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Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

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Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#91

Post by nkrisc »

triceratops wrote: post #82
nkrisc wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having used a car for many years, I suppose these things are nicer than not having them, but they also sound like the kind of features I’d come up with if you said to me, “we already developed an app for our latest car model. What should it do?”

They're nice to haves for ICE vehicles. Pre-heating an EV cabin before departing, when the car is plugged in, increases range by a lot. Turning charging on and off via lets you take advantage of low electricity rates.

Ok, that makes a bit more sense, especially since I have not owned an EV.

> Pre-heating an EV cabin before departing

Cars have been doing this for a years now with a keyfob. But I suppose over network/cell gives you greater range.

> Turning charging on and off via lets you take advantage of low electricity rates.

I would have thought that'd be a feature of the charger, not the car, but not an EV owner so maybe I'm just wrong here. That does make more sense for an app, but also sounds like a feature that could work fine without one too.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#92

Post by triceratops »

nkrisc wrote: post #91
triceratops wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're nice to haves for ICE vehicles. Pre-heating an EV cabin before departing, when the car is plugged in, increases range by a lot. Turning charging on and off via lets you take advantage of low electricity rates.

Ok, that makes a bit more sense, especially since I have not owned an EV. > Pre-heating an EV cabin before departing Cars have been doing this for a years now with a keyfob. But I suppose over network/cell gives you greater range. > Turning charging on and off via lets you take advantage of low electricity rates. I would have thought that'd be a feature of the charger, not the car, but not an EV owner so maybe I'm ju…

> But I suppose over network/cell gives you greater range.

Useful if you're charging in the parking lot at your work, or at a mall or whatever.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#93

Post by xp84 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #75
smokel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're afraid someone else might create something of value, in part using their API, without them getting their own beaks wet in the process. In most cases it's not about profit, but about having to invest serious amounts of effort to please one or two hackers, who will then DoS your API as soon as you've made a mistake.

Indeed. The day to day compliance work will be very expensive, and in addition you would need to put a lot of money aside in case of a security flaw.

This is the kind of thing that they frequently hand-wavingly claim, however, 'compliance'? I'm not aware of any US garage door regulatory body.

These same companies have you click through 1000 pages of legalese (that thoroughly covers their butts) in order to use their own apps, which are probably more likely to be compromised than a public API, so I don't know why that would come with more liability.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#94

Post by xp84 »

smokel wrote: post #37
xp84 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still not sure why on Earth car manufacturers Like all similar "why don't they have at least a self/community-supported open basic API" questions, the answer is usually the same: They're afraid someone else might create something of value, in part using their API, without them getting their own beaks wet in the process. If you want to integrate with a Nissan Leaf, even if all you wanted were the most harmless read-…

> They're afraid someone else might create something of value, in part using their API, without them getting their own beaks wet in the process. In most cases it's not about profit, but about having to invest serious amounts of effort to please one or two hackers, who will then DoS your API as soon as you've made a mistake.

Well, that certainly is the disingenuous corporate line. But the 'hackers' required nothing of Chamberlain -- what they built was already working, until they played a cat-and-mouse game to block them until the maintainer gave up. There are hundreds of companies that do support Home Assistant integrations or at least let them exist, and maintainers are always eager to fix any issue that comes up.

It's really not a dichotomy between aggressively blocking users from having any control over their own home, vs. some kind of imaginary concierge red carpet public API service that hijacks the company's product roadmap. The open source community will basically do 100% of the work for any firm which doesn't opt to actively sabotage.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#95

Post by xp84 »

mook wrote: post #40
xp84 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still not sure why on Earth car manufacturers Like all similar "why don't they have at least a self/community-supported open basic API" questions, the answer is usually the same: They're afraid someone else might create something of value, in part using their API, without them getting their own beaks wet in the process. If you want to integrate with a Nissan Leaf, even if all you wanted were the most harmless read-…

Pretty sure Chamberlain/MyQ was because they made their API go through the cloud for no reason (that garage door opener isn't going to get out of WiFi range), so the only way to make the app reliably work was to hit their servers. Which they then had to pay for. Had the whole setup been local first, they wouldn't ever had that issue. But again, that makes it hard to charge people for using it.

I agree with you. Of course, they already made the money selling the garage door openers, and make more money on the millions of people who use the Amazon and Walmart integrations (they get a little fee for opening the door for those). But if this cut their cloud bill by $200 a month or something I guess they feel vindicated.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#96

Post by [deleted] »

xp84 wrote: post #94
smokel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're afraid someone else might create something of value, in part using their API, without them getting their own beaks wet in the process. In most cases it's not about profit, but about having to invest serious amounts of effort to please one or two hackers, who will then DoS your API as soon as you've made a mistake.

Well, that certainly is the disingenuous corporate line. But the 'hackers' required nothing of Chamberlain -- what they built was already working, until they played a cat-and-mouse game to block them until the maintainer gave up. There are hundreds of companies that do support Home Assistant integrations or at least let them exist, and maintainers are always eager to fix any issue that comes up. It's really not a dic…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#97

Post by nikanj »

bayindirh wrote: post #71
nikanj wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is implemented in the app itself. WhatsApp > Settings > Privacy and turn off Read receipt.

The use case is slightly different. I prefer to send read receipts, but I also like to peek at messages without sending them and removing unread counts because I want to add the message to my mental queue, but don't want the false impression that I didn't bother to answer the said message.

Ah, you want to read messages without letting the recipient know you've read the message, while still having read receipts enabled. I'm not surprised WhatsApp does not support this one, I think they want their users to be able to trust the read receipt indicators

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#98

Post by bayindirh »

nikanj wrote: post #97
bayindirh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The use case is slightly different. I prefer to send read receipts, but I also like to peek at messages without sending them and removing unread counts because I want to add the message to my mental queue, but don't want the false impression that I didn't bother to answer the said message.

Ah, you want to read messages without letting the recipient know you've read the message, while still having read receipts enabled. I'm not surprised WhatsApp does not support this one, I think they want their users to be able to trust the read receipt indicators

Actually it supports that, via notifications and peek. The intent is not nefarious, as I said before. I don't want the person who sent me the message think that I read their message and just tossed to a virtual bin.

I just did it yesterday. Somebody sent me a message, and I read it via notification, but they don't have the receipt yet. I'll write their answer with a fresh mind, and send the answer they deserve.

I don't think valuing the person on the other end of the line is a bad thing.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#99

Post by pabs3 »

conk wrote: post #18
light_hue_1 wrote: post #3

I wish that US car manufacturers would finally realize that they're software companies with a hardware device, and pivot accordingly. The differentiating factor between car models is not the hardware in the world of EVs. It's the software. And right now, if you aren't either on Tesla, Rivian, or Polestar the software experience is horrific.

I don’t want to drive a computer. I want to drive a machine. Give me some buttons to control the car and a decent screen for nav (CarPlay/android auto) and I’m happy.

All cars are computers, since at least 20 years. At minimum they do central locking, cruise control etc.

Re: Show HN: Nissan's Leaf app doesn't have a home screen widget so I made my own

#100

Post by chgs »

mikestew wrote: post #84
chgs wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem car companies have is if they are beholden to android and apple then they are at the mercy of whatever those two want to charge.

Apple doesn’t charge for CarPlay (can’t speak to Android), so I’m unsure what you’re referring to.

For now.

If I’m generous to car companies they don’t want to be beholden to a third party duopoly. If I’m not then they want to monetise with typical surveillance capitalism.

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