If Tesla's longterm business strategy is to build a fleet of autonomous cars that operate in fractional ownership/lease models, of course it makes sense to build a car that has a <10 year product life cycle. They can iterate quickly, release new versions, and not have legacy hardware on the market. If they use a buyback program similar to Apple's it might make sense for their particular demos.
Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see what the Model 3 has for a warranty, considering it's targeting a much broader market than the Model S/X.
Hardware is not software. The environmental cost alone of building a new car is outrageous.
In addition to which, the SV2.0 "iterate quickly" ideal turns consumers into guinea pigs for half-baked and half-broken products that will just be updated out from under them.
And yet Apple produces a new $500+ phone every single year, intentionally leaving behind customers who are still using hardware more than 3 years old. I would say that the software iteration business model is making inroads into the hardware market as well, including in the automotive space. The solution to your guinea pigs point is a lease model, in which customers get a new car every two years to stay on top of developments. Or when autonomous cars are available, don't own a car at all - outsource all the hardware upgrades and maintenance to the manufacturer and pay for the service of getting from point A to point B when you need it (ala Uber).
What you're proposing isn't a good thing. It's an ugly, environmentally unfriendly, anti-consumer model.
How many people are debt-financing their $800+ iPhone? How much value is that extracting from people, and what are the opportunity costs for them?
What's the environmental impact of phones becoming nothing more than expensive bricks after 2-3 years due to lack of vendor support, coupled platform DRM that prevents re-use?
What happens when market choices disappear along with the very concept of ownership?
This dystopian ideal of inescapable corporatism may be a commercially viable, but it's not remotely ethical.
> phones becoming nothing more than expensive bricks after 2-3 years due to lack of vendor support, coupled platform DRM that prevents re-use?
I have repurposed my old Samsung android phones around the house as displays on the walls. They all have the net connection shut down and I use the wifi. They all work great and I see no reason they won't work until the hardware dies.
I know this is only one data point. Can someone describe how other models of phones can become bricks?
Edit: People less weird than me can still use the phones like tablets are used without a radio connection.
Ah, I understand what you are saying now. Technically, not being able to install new software isn't bricked since you can still run the old. I only run the browser on my old phones so I didn't notice this.
Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see what the Model 3 has for a warranty, considering it's targeting a much broader market than the Model S/X.