Yes, otherwise it would be unusable by anyone living in a city, given that underground parking (esp multi-level one) tends to have no reception at all. Not even mentioning driving through countryside stretches on road trips.
The only things that won't work with no cell connection while you are in the car are things like spotify app in the car (but you can still use spotify through the car bluetooth connected to your phone, if you preloaded the songs on your phone) or being able to see live stats of the car in your phone app.
Yes. In-car WiFi should obviously work even if the network connection break (remember, we're talking about working without Internet, not disallowing Internet at all) - WiFi is a local wireless network protocol, not magic Internet summoner. With actual Internet connection down, it should still maintain the local network for connected devices.
As for the rest, none of those look like they should be first-party features. "Spotify on the car radio" is a third-party integration to a system that should also work off-line, e.g. for playing music off removable storage, casting from your phone (via WiFi, without Internet), or, you know, working as an actual radio. OEM maps with traffic is something hardly anyone wants anyway, because they universally suck relative to some TomTom screen, or even Google Maps.
Depending on your definition of "internet connected," I'd disagree with your first point. Most new cars come equipped with the hardware for a data-enabled cellular connection and many have been for years. While it's not a feature you necessarily see or know about, it's there. Presumably, the ones that are used by a service like OnStar are constantly polling in the background to get status updates for the account the vehicle is associated with.
But yes, to my knowledge, most (all?) operate fine without a cell signal.
I wouldnt expect any vehicle to only work from a network connection as a lot of people regularly live or park their car outside of cellular and wifi coverage, I guess thats why they say to take your keys/rfid card with you
My cars both have an app and full cellular connection (2020 and 2023 model years) and they can go two weeks without a risk of not starting. Haven't gone longer though.
What are modern cars like with regard to needing a data connection? My car (2012) just stored all the data from North America locally and that's been incredibly useful when driving without cell service. The Google way in other products seems to assume an internet connection is available, and offline performance is an afterthought.
Unlocking through the app requires server and phone cell signal. Phone (Blutooth) unlocking and key card unlocking do NOT require connectivity. That would be dumb, phone cell signal doesn't work everywhere.
Source: I have a Model 3, and frequently park in locations with 0 cell coverage.
Cars simply have bigger, more power antennas because they don't have to be packaged in a phone.
One of our cars has a wireless modem that can be used for a hotspot. I've driven to plenty of areas where my phone has no service (think remote and hilly terrain), but the car still has two or three bars.
What about sitting your own baseband station atop the vehicle's cell device?
Is there a power at which you can broadcast such that nothing outside the car can detect it but the vehicle's cell device still registers it as the closest "tower" and therefore connects to it?
Then you could build your own little in-vehicle pihole and man-in-the-middle your way to an ad-free commute.
The only things that won't work with no cell connection while you are in the car are things like spotify app in the car (but you can still use spotify through the car bluetooth connected to your phone, if you preloaded the songs on your phone) or being able to see live stats of the car in your phone app.
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