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Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

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Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#161

Post by 1a527dd5 »

I would really rather that cars didn't run software, or at the least the minimal software to get the job done where there is no other option.

My current car is a Kia; I love it. But the door locks are software controlled (you can tell from the lag). The issue is I like to lock my doors as soon as I'm in the car.

The software can't cope with this; about 500ms later it unlocks the doors again and won't let me lock until the software has realized that I can now lock the doors again. So there is a 3-4 second gap in which I want to lock the doors but I can't.

This is appalling for safety; I grew up in a dodgy area and all my then cars kept me safe by allowing me to lock as soon as I entered. Now I have to more cautious than ever.

The other issue is that it has collision detection and automatic braking; it works great 99% of the time. But one time it got confused with over head sun and road markings and decided to emergency stop on a school road. I was lucky there was no car behind me.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#162

Post by rad_gruchalski »

mousethatroared wrote: post #145
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a tracker. It activates during an accident, or via manual action. Hopefully those same people know what ANPR is and how does it affect them.

Of course it is. We're just told differently until a leaker proves differently. Twenty years too late to do anything about it

There are so many things in a modern car that track you. eCall is the smallest problem.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#163

Post by [deleted] »

teekert wrote: post #146

Just talk to Canoncal, or IBM, make a NixOS config, or just do something. How hard can it be? My father’s 5 yo Volkswagen van has an 80’s looking UI, the touchscreen is already failing. Going from the normal UI to CarPlay is just jarring, any 2024 Linux distro looks, feels and acts more modern. What are they doing over there?? I could probably whip him up something nicer if only there was just a Nuc or something in t…

[deleted]

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#165

Post by sokoloff »

joezydeco wrote: post #103
gnopgnip wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no licensing fees or royalties for CarPlay or android auto. It does cost time/money to integrate, like any feature

Can you implement CarPlay now without the MFI chip?

Does anyone prefer wired CarPlay over Wireless CarPlay?

I was annoyed enough that our used/new-to-us 2020 vehicle only supported wired that I bought a wired-to-wireless adapter and brought it with me on test drives to ensure that whatever I bought would work well in wireless mode [or else I was buying a different car].

I installed a wireless charger under one of the cubbies that was well sized to hold my phone on long drives. No need to faff around with cables.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#166

Post by hiatus »

ericmay wrote: post #155
phyzix5761 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical buttons are a huge need. Its so distracting navigating through screens to change the temperature while driving.

That’s interesting - what vehicles require you to do that? I know the usual suspect is the Tesla, which I have, but I never have to navigate through menus to change the temperature while driving. As an aside a lot of people like to levy criticism on the infotainment screens which I think is very well deserved, but then people text and drive, watch YouTube videos, and do all sorts of crazy things too. Instead of levyi…

> As an aside a lot of people like to levy criticism on the infotainment screens which I think is very well deserved, but then people text and drive, watch YouTube videos, and do all sorts of crazy things too.

Instead of levying criticism on these distractions (let’s include billboard too) we should instead focus on just reducing car usage since we won’t stop people from being distracted.

This argument to me reads like one for abstinence from sex. The world is not so binary, we can both criticize distractions and build communities where car use is not a necessity. Not to mention in most jurisdictions some of these distractions are criminalized.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#167

Post by XorNot »

Tsiklon wrote: post #159
Tagbert wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The window winders I can do without. Not sure that even saves a noticeable amount of money at this point with electric windows such as commodity.

All depends on how they market it. Wind down windows to me today is an aesthetic statement - “we are selling a cheap, no frills vehicle - look see! Even wind down windows” Such positioning could be what the intended customer base react well to.

Which turns it into more uselessness for marketing rather then practicality.

For example, mechanical window winders would need a whole extra disengagement or locking mechanism for child proofing.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#168

Post by StopDisinfo910 »

Tagbert wrote: post #154
lttlrck wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slate have done this and it's really quite compelling. You even get window winders. https://www.slate.auto/en/personalization

The window winders I can do without. Not sure that even saves a noticeable amount of money at this point with electric windows such as commodity.

I seem to remember Jeep saying manual window winders were actually more expensive once you factor in the costs of having them as an option given how cheap electric ones are when they dropped them for the new Wrangler. Might still be cheaper if you only manufacture with them and don’t offer electric but the price difference can’t be that high.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#169

Post by koolba »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #162
mousethatroared wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is. We're just told differently until a leaker proves differently. Twenty years too late to do anything about it

There are so many things in a modern car that track you. eCall is the smallest problem.

Indeed there are: https://medium.com/@doctoreww/day-2-your-car-is-trackable-by...

And “modern” is going back over a decade. So most cars on the road.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#170

Post by jauntywundrkind »

blueflow wrote: post #39
FrankWilhoit wrote: post #2

Embedded-systems programming is not taught, and no one is willing to pay for training. The result is that development is outsourced to entities that claim, falsely, to have the knowledge. Eventually the consequences of the fact that they do not have the knowledge surface in an undeniable manner, and the only way to cover is to make a great show of a fresh start. (This affects all industries, not just automotive, but…

It is safe to say that Computer Engineering has a problem with enabling knowledge transfer.

Yes! But it's also obvious that the industry doesn't have a prayer to ever reform. Stuck between proprietary and NDA's chips everywhere, using proprietary and NDA's toolchains and development kits, to product proprietary DRM'ed products.

This is an industry that is about as far from the light of science & enlightenment as it is possible to get, ensnared as deeply in the entangling anti-human anti-science Intellectual Property qualgmire-hell as can be got. Oh sure plenty of science goes it! It's fantastically interesting & technical! But aside from some Application Notes write-ups trying desperately to help move the practice along, move it out of jank, knowledge goes in, but it doesn't ever come out! There's such a lack of peershios with which to practice science, to report your findings to, to replicate works on.

The software world talks about its patterns and practices. The biggest industries on the planet are building software like wild AND are mad into open source. But... computer engineering is the shadowland, where no talk nor victories that happen there are allowed to be shared, where nothing escapes confinement. What a fucking plagued awful land of people unable to ever do the right thing, unable to bring their work out of the dark & into real civilization.

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