Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System • Hacker News Board

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#31

Post by liber8 » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

oxymoron wrote: post #14

sz4kerto wrote: post #8

Why is this interesting or surprising? Of course almost all challengers have hacky tech under the hood because they don't have the resources. Winning from that position is possible not because of generally better tech but by delivering something that the incumbents don't. Remember the demo of the first iPhone (vs the huge expertise of Nokia). Or how Microsoft won the desktop starting from a single user, cooperative m…

Remember the Toyota uncontrolled acceleration bug and the report that came as a result of the trial. It seems like software is a bit of a second thought for some incumbents too.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but the Toyota issues were not caused by any software bug. Most cases were caused by people hitting the wrong pedal. The others were caused by floor mats that were a bit too long, causing the gas pedal to stick.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/its-all-your-fault-the...

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#32

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

oxymoron wrote: post #14

sz4kerto wrote: post #8

Why is this interesting or surprising? Of course almost all challengers have hacky tech under the hood because they don't have the resources. Winning from that position is possible not because of generally better tech but by delivering something that the incumbents don't. Remember the demo of the first iPhone (vs the huge expertise of Nokia). Or how Microsoft won the desktop starting from a single user, cooperative m…

Remember the Toyota uncontrolled acceleration bug and the report that came as a result of the trial. It seems like software is a bit of a second thought for some incumbents too.

[deleted]

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#33

Post by compostable » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #10

Re QA: To quote Dodge (via Deming), "You can not inspect quality into a product." This poster seems to think well of the QA team they had. However, It doesn't matter how great your QA team is, if the quality isn't in the system the QA team can't put it there. All they can do is tell you that you're making poor quality products, and attempt to inform management (as QA rarely has real authority) who should then act on…

Isn't the point of inspection so that you can perform a REJECT, based on some rejection rate parameter ( which is chosen by business economic reality )

This is the core of the TQM/Six Sigma theory

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#34

Post by komali2 » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

claydavisss wrote: post #23

I do not want a car that someone I've never met can "ssh" into, or any other remote access method. Think I will be holding on to my ten year-old car as long as possible.

I mean, I feel you, they'll pry my manually driven motorcycle out of my cold, dead, hands. But I bet any automated vehicle can be remotely accessed somehow... most of the trains in Taipei are automated and I'd argue that's the cleanest, fastest, bestest train system I ever been on in my life.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#35

Post by compostable » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #3

Sometimes I miss the carburetor.

Did you ever have to stand outside in the winter, in ice and show, with the hood propped open, spraying starting fluid into the carburetor, and manually holding the throttle open, so that your engine could get to the proper temperature?

Did you ever floor a car and have the engine shut off because there was too much fuel?

No thanks, I don't want to go back to those days!

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#36

Post by andrewmcwatters » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #11

I used to work at SpaceX on the team that did a piece of software called "WarpDrive". It was a massive monolithic ASP.NET application, with large swaths done with ASP.NET WebForms and a slow frontier of ASP.NET MVC gradually growing when I was working there. This application was responsible for practically everything that ran the factory: inventory, supply chain management, cost analysis, etc. Elon is a big Windows f…

> massive monolithic ASP.NET application

It's like calling grass green, m8.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#37

Post by compostable » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

GW150914 wrote: post #4

Well, that was a butter clenching read. It’s not hard to understand why their chip designers bailed as soon as possible, and they seemed to perpetually bleed technical talent. Is this a matter of incompetence or the usual anything-to-win “move fast and break things” approach? The latter fits better with their marketing vs. reality gap on “autopilot” and subsequent crashes.

>> butter clenching

Excuse me, I am a native English speaker and I do not understand this reference

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#38

Post by RobLach » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #36

ddevault wrote: post #11

I used to work at SpaceX on the team that did a piece of software called "WarpDrive". It was a massive monolithic ASP.NET application, with large swaths done with ASP.NET WebForms and a slow frontier of ASP.NET MVC gradually growing when I was working there. This application was responsible for practically everything that ran the factory: inventory, supply chain management, cost analysis, etc. Elon is a big Windows f…

> massive monolithic ASP.NET application It's like calling grass green, m8.

Or they’re trying to raise it an order of magnitude.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#39

Post by taobility » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:56 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #11

I used to work at SpaceX on the team that did a piece of software called "WarpDrive". It was a massive monolithic ASP.NET application, with large swaths done with ASP.NET WebForms and a slow frontier of ASP.NET MVC gradually growing when I was working there. This application was responsible for practically everything that ran the factory: inventory, supply chain management, cost analysis, etc. Elon is a big Windows f…

Only naive ppl blame the language instead of the codes based on the language.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#40

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #20

dswalter wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars weigh thousands of pounds and routinely drive upwards of 60 miles per hour. The success of the first iPhone or Facebook app didn't depend on using it to navigate through life-and-death situations not only for the users but also for everyone around them. There are places for 'move fast and break things'. But cars move fast already, and they can really break things.

Tesla’s infotainment and IT infrastructure is unrelated to their safety. If this guy worked on motor control or braking system firmware then that would be scary, but he didn’t.

[deleted]