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My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

imdanielkendall.com

51–60 of 217 posts

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#51
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.

> there are companies with amazing software experience I don't want an amazing software experience. I want an unsurprising experience, ideally the one I already have . The only thing better than Android Auto would be to just provide a standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs. Then you…

you just stuck in this paradigm, this apple/auto surprised me so many times :

- when you need to re-pair Bluetooth

- when you forget the cable to charge and you need to drive

- when you want to share your car to someone and they need to spend 5 minutes to accept every single ToS possible to simply put a GPS

- several people with phones paired before, now you dealing with complete random

you name it.

- you listen music and you need to go out to buy something while others in the car

None of these problems exist if you have a decent, dedicated computer in the car that just works, it knows profiles, it does need you to be always on wire, or on the line.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#52
why OTA update OS that frequently?

I've been lately into mobile apps and i am finding that there is no system which combines these 3

1. AOT 2. JIT (for hot paths) 3. Interpreter for non JIT paths or where you explicitly do not want jit.

Imagine, a system which compiles your app to AOT but when you push OTA update, part of the app are selectively replaced to JIT or Interpreted mode.

it's theoretically possible but nobody seems to be doing it. I found react native / expo eas update but i don't think it's like this, it has a Hermes VM which runs bytecode but it has no JIT so you'll write native code for hot path then you'll need to upload a full update to Android. So, only toy level code performance can be can actually be written in JS?

Much better, patch the parts where AOT calls into JIT or interpreter.

Currently i am using react native and flutter. Flutter's UI framework code is in Dart if you load this whole code into JIT, it will consume a lot of resources on mobile device as the framework is big and does lot of work. If all framework code was AOT and your custom patchable code also comes with AOT but upon OTA replaced by JIT or Interpreted code, crazy performance!

But what if we could run the most of the code in AOT and only run changed code in JIT or interpreted mode? arguably it would perform as good as it does not being complete AOT while also providing react native like fast updates.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#53
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone in auto industry decided that plugging device, and dependency on core functionality of the car to 3rd party device, that might be lost, have battery died, used for something else, etc is a good way to save money and not do proper software. On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetr…

you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.

> there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid

Are you fucking serious? Tesla's head unit software is barely passable. It's shit.

Nearly half of the screen is taken by useless toy car depictions, and navigation can't even render the full street names because the width of the input field is fixed.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#54
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time

> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…

I scoffed at it, as someone that grew up in California and never lived anywhere cold.

Man, when it's freezing outside, it's awesome. I wouldn't buy a car without it now.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#55
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time

> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…

There are also really cold places in the world!

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#56
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone in auto industry decided that plugging device, and dependency on core functionality of the car to 3rd party device, that might be lost, have battery died, used for something else, etc is a good way to save money and not do proper software. On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetr…

you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.

> there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid

I own a Tesla, and a Ford. Amazing is not how I would describe the Tesla software experience. It lacks features like iMessage for group and for non-phone recipients that I am able to use in my Ford. Even though many people would say the Ford software is otherwise inferior. And if history is anything to go by, there are features in CarPlay today that Tesla will never add to their infotainment system.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#57
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time

> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…

When it's minus -20°C outside, you'll be very happy for that heated steering wheel! For someone living in the desert, I wish there were cooled steering wheels, on the same level as heated/cooled seats, but maybe that's asking a but much.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#58

why OTA update OS that frequently? I've been lately into mobile apps and i am finding that there is no system which combines these 3 1. AOT 2. JIT (for hot paths) 3. Interpreter for non JIT paths or where you explicitly do not want jit. Imagine, a system which compiles your app to AOT but when you push OTA update, part of the app are selectively replaced to JIT or Interpreted mode. it's theoretically possible but nob…

You can't update any AOT code due to how code signing works in these OS. And Apple completely bans JIT on iOS and iPadOS.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#59
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone in auto industry decided that plugging device, and dependency on core functionality of the car to 3rd party device, that might be lost, have battery died, used for something else, etc is a good way to save money and not do proper software. On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetr…

you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.

[dead]

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#60
post #19
post #14

When I bought my car, it had no Car Play or Android Auto. Upon some investigation I found out that both of them were installed on all the current models. It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. Some open source software for the car entertainment system flashed on the car was able to turn on the flags to enable various features including Car Play and Android Auto. So a happy story.

>It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. So exactly like software licensing? Most apps nowadays don't even require a purchase to download. The download is free but you need to pay $4.99/month subscription to use, or $99.99 for a "lifetime subscription". The code's are all there. The author just doesn't want you to use it.

As it should be.

You'd prefer they get nothing for the effort they put into developing the software?

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