology backed electric cars fail after a couple of years.
When a car manufacturer releases a new car to the market, they need to do a lot of research and development to ensure that new product lasts at least 5 years or so as they need to provide a 5-year factory warranty (sometimes the 3rd, 4th and 5th year is backed by an insurance provider.
Now, with a technology company like SONY, Google, Apple, Samsung and even Huawei, the warranty on their products and services (hardware and software) is just one (1) year and then it’s a consumer nail-biting experience for the following years as the consumer wonders if their high-tech product will continue to work or perform as promised.
Now, in the past few years we have seen many new electric car brands entering the automotive segment with very fast concepts to production timelines. These new electric cars are equipped with screens, tablets, touch panels and more that drivers ‘swipe’, touch and press day in and day out whilst under direct sunlight, on rough roads and in quite harsh conditions.
These items are provided by technology (IT) companies that specialize in software and also companies producing ‘smart’ items like phones, tablets and computers.
Working with just a few partners (battery, motor and so on) these new Electric Car ‘players’ are able to bring to market an electric vehicle with smart software and feature filled ‘screens’ to manage battery use and ‘entertain’ drivers.
However, these ‘sleek’ and technology filled new electric cars are seeing reliability issues after 2 years or so on the road. Looking closer at this issue it seems quite clear why these cars are not surviving well on the road.
The rush to get new electric cars to market as consumers’ tastes change have created dozens of new automotive brands, mostly from China where the adoption of electric cars has been the fastest in the world.
These high technology companies have been working in a business model where their products and services have always been given just a one (1) year warranty. These products have warranty conditions that advise ‘not to be used during sunlight’, please use in a dry environment, do not operate in harsh conditions and more.
Interestingly, when adapted to a moving vehicle (electric car) the tablet, screens, and more are subjected to sunlight, driving conditions, many hands operating it and more.
IT is quite obvious that not enough research and development has been done to look into the harsher use of these technology products in a moving vehicle which needs to have at least a 5–year warranty.
Not enough has been done to ensure these new products have the lifespan (more than 12 months) to handle the use by drivers and their passengers.
So, now you know why your car tablet screen ‘hangs’ or the ‘voice command’ is not working like when it was new.
