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Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

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Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do not want ads in traffic. This is non-negotiable for safety reasons alone. LMAO! OK, who's gonna tell him about the ads on the radio?

Classic radio is down-only. It goes through hardware for demodulation and amplification. I can turn a classic radio off. How long will it be until there is an ad that makes it confusing how to dismiss it and uses a police siren to get your attention? How long until someone uses the radio to ransomware your car using a remote code execution vulnerability?

> How long will it be until there is an ad that makes it confusing how to dismiss it and uses a police siren to get your attention?

When I was in high school, the local radio station played a siren as part of the intro to their traffic update segment. Being a high schooler, I naturally had my volume cranked up pretty high - leading to at least a once-a-week near-swerve on my way to school as the segment began.

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#162
post #105
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LMAO fail. Radio is optional as you can switch it off at any time, change the volume, is not imposed by the manufacturer, and you had the option to listen to your own cassetes and later CDs and digital for 50+ years.

You must not have exprienced modern vehicles. My 2013 Chysler Pacifica's factory headunit occasionally stops kicking the watchdog timer and gets rebooted. When that happens, the radio is still playing and can't be switched off or volume adjusted until the thing is done booting. So no, you can't switch it off at any time.

I cannot imagine putting up with this. I would rather mount a bluetooth speaker on the dash.

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#163
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that constantly improves and is really worth considering is safety. I am not even saying about active safety features but the passive ones. They are also in constant development.

But these are sometimes making it safer for the occupants at the expense of the rest of the environment (think smaller windows and fatter A pillars making children harder to see, or strengthened soundproofing making children harder to hear.)

I don't think this is a very good argument... I want my car to be as quiet as possible, on terms of the noise it makes and it's soundproofness. That making people harder to hear outside is irrelevant, as I mainly use my eyes to scan the environment for people, not my ears.

Also I think we've done enough damage to the world with the (British accent) "what about the children" arguments...

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#164
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely because it's so critical, it's a terribly efficient leverage over you, pretty much legalized extortion. Imagine you wake up one morning and your car happily announces that it's updated software overnight and from now on for your safety faceid is required to start the car and an always on driver facing camera will help you to stay focused on the road and arrive safely at your destination no matter where it i…

The FTC is considering rulemaking on 'dark patterns' being used to unfairly extract consent, and it wants to hear from you![1] [1] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2021/04/...

What if that commenter doesn't live in the US..? I find the presumption aggravating

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#165

It is only a matter of time before there are jailbreaks and free / open source car operating systems. For related 'food for thought', see Cory Doctorow's "Car Wars" which combines car software hacking with self-driving vehicles for a unique near-future sci-fi story. Edit: downvotes? Instead, you could respond with why you disagree and we can have a discussion. Do you think there will not be jailbreaks? It has been ha…

There's a worry that insurance won't cover you if the car manufacturers say "Oh he hacked the software". Accidentally hit someone? Now you have to pay the full damage. Got into an accident? Sorry, pay your own hospital, your coverage has been cancelled. A neater hack would be for the jailbreak to delete itself and restore the original software when it detects that the car crashed, e.g. do it on airbag deployment.

Perhaps we need a version of FOSS for insurance then. However there is far too much legal red tape in the insurance industry, and it is certainly not a free market where disrupters can enter easily...

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#166
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its interesting that we have created a world where the people who build software are often the most skeptical of and aviodant of the software industry.

Because we know how something can be abused until there is another way to abuse it. It's an endless way to abuse it, where a PM with an even more cynical goal will introduce an even more disgusting way to monetize a product. Finally, it's to save money on production costs and make even more money. All this thanks to software scalability, pluggability, etc etc. All you need is finally the idea, and if you have a crazy…

There will also always be a horde of developers who mistake normal users' lack of understanding for what's going on and an inability to see the direction this is taking us in with consent or even enthusiastic assent.

Paraphrasing upton sinclair: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his stock options vesting depends on his not understanding it.

See also: privacy, right to repair, app stores with 30% markups on in-app transactions, intrusive advertising, the death of journalism, internet connected lightbulbs, bitcoin CO2 emissions, electronic voting, etc.

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#167
post #60
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Definitively not like my microwave. My microwave has not only the worst interface. But it also lags. The polling rate of the capacitive touche buttons is too low. And any action also takes a second to validate. It's horrendous. Give me back my late grandma microwave. Two knobs. Nothing more.

After much research I purchased a Samsung MWF300G[0] a modern microwave with only 2 dials. Used daily for 5 years and I love it. 0. https://www.samsung.com/levant/microwave-ovens/solo/mwf300g-...

Does yours beep if you don't open the lid in a minute after it turns off?

Mine does and that is super annoying. Annoying enough that I'm thinking of removing the buzzer or just buying another microwave. I do like the simple dual dial design though.

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#168
post #114

I don't want my car to be a software platform. I want it to be like my microwave. It might have software, but software is only incidental to its operation. I do not want to tweet from my microwave. I do not want ads in traffic. This is non-negotiable for safety reasons alone. I don't care what I have to do to attain that. If that means replacing the radio. I will do it. If you brick my car if I don't have a Manufactu…

Same. I will not ever own any car that has network connectivity. So that means older cars only. Oh well. So be it.

I, on the other hand, look forward to the day, probably not for at least 20-30 years from now, when all or virtually all vehicles are autonomous, and they're all constantly communicating with each other. Could you imagine the improvements in efficiency and traffic management? The vast reduction in accidents because someone forgot to use a turn signal or was following too closely? The marvelous freedom it would offer to the disabled?

Re: Cars are about to be a software platform, subscriptions and all

#169
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its interesting that we have created a world where the people who build software are often the most skeptical of and aviodant of the software industry.

I was thinking the same too. Even for myself, I just own a laptop and a smart phone. If I could get rid of the phone I would. No smart watches, home automation devices, wearable fitness devices, none. I've used some of them at one point or another and in hindsight, while they did bring some benefit (mostly convenience), I found their privacy, financial, environmental costs to be just too high to justify the marginal…

Phones have become our ever present little snitch that tells the overlords every physical place you go, every place you surf, everyone you call, and the ambient conversations it picks up from people speaking near it. How we got here is called convenience, and the overlords know how to work that angle endlessly.
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