A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

As a car audio enthusiast, the biggest obstacle to putting a system into a new high-tech car is bypassing the deeply-embedded infotainment system while retaining decent aesthetics and steering wheel controls. The idea of getting an electric drivetrain and new-car safety with a 90's-style blank canvas for audio is amazing.

I hope that the noise isolation and intended speaker mounting locations are good!

feature, not a bug, they want you to buy their $4000 BOSE upgrade which is actually $500 of equipment.

Do you have any proof or even a hint of a reason that this will be the case? Or is this just nonsense?

Their FAQs even state: > Built-in infotainment systems raise a car’s price, and they become outdated quickly and have high failure rates.

It seems unlikely that a company saying this will throw in a $4,000 infotainment system in a $20,000 vehicle.

I read this as the parent complaining about other car manufacturers selling you crappy default stereos so that you'll upgrade, not that Slate is excluding a stereo on this truck to upsell you.

In fact, I would be rather surprised if you could buy $4,000 worth of stereo equipment for this car, given their promo materials seem to include a $100 bluetooth speaker below an iPhone.

The parent comment was about the general trend for car manufacturers to do this, not the manufacturer in question.