Not only certified (e.g. ASIL*) but long term availability.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_Safety_Integrity_Le...

Which neatly explains why STM32 microcontrollers are in such high demand -- most of their microcontroller portfolio has a longevity commitment of at least 10 years.

https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/quality-and-relia...

Espressif also commits to 8 years exactly because they want to capture lazy manufacturers.

>"Espressif also commits to 8 years exactly because they want to capture lazy manufacturers."

It's not about laziness, it's about certainty, certifications, and saving money on unnecessary redevelopment and testing. If each of the ICs on your board gets discontinued every two years, and you have 20 ICs on your board, it means that you will have to go through redesign and re-testing as often as you buy components, even if you're doing ten batches a year.

I don't think so because there's rarely a drop in replacement unless you designed your board ahead of time for multiple options (of course exceptions exist, there's drop in replacements for many devices including the esp8266 I mention below).

But for example, an ESP8266 hasn't really lost much value in the past few years, and is unlikely to lose significant value if it sat on a shelf for another few years, so they don't mind a bit of an overstock.

Meanwhile the current year car model will lose a ton of it's value when the next model comes out so they don't want to risk over-stocking it.

If you've got a low-chip-count product and an agile business structure, when Chip A is unavailable you can respond by redesigning your PCB to use Chip B.

But if you've got loads of chips on different boards from different suppliers, a structure suitable for a large business, lengthy supply chains, complex certification requirements, and you can't afford to pay much more? Well, that's going to make things quite a bit more difficult :)