See, the infotainment system might be a very noncritical component of a car, but even a tiny thing like that software update makes me more likely to pick a Ford over another Chevrolet next time I buy a car.
I get that it's not realistic to add Carplay to an older vehicle in most cases. Fine. But adding Siri Eyes Free--which basically should be just a minor software tweak to one button that makes it much easier and safer (and, in California, legal) to activate Siri--is a no-brainer. Yet it's not going to happen even on a 2013 Chevrolet (I don't think 2014 or 2015 either, depending on the model). What's up with that?
More generally, you could sort of defend post-sale neglect in the era before infotainment systems were such an important part of navigation and time spent in the vehicle, and even then they were ususally DIN standard so you could swap it out if you didn't like the features. But now that they're so tightly integrated that you basically are stuck with what the car shipped with forever, it's somewhere between maddening and insulting that there is no desire whatsoever to update the software by most manufacturers.
I mean, seriously, I had a better infotainment experience with my previous, 12-year-old vehicle with a $200 aftermarket add-on than I will ever have, regardless of what I spend, in my 4-year-old vehicle with the "deluxe" infotainment package.
It's like buying a computer that the OS will never see an update for, and it's attached to a $40,000 piece of hardware that will still be in service and working fine in 10 years.
It's really kind of unconscionable. Either keep the software up to date or provide a mechanism for upgrading the stereo without replacing the whole damn car.
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