Unless it's for SMTP only, it's probably a back end sever to some other front facing box, or service, that has IP addresses whitelisted for email.
I'm pretty sure I read one of his comments elsewhere talking about tunneling everything over SSH, so I assume that's what he meant, but I could be mistaken.
Regardless, using an EOL distro as an internet facing SSH server that's 8 years behind on SSH updates, is probably a bad idea.
No, because the barrier to entry for car manufacturing is significant.
If the other major car manufacturers weren't already working a similar advertising system/platform, they've already scheduled multiple meetings to catch up.
This isn't a problem that will be solved by the market and competition, only by regulation.
And I don't consider tech savvy users learning how to hack and disable these features as a resolution, it's just mitigation.