Are You Sure You Want a Car With a Giant Touch Screen?
RAMageddon could soon push car prices higher as modern vehicles rely on ever more RAM and powerful centralized computers to run everything from infotainment to driver-assistance systems. Analysts cited by The Atlantic estimate the shortage could add a few percentage points to vehicle prices, which might not sound like much, but could potentially translate to around $2,000 on a $50,000 vehicle.…
The rising demand for RAM in vehicles could soon lead to higher car prices, according to analysts. Cars now require significant amounts of computer memory to run infotainment and driver-assistance systems, similar to how laptops and smartphones rely on microprocessors and RAM. While a 4% increase in vehicle prices might not seem substantial, it could amount to around $2,000 on a $50,000 vehicle.
The shortage of RAM and other specialized computer chips is a result of the growing demand from AI companies for data center memory. This shortage is expected to last for several years and will likely push car prices upward by a few percentage points on average. Automakers such as Ford, General Motors, and Volkswagen have already noted rising chip costs, with Ford alone paying $1 billion in higher materials costs due to the shortage.
The memory scarcity may make used cars even less affordable, as it becomes increasingly expensive to produce and maintain vehicles. The average price of new cars in the U.S. has already reached nearly $50,000, and if the RAM shortage continues, they could climb to $60,000 or higher.
Written by urgent.news from Slashdot's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
