Live data from Hacker News

Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

twitter.com

251–260 of 589 posts

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#251

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!

I had that happen once. I rebuilt my Rochester Quadrajet and it purred like a kitten for a decade. I eventually gave that car to my friends that had a similar model to use for parts, but it was the best car I ever had. Chevy Caprice Classic, former undercover cop car with a 350 and a shift kit.

I certainly miss those days. Working on my current vehicle is a PITA. The fuel rails, coils and plugs take hours to change. On my old car, I could do that in 15 minutes even if the engine was hot. I can't even imagine how proprietary the components on a Tesla must be or how difficult it will be to fix myself.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#252
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Elon is a big Windows fan and pushed hard to run the whole shop on Microsoft tech wow - this is surprising to me and wasnt mentioned in the biography - any ideas why ?

This is discussed at length in the first chapter of Founders at Work. The chapter is written by Max Levchin (co-founder of PayPal) and discusses his bitter feud with Elon Musk over Musk's desire to convert systems over to Windows. Interestingly Musk is never mentioned by name. https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...

This was also in Eric Jackson's history of PayPal. Jackson was a marketing guy, so had no technical dog in the fight, but he wrote this particular fight up.

Jackson was the guy who realised that PayPal and eBay had massive synergy and worked super hard to get PayPal in there. Eventually leading to eBay buying them out, and Musk and Thiel going from merely rich to actually billionaires.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#253

Is there any corroboration of this? Like that this is even someone who worked at Tesla? I'm certainly not discounting that it could be real, but with so many people shorting Tesla, any uncorroborated information should be looked at with a high degree of skepticism.

Here is one skeptical person: https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/99sbwa/form...

My personal expectation that it's all true is about 60% right now. Some of the figures could be exaggerated or misremembered, but most of the hackiness described is plausible.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#254
post #20

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.

Well, the model 3 lacks a normal speedometer, it's in the screen. For that car, it's related to safety.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#255
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, after separating from company, you can release all proprietary information and you'd have limited liability? I thought there would be larger recourse. Not familiar with law though.

>His NDA has expired.

I've never heard of an NDA that says "after 3 years you can start giving away trade secrets"

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#256

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.

Is that like, you really don't need a fancy RTOS for this stuff 99.999% of the time, although sometimes you do? Or truly, despite the life safety element, there is never any need for RTOS.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anything about this thread really surprise you though? As to be unbelievable? Do you think that other car manufacturers are that much better? I've read so many insane stories about software in Toyotas (or was it Honda?), and those are very old, very well established companies. That a company like Tesla would have rock solid software would be a miracle.

Well, at least other manufacturers aren't trying to pull this SSH over cell networks crap.

It's noted that they're using OpenVPN, so using cell network is probably a non-issue.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#258
> "the interior is a disaster, there's no instrument cluster which takes your eyes off the road"

This is the most WTF aspect of the model 3 to me and seems to confirm that there isn't going to be some last-minute mitigation. I know it was done because autopilot was expected to be mature by the time model 3 rolls out, but I don't see how it can even be street-legal when you need to look away from the road to determine your speed.

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#259
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it what people call fake news nowadays? I once had a project with a major lobbying organisation with links throughout the automotive industry. The one that published regular reports on real vs declared emissions discrepancies long before the VW scandal. They were unanimous when asked about the unintended acceleration bug. It was a case of mass hysteria.

Is it possible that the timing on your contact with them made a difference? It seems that NASA/NHTSA concluded in 2011 that it was a mechanical defect, but research concluding in 2013 showed that it was totally possible to have been caused by the software. At least according to the summary based on sources used for Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9311_Toyota_vehicle...

Hey,

The page you refer to has a section "NHTSA and NASA Investigation Verdict" and it says nothing about the software bugs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9311_Toyota_vehicle...

Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System

#260
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have some good news for you - we have invented these things called "jokes", in which people make statements about things that are obviously untrue as a means to elicit a humourous response in the reader. Now you too can go forth with this knowledge and be prepared for a world in which people aren't saying obviously untrue things solely as an attempt to trick the uneducated and gullible into believing falsehoods! Go…

I have some good news for you. There is a place where that type of humor is appreciated. That place is Reddit.

The GP's joke was good dry humour that, given the lack of downvotes, was clearly appreciated. Reddit is where you go for low-hanging fruit. So no, I'm going to push back against turbonerd NO FUN ALLOWED types when the jokes are actually funny.
Post reply on HN