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Comment by windowsrookie | Hacker News Reader

In the United States backup cameras, tire pressure monitors, and electronic stability control are required by law.

So out of your list that leaves..

GPS (already optional on most cars) Ass warmers (already optional on most cars) Telemetry (this could be removed from models that have it, not all cars sold today have telemetry) USB chargers (really don't think USB chargers are causing a production shortage at this moment) Proximity Sensors (already optional on budget cars) Keyless entry (could be removed, I doubt many people would buy a new car without keyless entry tho) Remote climate control (already optional on budget cars)

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I tried to buy a car without AC, but as it turns out that’s almost impossible. They had never imported that model without AC and the waiting time was pretty long, because they where not really built in large numbers.

The models without AC mostly exist so they can produce ads saying “available from less than X“

What's the point of buying a car without A/C? You might save $1000 now, but you'll lose several thousand at trade-in time because no one else will want your car.

No parasitic power losses and it's one less system that needs to be maintained.

AC is used for windshield defrost. I remember waiting for heat to defrost the windshield so I could see. AC defrost works in 10 sec.

The power loss from an AC compressor with the clutch disengaged is negligible.

Modern AC also use variable displacement compressors which adjust load according to temperature, so once the cabin is cool they use a constant small amount of engine power rather than toggling to full power on and off like older designs.

For driving indoors.

I'm trying to think of a case where regular passenger cars are driven in climate-controlled indoor settings, and I'm not having much success. What do you have in mind?

Teslas in the Las Vegas hyper loop.

Even those are going to be taken out of service and sold into the used market at some point. When that happens, trying to sell a car without A/C in the Las Vegas area is going to be about as successful as trying to sell a swift kick in the gonads.

That depend on your country. I would save closer to $2500 on the budget model. Other than that you are completely right.

What's the point of keyless entry? Mine comes with key, and yhe auxiliary immobilizer which will not let it drive without radio tag or typing in PIN.

Ease of use. I would love if I could just leave key in my pocket and not worry about opening doors or putting it in ignition. I could even connect it to my keychain.

I wonder if nobody did ssh+nfc keys yet. At least I could trust it.

SSH+NFC sound like horrible protocol choice for such token.

Not that I would be against option to periodically rekey the whole system. Generate new pair of private keys and have the car and key swap them with my approval.

You don't need to ever rekey an SSH private-public key pair. Still, a single hands-free token can be taken by force or stolen.

So can car key... I don't really have a car and probably never will were I truly worried that it was essentially single factor authentication.

But the car key + separate wireless immobilizer token is 2FA and it makes me somewhat confident.

WRT keyless entry, I actually have figured it out. Central wireless lock is cool. It's keyless start that I'm opposed to.

And how often you keep those separate and operate the car? Can you even safely store one in safe place and still use the car? Or is there more factors. Which then increases the potential failure cases. And I prefer really not to involve anything like pin codes, fingerprints, facial recognition needed for me to drive my own car.

Fingerprints and facial recognition is circus, but physical token is a real thing, and I do keep it separate from my car keys

The security of key fobs is not a great concern when the windows can still be smashed.

Key fob allow you to start the car engine, it should be a concern

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