I think its aimed at utility, and folks that care about simplicity and not gimmicks.

Currently I've moved myself out of the market. We were due for a new car, but side bar: For work travel I rent vehicles often* and get to see lots of makes and models and the enshitification that's happened. Especially with SaaS for using Navigation, and seat heaters, etc. But the phone home data gleaning that the company gather and sells is to me a violation of owning a product.

Dealerships want 180-220 per hour for repairs here.

So we found an early 2000s Toyota with an excellent service history, and downgraded our vehicle by 10 years. We then got an aftermarket touch display and replaced the ancient AMFM radio. So we now have Navigation and modern hands free experience.

Because it is a simpler car with mostly physical/mechanical connected parts I can do all repairs myself and control my private data.

• rant: one rental I booked an economy car, and they only had a new Mercedes available. They acted like it was an amazing upgrade. It was the shittiest vehicle I have driven in a long time.

Seats were hard and flat like a park bench (compared to a civic or Toyota seat that is cupped to your body).

On days when the temperature went below zero C the infotainment unit would boot loop and become unusable. When it came online hours later the nav was unavailable.

The driver assist algorithm that should detect a sleepy driver was messed up. Fully awake morning drives, with supersmooth pedal modulation and smoothest steering input into curves would trigger "take a coffee break" logo over the info center making it unusable.

Then a few days later the car said it couldn't recognize the key. And said place in the designated spot for reconnection with chip. I read the user manual instructions on it, but they left out where to place the key to be recognized. I had to YouTube it where somebody showed it was the passenger cupholder.

Thankfully this happened when car was unlocked. Had it been locked when key code was messed up I'd have been locked out since there wasn't a physical lock to open the car.

Like who wants all those problems?

Slate isnt using dealers, they are taking direct orders from their website. Default option is delivery to your nearest logistics center they can contract with, you can get it to your driveway for extra.

Bezos was one of a few large investors, but isn't the owner. I don't imagine they'll want to be associated with Amazon any closer than they already are.