The new artificial boundaries are only recreating the natural boundaries from before. If you wanted to boost your fuel/air ratio in 1965 you had to open your hood and take apart your carburetor, that keeps most people out of it.
Now we're talking about downloading iPhone apps that promise 10% more speed and the only technical challenge is aligning your car's USB plug with your phone. And then hitting the big green button labeled "GO FASTER!"
> Now we're talking about downloading iPhone apps that promise 10% more speed
That doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of. Many manufacturers require expensive subscriptions to access service manuals and programming software.[1] The average person (and even a lot of small-time mechanics) doesn't have access to those resources.
You haven't heard of it because it's too stupid and dangerous to allow to happen. But it's a natural consequence of car ownership including read-write access to its computers.
Many cars have had externally reprogrammable ECUs since the mid 1990s (with lots being fully reverse engineered), but yet tuning is still relatively esoteric and generally very expensive.
What do you think has changed / will change that will lead to an onslaught of dangerous amateur tuning by phone? The technology to do so has existed for years.
It exists in other motor vehicles. My last roommate had a quad where he would tune the ECU with software on his laptop depending on where he was riding and what parts he had installed.
Falling barriers. Like you say, tuning is currently very expensive. The financial and technical costs act as an idiot filter (forgive my negativity.) Those barriers are falling so we're left with artificial costs i.e. legal penalties and intentional code obfuscation.
Now we're talking about downloading iPhone apps that promise 10% more speed and the only technical challenge is aligning your car's USB plug with your phone. And then hitting the big green button labeled "GO FASTER!"