Live data from Hacker News

Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

media.mbusa.com

121–130 of 398 posts

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#121
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if the system fails to detect any other vehicles for a period of more than about 90 minutes, it assumes that there is a sensor fault, and refuses to operate I have a current model Sprinter and this behavior is frustrating (thanks for the explanation, by the way, I thought it was a random bug). Cruise will also disengage in heavy rain or snow, with the system saying the sensor is dirty. It wouldn’t be so bad if trad…

> Will I really be able to get replacement parts for the Sprinter when the screen or computer start to die in 10-15 years? Most likely, yes. Part of why most automotive tech lags behind the times on raw performance is guarantees around things like how long you can source a given SoC, for example. 10 years is not an uncommon manufacturing lifetime in the space, and a Sprinter is a relatively high volume car so I would…

I wouldn't count on it. I work for John Deere, and am often in discussions about some part going out of production. Sometimes we guess how many we need for the next X years and buy that many, othertimes we rewrite software for a new part. Care to guess how many boards can sit in a warehouse for many years and still have good capacitors.

I can't tell you how many years, but there is always someone in these discussions who points out with pride that we still tractors from the 1950 in use by customers who demand replacement parts for anything that breaks.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#122
post #33

Everyones talking about alot of negatives. But I have a E53 AMG 4matic+ coup. It looks amazing, like constant compliments, i've even had people compliment it and give me their number in a wendy's drive through. But the OS(MBUX 2) is actually really good, at first I was a bit negative on it. But the way they have everything integrated that isn't really possible with apple play is nice. The dash is customizable, I have…

I was in the same boat, purchased my car with CarPlay because I thought I'd use it just as often as I do in my last car. MBUX is honestly good enough that I don't bother plugging in my phone, it does everything I want, integrates with the car, and stays out my way.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#124
post #94

Yuck: > MB.OS is designed and developed in-house to retain full control You better have some world class software engineers to pull this off, a LOT of them. And retain them. If not, you better go open source. You can still retain full control with open source. Good software is the KEY to good cars, especially electric ones. Why are we inventing 100 different models of cars every year? What a waste of human potential.

> Why are we inventing 100 different models of cars every year? What a waste of human potential. Human efficiency and human potential are very different things. I don't want to be an efficient cog in a well designed efficient machine. I want to be a human being - building cars is cool and fun. Fun is probably a waste too, I suppose. "Two plus two makes four without my will", etc.

Think of all the cool and fun things that no one has built yet though.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#125
post #117
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it works consistently, it would sure be a major selling point. ;)

Wouldn't someone giving you their number based on the car you drive be a giant red flag?

People who drive those cars don't think it is.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#126

Why does the automobile industry insist on keeping these things in-house when they are clearly terrible at them? I recall an interview with a Ford manager a few years back where they were asked something about adopting Car Play and the response was something like “we have people that can write software for us, so we won’t be using that.”

Money.

Why give that up when the customer is really only going to use bluetooth audio anyway? Anyone who cares enough about navigation is gonna use an app on their phone. Native car navigation is a superficial value-feature not a use feature.

The edge that Carplay gets is really minimal. I'm repulsed by the new car market, its many multiples over-connected anyway. When it comes to digital features my gut says only the safety ones drive sales.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#127
post #5

I was recently an owner of a Merced-Benz commercial van, and the software was by far the worst part of that whole experience. It had obvious race-condition type bugs when it came to the user interface layer, but most frustrating was its tendency to succumb to some kind of memory leak on long drives where the entire head unit would just lock up and crash to a black screen after 6-7 hours of being turned on. Because th…

Contrary to all the legends of "German quality/engineering" (of which there is certainly in certain industries) I've heard that German cars were shit during the 90s. Japan OTOH seems to be very aware of how these newfangled tech can screw your reputation.

The 90s was a sweet spot for the three luxury German brands: Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz. Mercedes in particular has had a very marked decline in quality since then.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#128
post #93

The best car OS so far (even better than Tesla IMO) has been Apple CarPlay. Just be dumb and let my phone handle it, and make the touch screen decent. Bonus points if you implement the multi screen CarPlay concept! Just give up!

That’s not a car OS; it’s the infotainment part of the car’s software. FTA: “MB.OS benefits from full access to all vehicle domains: infotainment, automated driving, body & comfort, driving & charging” I don’t think you are arguing your phone should connect to the cameras, acceleration sensors, LIDAR, etc. in your car and handle the self-driving, do you?

I'm hoping thats what the "apple car" project actually is. Mobile devices are getting very, very powerful. I would love for my phone to handle all the processing for my car in the future.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#129
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean their self driving tech seems to be the most impressive out there

Umm, no. I tried their Drive Pilot L3 system in Germany over the Christmas holidays (MB EQS) and of 8 hours driving, it was only available for me to drive for 12 minutes (and not a continuous 12 minutes, either). Granted this does not mean the system is poor quality, but it's horribly impractical... if it's rarely to ever available.

It sounds like they are more responsible than the other companies.

Re: Mercedes-Benz previews its operating system MB.OS

#130
post #5

I was recently an owner of a Merced-Benz commercial van, and the software was by far the worst part of that whole experience. It had obvious race-condition type bugs when it came to the user interface layer, but most frustrating was its tendency to succumb to some kind of memory leak on long drives where the entire head unit would just lock up and crash to a black screen after 6-7 hours of being turned on. Because th…

Contrary to all the legends of "German quality/engineering" (of which there is certainly in certain industries) I've heard that German cars were shit during the 90s. Japan OTOH seems to be very aware of how these newfangled tech can screw your reputation.

Honestly, I feel like German cars have an undeserved reputation for quality. German cars are superficially well built, quite fast, and make satisfying thunks when you close the doors. However, they are fairly unreliable, sensitive, and when they do fail, cost a lot to repair.

I'll take a Japanese car any day, however, Hyundai, Volvo, Skoda, Kia, Peugeot and Ford are also better engineered than most German cars nowadays in my opinion.

Post reply on HN