on one of the IASIP podcasts Glen Howerton who plays Denis on IASIP tells his story on how he got his Tesla stuck in a parking garage, because there was no signal there, so he couldn't use his phone to open it, then called a tow truck after buddying up to the parking garage attendant, but that they couldn't do it, because the size of the tow truck to lift the heavy tesla couldn't fit into the garage.
it also inspired an episode in the latest season, brilliant stuff, how stupid it is.
I will def. have the last laugh: with no electricity (because remember, apocalypse), owners will starve or suffocate as they can't even open their doors DAYS before i die of radiation induced cancer, laughing
Not to mention for civilization to collapse a hell of a lot of people have to die; which probably means environmental collapse; which means the oceans are dying; which in turn means there's no oxygen being produced because the keystone species (phytoplankton, algae, etc) are mostly dead or switching to toxic modes of energy production. This means that everyone is dying, no matter if they have an ugly DRM controlled polywagon or not.
Past civilisations weren't even close to industrialised, nor did they span the entire globe. The closest was the Roman Empire of course, and they just sort of faded away over the course of a few thousand years if you count Justinian's Byzantine Empire as a direct continuation.
Our present situation is much more dire, with global consequences for reasons you are likely already aware.
I remember the power in the eastern half of my state being knocked out because of an ice storm. I remember that a lot of gas stations were closed, because the pumps run on electricity.