As (not) discussed previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20973385
Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
101–110 of 257 posts
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#10210,000 people that sounds like an overkill
Car companies don't understand software development. For them is the same as making a bolt.
Not limited to car companies btw. Make that pretty much any industry where software isn't their core business but just a checkbox to tick on their product.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any time you get cross-disciplinary stuff done by people significantly lacking in experience in one of the disciplines, you get stuff like this. Programmer art (shudder), artist code (double shudder), EE software, software engineer circuit board layout, mechanical engineer wiring... Smart people will figure something out but it always looks janky to specialists in the figured-out field.
And the same applies for people criticizing the fields they know little about. I'm pretty sure that not all electrical engineers in the world are idiots and that there's a solid reason why they've chosen the grid frequency as a standard way of doing it. One thing that comes to mind is that the crystal oscillators frequency is very temperature sensitive, so probably not ideal solution for using in ovens?
It's because it saves several dollars on the BOM, and really an oven probably doesn't need a hyper accurate clock
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Making things more accessible is not a crime, instead it's one of the biggest enablers of our age. See Henry Ford and Ford Model T. 2. Compare apples to apples. How does a new BMW 3-Series compare to your 15 year old one? My guess is, it probably compares favorably.
Depends on what you are looking for. In a new 3-Series you can turn the steering wheel with your index finger, there is no manual transmission, you hear fake engine noise. The 15 year old car offers a completely different driving experience and he might prefer it over the bland, comfortable new car.
It went somewhat downhill with F30.
See those slim runflats? Runflats save space in the trunk for the spare, and them being slim means they are hard. So in order for the ride to be softer, the axle suspension changed, and much softer silentblocks are being used. The result is, that your drive doesn't feel like your car is sitting on rails, like E90 or E46 did, instead it is muddy and jelly.
Another disaster is the start-stop system. When warm, the needles in starter can break. Meaning, that you just went down from highway to the petrol station, refuelled, and you cannot start anymore. You are stuck there on the station.
But hey, those LED angel eyes look much cooler.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#105It's just my own ignorance speaking (probably), but I can't say that I like the idea of Android getting near/intertwined with mission critical systems. Hopefully 'infotainment' implies something that is well clear of 'stopping' and the like...although I'd just as soon that they dropped the 'tainment' part and simply provided an interface for diagnostics, HVAC, &tc.
What bugs me the most about the 'tainment' part is that not only do I find most of it irritating, but that you are binding technology that obsoletes quickly with an expensive product that should last 10-20 years. It's a shame that car companies have picked this as an area for product differentiation.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#106My two cents:
- I'm asking myself why there's no reference to Autosar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AUTOSAR) which is not an operating system (whatever this means in this context), but yelds a sort of a standard architecture in the car and among third parties. It's a real mess, but it works in this sense.
- rumors exist about VW and other manufacturers pushing for using ADA (more specifically Spark), anyone aware of this?
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
and famously if there's ever a blackout, most of modern ovens will refuse to work until you setup the clock... never seizes to piss me off each time I have to do it...
This is a security feature. Most modern ovens allow you to set a timer with auto shut-off. This is very useful if you want to go out and come back to a ready meal. You can imagine what would happen if the power went out for a while and after it came back the oven switched on automatically. Refusing to turn on the oven when the clock is not set is the easiest way to prevent problems when it is in use.
good point... still, quite annoying when you come to check your meal cooking in the oven for the last hour, only to find out that it never actually switched on because of the clock :)
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#10810,000 people that sounds like an overkill
This sounds like an underestimation to me. An ECU in car can consume up a team of 200 to 250 engineering resource. This only for those working directly on the ECUs. Add to it the secondary functions, the numbers will explode.
I worked on firmware at Tesla. My estimate is absolute maximum 10 HW engineers, 10 SW, 10 test, a handful of managers, requirements engineers, etc. That would be for an important ECU.
I developed the FW for a couple ECUs singlehandedly along with 1 HW engineer and an intern.
Maybe that's the difference between Tesla and the others.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#109How long until car modifications are outlawed and reserved for overpriced proprietary mechanics shops?
We were already going in that direction, but perhaps EVs will push us over the edge. Tesla has certainly made it damn near impossible to work on their cars.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#110How long until car modifications are outlawed and reserved for overpriced proprietary mechanics shops?
How long until low-tech cars are outlawed?