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My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

imdanielkendall.com

81–90 of 217 posts

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#81
Does MINI make their own software? I thought it was the same as BMWs with another skin. My BMW gets quarterly updates. Only once in the past year I've had it did I notice anything new (new voice assistant), otherwise it just resets my driver screen and sets my interior lighting on full blast every time it updates.

If Android Auto stopped working I'd also be livid because I don't use the built in crap.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#82
post #38
post #15

Users are complicit. Why did this user install the update? Were they suffering from an issue it supposedly solves? My six-year-old Honda has never had a software update, and in any case "OTA" updates can only be initiated by the user.

No win scenario. We need to install updates because of security vulnerabilities. But we shouldn’t install updates because they might introduce bugs.

Of course, we largely only need to worry about the security vulnerabilities because manufacturers increasingly hook our hardware up to the internet so they can exfiltrate data about us.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#83
post #75

His good points here are undermined by the profane, emotional high-cortisol crashout. There’s a place for well-written, witty diatribes and polemics, but throwing F-bombs and F-yous into complaints is not that.

[flagged]

Lewis Black once said that swearing has a point--it is how we express a sufficient level of rage and anger against something extremely dysfunctional. What should we say, he asked: Oh, pussyfeathers?

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#84
post #67

The practical solution here would be closing the feedback loop with customers. The business does want happy customers, it's important they return to purchase in 5 years. The problem with car companies is that they don't get immediate feedback (telemetry, tickets, etc) when they do push an issue. And they obviously don't have gradual roll outs the way tesla does. Rather than hamstring all software by requiring DOT tes…

    Rather than hamstring all software by requiring DOT testing before firmware updates are published...
I don't know how the rules work in the UK or Ireland where the author is, but the US has no such mandatory testing. Also, all manufacturers have telemetry these days and the ones I'm familiar with all do gradual rollouts (to varying levels of competence). You basically can't do immediate rollout given the scales involved.

Please don't take this as suggesting any of them are good at software, mind you.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#85
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs So a web browser loading a page off the phone? :)

Emphatically not. I want the head unit to act as a dumb terminal for the phone. My first instinct would be a USB-C docking station supporting DisplayPort video, various interesting USB devices, and a descriptor that makes it clear it's a car's head unit so the device can intelligently offer a car-specific experience.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#87
Kia just did this with their EV9 update - it broke CarPlay with a blank screen a few minutes into driving, which then reverted itself a minute later. Another OTA mostly resolved it. Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#88

Ai will solve it. Car manufacturers are slow to take on new technology but they’ll be forced to

if the giga rich pushing this latest ai wave manage to convince a single safety critical industry to deregulate, we are all boned

That’s true, however a properly engineered safety-critical system provides separation between assurance levels, so you don’t need to have the same level of assurance for the infotainment system software that you do for safety-critical displays and controls.

The FAA has historically done a good job on this front with aviation (notwithstanding the 747 MAX debacle, which was a failure implicating flight control software but not a failure of separation of assurance levels). Automotive software and standards and NHTSA is far behind on this front. Cost is certainly a factor; it is not economical to apply aviation safety and engineering standards and processes directly to automobiles. But in the meantime, it is an absolute Wild West for any contemporary drive-by-wire car.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#89
post #60
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

I’d prefer to pay up front to buy the product, the way everything was sold up until around 2012, and not have a “subscription” scam.
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