Would all of the talk of fully networked cars be attracting so much investment, I wonder, if there wasn’t money to be made out of it?

Cars that talk to each other, sharing information on hazards or accidents on the road ahead, sound like a very virtuous thing; much as they often irritate the hell out of road testers like me, and many who loathe distractions while at the wheel. The point is, if the technology in question has cost money to develop and fit, and it’s not counting towards a better crash test score or compliance with some new safety standard, it’s got to pay its way somehow.

Premium brands are already charging a monthly subscription in order to activate certain ‘built-in’ functions, as we know. But I’m not sure they can go much further than they are already, with pretty peripheral convenience features deliverable that way. I can’t see it going as far as “add another 200 horsepower for £200 a month. Or four-wheel drive. Or an extra airbag. Just click here.” Because that’s a layer or potentially dormant weight, cost and complexity that the car industry just doesn’t have the margin for; and that also couldn’t be hidden from someone like me, or a vaguely interested driver, in order to sustain the illusion.

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BMW made headlines by making features such as adaptive cruise control, remote parking, and automatic high-beam headlights available via a monthly payment - potentially to drivers who didn’t know the necessary hardware had already been built into their cars - in 2022. In some cases apparently, even features like adaptively damped suspension could - and can still - be added. For all I know, Autocar may already have tested a few new BMWs with adaptive suspension, when the specification sheet said differently.

To me, that’s probably a stretch too far. Because how would you feel if the car you’d been driving for several years could have actually been functioning better - riding and handling with greater comfort and precision, ostensibly - if only you’d known to remotely activate a line of software code? Deceived? Diddled, even? Would you buy something different next time around? It’s highly likely, isn’t it - no matter how you feel about the car itself.

Twenty years ago, I remember being amused to discover that you could add cruise control - the old-school manual kind that needed no external body sensors, and simply the push of a button on the end of an indicator stalk to set - to plenty of contemporary Vauxhalls simply by ordering a replacement indicator column stalk (or finding one in the local scrapyard). With relatively simple systems like that, and cars built in huge numbers, it makes obvious sense to have one electrical specification, and deliver the option with the component part. It’s hardly building in unnecessary weight or cost per car.