What is really going on, is the improvements in the mechanical design are just not as flashy.

GDI on the other hand has basically taken over; I doubt there's any new gasoline car sold without it now.

Hybrids haven't been doing well, outside of the Prius. EVs are getting more adoption now than hybrids. The problem with hybrids is the cost: you have a gas engine plus a big battery pack and motor, basically two powertrains in one vehicle.

Turbos however have become very, very common as everyone is downsizing engines and using turbos to get more power, while improving fuel economy.

Sluggish, puddy garbage of an experience compared to pure joy I can experience with my own.

I would say improvements were done to make things more cost-effective to increase margins, but not necessarily better cars per se.

Other things are with furniture I obtained with an older apartment - amazingly well built, can still hold together well after 50+ years. It was not luxurious back then, but would be definitely be luxurious now.

2. Compare apples to apples. How does a new BMW 3-Series compare to your 15 year old one? My guess is, it probably compares favorably.

In a new 3-Series you can turn the steering wheel with your index finger, there is no manual transmission, you hear fake engine noise. The 15 year old car offers a completely different driving experience and he might prefer it over the bland, comfortable new car.

See those slim runflats? Runflats save space in the trunk for the spare, and them being slim means they are hard. So in order for the ride to be softer, the axle suspension changed, and much softer silentblocks are being used. The result is, that your drive doesn't feel like your car is sitting on rails, like E90 or E46 did, instead it is muddy and jelly.

Another disaster is the start-stop system. When warm, the needles in starter can break. Meaning, that you just went down from highway to the petrol station, refuelled, and you cannot start anymore. You are stuck there on the station.

But hey, those LED angel eyes look much cooler.

They didn't use electric steering thankfully. It went downhill starting E9x though, the materials used inside wear much quicker, the suspension and road feel is somehow less than E46 and the chasing of weight savings but increasing comfort through electronics and servos means the car is heavy still but you no longer get that satisfying door or bonnet thump like you did in E39/E38/E46, which were pinnacle of BMWs engineering IMO. Cabin noise insulation is also less than pre 2005, I assume because of weight savings. The post 2005 cars are so complicated that non-enthusiast ownership is most likely a bad experience.

/335xi N54 owner

Go back to a BMW of 1990, and it's not that much different from a new car today. Fuel injection, air bags, ABS. Internal combustion engine, exhaust, radiator, transmission. etc. etc.

Heck, even back then it was perfectly normal for a car to get better than 10L/100km (23.5mpg)

There have been incremental improvements for sure, but in all honesty it's the same thing, just tweaked a little.

A 1990 BMW 3 Series got 18 miles a gallon and a 2019 BMW 3 series gets 30 combined. 1990 had a 5 speed and the new one has an 8 speed.[1] The power and efficiency of ICEs are night and day vs the 90s.

You could literally same the same thing about anything and it would be a huge generalization.

“It’s just a CPU/RAM/Disk/Nic with a monitor and keyboard. We had those in 1980s and it’s only incremental every since.”

[1]https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=41157&...

There aren't many noticeable improvements in cars from one year to the next, but over the span of a full model change, you usually get fairly significant improvements in safety, fuel efficiency per horsepower, and in-cabin features.

Also note that we haven't reached maximum ICE performance yet, either. For example, Mazda is soon to release their Skyactiv-X engine, which is a sort of hybrid spark and compression ignition system with a large fuel efficiency increase over traditional engines.

Then try doing the same with a 1990 BMW. Unless you are being deliberately obtuse you will miss the driver aids etc., as they make the whole experience so much easier. Old cars are simply nowhere near the latest cars for safety, comfort, ease of use etc.

If we look at power alone even though EPA regulations have only gotten stricter during the same time frame if we look at the same model of car (Ford Mustang GT) we see that it has gone from 310 HP [1] to 460 HP [2] in 10 years. The same power that was delivered by the V8 which powered the Mustangs that my friends and I pined over in High School (ca. 2004) is now delivered by a compact I4 turbocharged engine which also delivers 25 MPG [3].

[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15147979/2009-ford-mus... [2] https://www.caranddriver.com/ford/mustang [3] https://www.edmunds.com/ford/mustang/2019/mpg/#style=4017572...

>Most car companies only have a handful of 'platforms' on which they build various models.

Yeah and VW just spent years creating a completely new platform for EVs. Everyone else is going to need to do that in the next decade or so as well.

> [Teslas] electric drivetrain is at point where there is more for them to gain in software than improvement of the hardware.

Tesla are continuously coming up with hardware changes. Models S and X moved to a completely new 'Raven' drivetrain just back in April.

Alongside that, they do try and find software fixes to improve the existing fleet, which I guess is what you're thinking about.

I would be scared if a software engineer would make the OS to confirm that I want to brake

edit: mainly I was thinking of Tesla here. obv there are exceptions

The Infiniti Q50 has been steer-by-wire since 2014[1], and hybrids like the Toyota Prius have been brake-by-wire since 2010.[2]

[1]: https://gizmodo.com/what-its-like-to-drive-infinitis-crazy-d... [2]: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/25563/the-audi-e-tron-brings-g...

The Infiniti Q50 has it, its steering wheel is not mechanically attached to the wheels.

Tesla is working on a new drivetrain for the Model S, Model X, and the Roadster 2:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/11/elon-musk-promises-to-take...

Consider not linking to TechCrunch directly, because they make it virtually impossible to opt out of data collection.

Saying it is slowing down was a mistake and I definitely stepped on many toes by doing so.

Even when people say “XYZ is approaching the laws of physics for how good it can get” they often turn out wrong, like with solar panels there are several theoretical limits which have been shattered by using multi-layer approaches and mirrored or stacked panels, or ways to excite 2 electrons from one photon, that ultimately push the technology forward in one dimension or another.

All I’m saying is, you’re in very good company.

Besides the core quality and variety of the scents, technology to prevent wick flare-ups, technology to alter burn rates, more economical mixtures of the wax, better composition of the jar to support cheaper shipping and less breakage.

That’s not even to mention all the new competition to the venerable candle; non-burning LED candles, plug-in oil dispensers, time release mechanisms, vaporizers, etc.

edit: its a misjudgement about the stagnation of technology. How about "mistagnatechment"?

Ah man, I've been and done a mistagnatechment!

The fact that Apple shut down its car division suggests there may have been some issues going the other way.

I wish they’d have moved towards standardizing APIs and “controllers” throughout the automotive world and just encouraged after-market infotainment systems to fill the functionality gap. I just really don’t like that Infotainment ends up having to be a complicating factor in buying a car. It’s hard enough to pick one out that ticks all the functional boxes and feels nice to drive. But then suddenly you get cars that feel great, but neglected the interface design or had a slow UI and suddenly they’ve ruined it.

Here's a standard climate control API, which doesn't touch the ecu stack.

And here's some mixins/ flexible RPCs so vendors can add custom functionality.

Alas, this limits vendor lock in, so that's precisely why I think it's unlikely to happen.

And I suspect that some ICE engines in use are still variants of pre war designs the Chevy Small Block v8 is a little newer starting mid 1950's

Perhaps, but I'm not sure how relevant that is. The only pieces that remain somewhat as they were would be the block, crank, and rods.

Overhead cams, variable valve timing, aluminum heads/blocks, electronic ignition, fuel injection, ECU, etc...are all newish.

If some other design (rotary engines, for example) were better and made economic sense, they would have likely won out.

...and not used since 2003. Honestly, it's probably best to view an engine family like this as a form factor, not a design. It isn't like there were any 1955 parts in a 2000 engine, but the interconnects are (mostly) the same. Generally, any 90 degree V8 with a cam in the block is going to be the 'same', designers have pretty much standardized on just a few layouts.

An invariant SBC is like saying disk drives haven't evolved if they use the same mounting points and cabling/logic standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volvo_engines

I thought they only produced the 2.0L 4 cylinder petrol in various configurations (turbo size, hybrid, non-hybrid). As it turns out they now also have a 3 cylinder engine.

Yes they have 4 wheels, wind screen, engine, but reliability is massively different, power is massively different, comfort, crash safety, price (for what you get).

Guess true variable valve timing and electrical turbo's and are no innovations?