The classic auto industry and the ecosystem were formed around the current rules and changing them is hard. But when reinventing the car (electrifying for example) it's an opportunity to start over.

To take an example from the IT world, PCs and their OSes stayed so open because that's how they evolved when the industry first appeared. But phones and tablets offered the opportunity to lock down everything.

So I'd say that the future path of the connected smart car is closer to that of phones today.

Oh, I am sure there are people working on it.

But I think you may be onto something. Tesla is setting a bad example for other car makers. They can point to it and say, why can they do it and we can't?

Brief jump into the future. I get to see my new BMW default skin package expire and car turn dull grey, lights losing its exclusive green sheen, and warmed leather seats fold in to be replaced by, the horror, standard seats with warmers firmly shut off. They may as well brand me cheap.