Comment by dreamcompiler

> the car will not be bricked if you cut the antenna wires

They can't brick cars with bad antennas. They have to allow for cars that drive into tunnels or that are used in areas with no cell service.

They could choose to throw up increasingly annoying messages if the car hasn't phoned home for some time. Tesla does this if you haven't updated your software in a while but the screens are pretty easy to close and ignore.