Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

Post by jaclaz » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

Post by Aloha » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

8_hours_ago wrote: post #52

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…

> the rockets fly with a heavily customized Linux install My jaw hit the floor the first time I heard this. Why Linux instead of an RTOS?? Apparently Tesla's autopilot also runs Linux, which seems like a huge accident waiting to happen (pun intended).

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #79

toomuchtodo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the infotainment system for this argument (as they firewall it off from CANBUS and other life critical systems [1]), I argue that their IT infrastructure is safety related, as it governs Tesla's velocity in getting patches and security fixes out to vehicles in a timely manner. Can you imagine a zero day being found in Windows with Windows Update being down? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX_0c9R4Fng

There's no guarantee that any given car is connected and receives updates, so the safety-critical systems need to be good enough when the car ships. They might mess up, but then they'd at least be able to patch cars faster, while other manufacturers would have to do a recall.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

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…

Post by mlaretallack » Fri, Aug 24, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #74

8_hours_ago wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the rockets fly with a heavily customized Linux install My jaw hit the floor the first time I heard this. Why Linux instead of an RTOS?? Apparently Tesla's autopilot also runs Linux, which seems like a huge accident waiting to happen (pun intended).

As a person who used to write navigation and control software for autonomous vehicles who occasionally gets downvoted for telling people that you really don't need a fancy RTOS for this stuff, you really don't need a fancy RTOS for this stuff. Linux is a very common platform for highly responsive robotic systems. I promise that their pid control isn't an Electron app.