It’s Probably Time To Start Worrying About the 4G LTE Shutdown Bricking Cars

There are about 500 million connected cars on the road around the world right now, and that number is expected to more than double by 2035.

A recent study tracking the pervasiveness of connected cars caught our eye and made us think of the 2022 3G shutdown that killed connected features for millions of cars.

We’ll be going through the same kind of phenomenon in the near future, except next time, it’ll affect far more cars, connected services, and consumers.

Many modern cars depend on some level of network connectivity for diagnostics, tracking, remote services, infotainment features, and other things.

A car with a 4G modem physically can’t connect to a 5G-only network, and firmware can’t turn a 4G radio into a 5G one.