zlacker

> It's extraordinary that we're only 15ish years from the first smartphone release and we've already reached the "boring" incremental improvement phase for these tiny pocket supercomputers.

I think people are not yet ready to accept the exact same thing is about to happen to cars. Some company will have a perfectly usable electric self-driving vehicle and will produce tens of millions of them a year. They will be an appliance, like your toaster, and nobody will care anymore.

I'm sure it will happen to other things in our lives too.

>>grecy+(OP)
People have been saying self driving cars are just around the corner for a decade or so now.

I do believe the future you outline will happen but IMO the timeline is very far from clear. Significant challenges remain for self driving cars.

>>grecy+(OP)
We're quite a ways off from full self driving cars and it's not clear that we'll ever get there. By that I mean you can drive anywhere you want while taking a nap. Car companies will still be working on improving limited self driving / enhanced cruise control for the foreseeable future which leaves plenty of room for differentiation.

>>grecy+(OP)
It's already like this for ICE cars in the UK. So many people buy them on PCP deals and upgrade them every 3 to 4 years. It's pretty much a meme at this point about a certain kind of person:

https://youtu.be/J9n0_5p8XKo?si=dGwvSYAb676TVMEI