Cars probably have multiple bootloaders even. Surely there are at least two, one for the ECU and one for the infotainment system. Perhaps there are even more depending on how complex components like parking cameras etc. are.
That came after the decisions to reduce both costs and tailpipe emissions - both obvious worthy goals. Is the implementation that is flawed, not the idea.
Computer controlled cars are obviously good. They have improved reliability, drivability and safety by enormous margins. Getting rid of them is like demanding back analog planes, because of the Boeing max crashes.
I think if you compare a modern car with an ECU to a "traditional" car with manual ignition / carburetion system you will find that the modern one outperforms significantly on both power and fuel efficiency.
We could, but we shouldn't, because most software is crap. When the user is stuck with whatever software they got as a consequence of buying the machine they actually wanted, there's no incentive for the software not to be crap.
That doesn't even make sense in light of this article. The user isn't stuck with the original software at all... instead, due to an OTA update, they're stuck in the road.
