Cars are ubiquitous. They are everywhere. We all relate to them without thinking. Cars run on batteries. Even IC runs various systems using battery power when parked. But do cars have an off switch? To turn them truly off, such as when storing for a long period, the procedure is take a wrench and physically disconnect the 12v battery. So I disagree with the author. At least some battery-powered products are doing perfectly well without off switches.
Other IC vehicles, notably aircraft, do have true off switches that fully shut electrical power at the source. So it isn't anything inherent to IC technology. Consumers have spoken: some things do not need off switches.
My car's entertainment system is stuck in a crash loop 24/7. It is slowly draining the battery, to the point where I worry my car won't start if it has been off for more than a week or two.
And I don't agree that "consumers have spoken". Consumers don't design cars; their feedback loop is long, lossy, and easily ignored. Profitability drives car design, not what consumers want.
I have a Ford that sometimes has a similar problem: a freeze/crash in the entertainment system makes it partially unresponsive (so it can be stuck playing whatever it was playing at whatever volume it was at) and it will just eat the battery in no time. The solution is to pull the fuse to restart the thing.
There's a big Microsoft logo badge right on the center console letting me know who to thank for that.
Cars are ubiquitous. They are everywhere. We all relate to them without thinking. Cars run on batteries. Even IC runs various systems using battery power when parked. But do cars have an off switch? To turn them truly off, such as when storing for a long period, the procedure is take a wrench and physically disconnect the 12v battery. So I disagree with the author. At least some battery-powered products are doing perfectly well without off switches.
Other IC vehicles, notably aircraft, do have true off switches that fully shut electrical power at the source. So it isn't anything inherent to IC technology. Consumers have spoken: some things do not need off switches.