This puts things in perspective, I appreciate that. However, Ford (and others) seem to already tie their cars to one or another type of transient tech. Like the above-mentioned Inrix for maps, or my Pioneer stereo phoning home to some unidentified service to get the traffic. Is Inrix going to be around longer than Google or the 3.5mm jack? I'd rather automakers provided something like a simple, reliable smartphone docking station, with speakers, mics (don't skimp on those like Ford does), and maybe some kind of a display integration, and leave the UI and the smarts to the fast-moving mobile market. But they seem to prefer to force-feed you those crappy, sometimes insanely overpriced systems and web services that still don't seem likely to outlive Google or the car itself.