How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
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How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
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Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#2https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo...
It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#3I worked for a company (back in 2009/10) that was putting LED advertising boards on the sides of (IIRC) NYC buses with an embedded PC to control them and report back to base. They were plagued - CF cards falling out from vibration, dirt and dust, electrical noise, etc. Needless to say, it was not a success.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#4https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I thought they would have given up on deploying updates while the bus is driving (opposed to only when it’s being serviced / stationed), but it appears like their whole business proposition didn’t work as intended.
To be honest, I’m usually fairly skeptical to all those “we’re doing the same as X, but we’ll use data to make better decisions!” startups. It’s incredibly difficult to validate, as you usually don’t actually have the data until you’ve reached a certain critical mass, so you’ll end up having to sell the dream instead.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#5https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I wonder how they're doing. Crunchbase https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/citymapper-limited/c... has a Series B for $40M back in 2016, and a crowdfunder for £6.7M in 2021. I can't imagine the pandemic was kind to them. It's a shame really, I remember they were fairly active in the London tech meetup scene around their B, usually quite enjoyable talks.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#6https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I thought they would have given up on deploying updates while the bus is driving (opposed to only when it’s being serviced / stationed), but it appears like their whole business proposition didn’t work as intended. To be honest, I’m usually fairly skeptical to all those “we’re doing the same as X, but we’ll use data to make better decisions!” startups. It’s incredibly difficult to validate, as you usually don’t actua…
They kind of bootstrapped around this quite well. The first product was a better Google Maps app, which meant they got people's journey data. I wonder if the real problem they ran into was just that public transport in London is pretty excellent, so even with journey data plus the ton of data that TFL provide, it's pretty hard to actually run anything better.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#7https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I wonder how they're doing. Crunchbase https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/citymapper-limited/c... has a Series B for $40M back in 2016, and a crowdfunder for £6.7M in 2021. I can't imagine the pandemic was kind to them. It's a shame really, I remember they were fairly active in the London tech meetup scene around their B, usually quite enjoyable talks.
Doing great, thanks, despite the pandemic! Still providing the best routing, hiring (they/we hired me last August), and now also with an SDK for putting all that goodness into your own apps: https://citymapper.com/powers
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#8No post body was provided.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#9https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I wonder how they're doing. Crunchbase https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/citymapper-limited/c... has a Series B for $40M back in 2016, and a crowdfunder for £6.7M in 2021. I can't imagine the pandemic was kind to them. It's a shame really, I remember they were fairly active in the London tech meetup scene around their B, usually quite enjoyable talks.
I remember they had one of the crazier glassdoor pages I've seen - basically a bunch of disgruntled leavers calling the CEO a monster, from looking more recently it seems like they may have made some positive changes.
Re: How to deploy software on a moving bus (2018)
#10https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/12/18662577/citymapper-londo... It seems like they gave up on this fairly quickly.
I thought they would have given up on deploying updates while the bus is driving (opposed to only when it’s being serviced / stationed), but it appears like their whole business proposition didn’t work as intended. To be honest, I’m usually fairly skeptical to all those “we’re doing the same as X, but we’ll use data to make better decisions!” startups. It’s incredibly difficult to validate, as you usually don’t actua…
When I used to write software like this. We typically had some sort of 'vpn', it was usually an isolated network 100% so you did not need that in the first place. For this I would have used an MDN on an isolated network. We would then write a solid bootstrap program with a watchdog on an ISR. Basically it would have an A/B area then we could flip between them as needed. If a particular version did not come up on a vehicle we could default it back to the old version. Usually some sort of flag that said 'yep this version is solid use it from now on'. Usually also the program itself could declare itself as bad usually catching itself in the crash and writing something out somewhere.
Not 100% as vehicle env is pretty harsh. +/-12V in 1-2 seconds on crank so you better have something to deal with that. -40f to +150f so you better have HW that can deal with that. Worry about how much flash wearing you have left. Oh and just general bouncing around, kicking hitting, coffee spills so your hardware better be decently hardened. Even then you still usually had those 10-20 vehicles that you just had to touch them. Usually it would be in the middle of Montana somewhere. If you were lucky it could be at a terminal. Oh and dont cost too much as your competitors probably have better and cheaper hardware.