271–280 of 848 posts
I want a 7-10” central display that spends 99% of its time showing CarPlay but also has a radio if I need it, the backup camera when I’m in reverse, and lets me change a couple of settings for convenience features like auto locking etc. Everything else can be dials, knobs, and buttons. My Mazda3 is perfect for this and I’m quite sad that I’m almost certainly not going to be able to find anything like it by the time I…
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This is only half the story, working for a major vendor, we sell both hardware and software, the whole way up to a full customisable well integrated platform. The manufacturers are deliberately choosing less capable systems, or taking thing piecemeal. Most of our customers simply don't believe good interfaces are worth the money... They tend to either want either a set of features checked off (only for existence, not…
You only have to develop those interfaces once for high end cars and get your money there. Rest is then just one of the small modifications.
When you target a certain feature set it can make sense to use one big central processor, for lower end things it's more sensible to use limited smart sensors (from multiple vendors, for absolute cost minimums).
And it's generally not cost effective to move an old high trim platform down range due to changes in hardware and regulations.
So I have serious thoughts about driving “software defined vehicles” in the future. I mean, and the article has confirmed this sufficiently, the core competence of the established car manufacturers is not software. I don't trust the newcomers like Tesla or the Chinese manufacturers for the time being. In my opinion, the same standards should apply to software in motor vehicles as in the aviation industry. And there c…
How is Tesla, a 21 year old company that has shipped seven million cars across the world (including the worlds best selling car) a "newcomer"?
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I don't think it's a huge assumption. It was in the past, but not anymore. The thing is that car manufacturers have been fucking up software in cars since... forever. The second car play and android auto hit the scene, that's all anyone wanted. There's more benefits than just what's on the surface, too. Even if the car software is perfect, it doesn't have access to the same data your phone does. It won't put your con…
My car puts my phone contacts in my navigation. That's a software limitation of legacy car manufacturers.
Look, can car makers make somewhat decent software? Probably, if they burn enough money. But is it even worth it? I don't think so. People already use their phone hours a day, just let them use that.
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One of these things is not like the others. Tesla, for good or ill, needed to write a full stack for their EV. Not only did they need to do it, but they did in fact do it and ship it and develop it over several years. Recruiting a Tesla software guy is probably the best choice between these three. And he'll cost you less. Both Google and Apple have car software, and who knows if Apple actually developed a full stack…
> One of these things is not like the others. Tesla, for good or ill, needed to write a full stack for their EV. And so did traditional manufacturers, they just had the benefit of being able to phase it in if they so chose. Or they could have done a hard cutover, either way, the failure is on them for ignoring the benefits of the Software Defined Vehicle discussed in the article. > It's unclear what getting one of th…
All that stuff adds up. As Volkswagen found out.
Green Hills supports running android in a VM so you can do all of the safety critical things like traction control, and ABS in a secure environment.
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You seem to be confusing aviation standards with aviation regulation.
They're not separable. Who do you think is coming up with the standards?
I want a 7-10” central display that spends 99% of its time showing CarPlay but also has a radio if I need it, the backup camera when I’m in reverse, and lets me change a couple of settings for convenience features like auto locking etc. Everything else can be dials, knobs, and buttons. My Mazda3 is perfect for this and I’m quite sad that I’m almost certainly not going to be able to find anything like it by the time I…
Look at aftermarket MMI boxes. They do this for $150. (Screen and controls not included because they use the factory ones.) Someone should tell an automobile manufacturer. It’d save them ~ $1B.
I have driven several different, rather new, cars over the last two years. The most hassle-free experience was the second cheapest of the bunch, a 2024 Opel Corsa GS (a Stellantis brand). I actually was sad when I had to give it back. Now I read that Stellantis is behind on the software game and I wonder if there is a relation. Seriously, I'm all for cost-effective cars but reading the article I do not get the feelin…
To run a profitable businesses with shitty software, you need a big fat pipe of money from a captive market. Most automakers don't have that kind of market. They cannot afford to waste time writing shitty software that won't increase their bottom line.
Building a highly effective software team is one of the hardest things to do in tech. We actually know how to do it - review the DevOps studies from the past 10 years - yet organizations don't do it, because it requires very specific leadership goals, buy-in, and culture. Most organizations are led by "personalities" that "go with their gut" rather than data-driven decisions, and most people, let's face it, just aren't very good at their jobs. Finding a company with good leaders, good managers, and good workers, is like finding a leprechaun.
Automakers should have learned this decades ago, that only extreme attention to detail and high quality results in better outcomes (and thus bottom line). It's fucking hard work to make a good car. It's also fucking hard work to make good software. Did they really think "just add more software" would be easier than making more cars?!
They don't need to make all this software. Automakers are happy to buy some parts commodity, and have some made bespoke. Software doesn't all have to be bespoke. Take 100 different x86 computers and the same OS will run fine on all of them. They don't all need to invent their own novel way of networking and controlling embedded devices. Look to the software that works well everywhere for inspiration. It's all standards-based, loosely-defined, layered, simple, with replaceable parts. Kinda like a car.
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> What's your objection to LTE? Tracking, phoning home (with related privacy issues), etc : * https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/09/flaw-in-kia-web-portal-... * https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/five-...
That's a concern for privacy focused individuals, who are a very small fraction of the consumer market, despite being common here on HN. If the last few decades have shown anything, it's that most consumers don't rank privacy highly as a desired feature for products in anything but the most abstract ways. There's zero chance a car manufacturer is going to nuke some of the most desired features of modern automobiles f…