Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. I guess it's time for me to pick up another hobby!
check out comma.ai for a mostly open-source implementation
That's not the hobby I was talking about.
Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
501–510 of 589 posts
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#502Do NDAs really just expire after three years like this ex Tesla employee claims? Something tells me that he will be sued very soon.
They can. Typically they are 2-5 years, but you have to read the specific NDA to be sure. I will never sign a NDA that doesn't expire in <10 yrs after cessation of work, as its just too risky to indefinitely hold any information secret to the level required in most NDAs. Management changes, and what the current management is fine with, future management could not, or you do some work that the company doesn't like 10…
Hmm. Is it possible to include a hard-nonmodification clause in an NDA (so nobody in the future can change it), or is this kind of implied in the contractual nature?
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
The .NET CLR and core C# runtime libraries are really nice to work with. But things become somewhat Microsoft-y (that is, nice-looking but amazingly half-assed in the most unexpected ways) when you start to do things like writing GUIs.
I've been learning WPF, and I want to shoot myself. It looks pretty, and is very flexible, but it's just so much damn typing. Plus the errors you get out of it are often pretty useless. Maybe my brain just doesn't get it, but the documentation makes me crazy too. I just hate everything about it.
> but it's just so much damn typing.
Expression blend saves a lot of typing. Also if you provide design-time data, saves time because WYSIWYG gives faster feedback than change-build-test cycle.
When I work on XAML-based GUI, I open the project in both VS and Blend, and use them alternately.
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been learning WPF, and I want to shoot myself. It looks pretty, and is very flexible, but it's just so much damn typing. Plus the errors you get out of it are often pretty useless. Maybe my brain just doesn't get it, but the documentation makes me crazy too. I just hate everything about it.
WPF is a huge change from "traditional" UI frameworks like Windows Forms or Swing. It requires some rethinking and to get the most out of it you should really do things the WPF way in many (not all) cases, even though other options appear to work (they're just more work in the end and less flexible). The documentation is actually fairly good in my eyes iff you're only writing applications. As a library and custom con…
Thanks, I appreciate the offer for help. If I get stuck again, you might hear from me =D
I think a lot of the problem probably depends on the work you're doing. I'm an engineer, usually I just want a GUI that shows me the information I need, I don't care much for design aesthetics beyond making sure it's not hideously ugly. Winforms was good for this, but it definitely looks dated and needed to be replaced or massively overhauled.
I can absolutely see how somebody doing more attractive design work would like WPF. It just makes me grouchy. Somebody else mentioned mixing blend into their workflow, maybe I'll take a look at that.
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
In every application I can think of off the top of my head, but mostly in the ones that apply to Tesla, you truly don't, except when the law or a contract says otherwise. I'm sure there are exceptions for things that don't apply to Tesla (or for that matter SpaceX). Here's what's inside of every autonomous vehicle ever made: a message-passing subsystem, sensors, fusers, navigation, dynamic control, actuator device dr…
Nice high level conceptual model of such a system. What you conveniently ignore is the complexity that is necessarily introduced by hard real time constraints, safety and all the reliable communication required. This stuff really does get complex. A sensor controller will likely be on multiple cycles internally: one for oversampling the sensor hatdware and one for transmitting the (filtered/corrected/calibrated) resu…
I had a very mean line-by-line response, but then I deleted it because it wasn't in keeping with HN guidelines. I apologize for having written it even though you'll never read it. Instead I'll just say that literally nothing you've mentioned has anything to do with whether you choose to use Linux. Yes your serial lines will be noisy. Yes you have to write software. Yes you need specific domain knowledge to do it well. Nobody has ever said otherwise. None of that, none, has anything to do with the operating system.
An operating system, real time or otherwise, handles activating processes, IO, and interprocess messaging. That's it. You don't get magical serial line noise clearing pixies with it, and it doesn't make your actuators less drunk.
And...
> Manually threading together all these different kinds of cycles and asynchronous events without a RTOS scheduler is hard and becomes error prone.
You just said "getting input and sending output is way too hard for software on a Linux kernel." That's a crazy person statement. It turns out that Linux is, and has been for a loooong time, very good at doing operating system things like activating processes and interprocess messaging.
> The result is likely less resilient
Saying "likely" here suggests that you don't know what the result actually is. So what are you arguing? What was my statement?
Whatever assumption you're making that says "This. This right here is the reason why we definitely need an RTOS." Just don't make that assumption. That assumption is wrong.
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
read this book too. The insistence on Windows blew my mind, given his "reputation" as an engineer.
The argument (at the time) was that Windows C++ tools were better than anything on GNU/Linux of the time. Also, in most non-CS fields (aka "real" engineering fields ahem ) Windows, for better or worse, is still heavily entrenched. I have mixed feelings on this, as I am a Unix junky but it requires a lot of arcane knowledge to be effective, which many folk don’t have the wherewithal to acquire.
> The argument (at the time) was that Windows C++ tools were better than anything on GNU/Linux of the time.
That's still true today and it will probably always be true unless Microsoft ports Visual Studio one day. It's not a super great reason to choose it as an operating platform though. :\
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is a naive perspective. I've heard many similar stories from friends that work in the German automotive industry, and I think you would be surprised how many payment systems are tied together (e.g. (insecure) FTP servers to sync daily payments). Every organization has these types of things internally. As an engineer, I don't like it, but it's a fact of life.
Banks can reverse transactions if they want to. Tesla's cavalier attitude towards manufacturing has yielded a 14% first pass through rate on the Model 3 line (which is abysmal and may bankrupt the company along with declining M3 demand) vs. the industry standard of ~80% FPT rate. Source - https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-hit-model-3-target-by-... We're at the point in the Tesla story similar to that of 2008 wher…
That link is not a source for declining Model 3 demand. Source?
My info shows that
• In July, over 60,000 test drive requests in the US alone
• 5000 Model 3 new net orders in one week in mid-July
• Total deposits greater than total refunds in the twelve months ending April 2018
• Reports of Cancellations Outpacing Orders proved to be False wording
Meaningless negative indicators include Goldman Sachs analyst David Tamberrino saying Model 3 social media activity had lessened and frequent critic Latrilife said Tesla’s Burbank Airport lot is under 24/7 surveillance
Sources include:
• Seekingalpha.com/article/4189303-tesla-short-thesis-model-3-demand-wrong
• Seekingalpha.com/article/4179986-tesla-model-3-reservations-tip-iceberg
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#508Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon nearly brought the newly merged X and Confinity to its knees during a critical period in its development by 1) insisting on the "X" brand when Paypal was more popular with users, and 2) insisting on Windows over Linux despite the protests of his tech team. Soon after he was ousted and Thiel was made CEO. Interesting to see he's still pushing Windows. Source: Paypal Wars by Eric Jackson
read this book too. The insistence on Windows blew my mind, given his "reputation" as an engineer.
Thinking from first principle you can reason why Elon pushed for windows. Elon is a guy who wants to get done. On windows you get a linear output with time spend on it. On Linux the output is exponential. Relative to windows lot of time is required for entry on Linux.Since Elon is man of output he did not like to spent so much upfront time. Also he don't want to let go the control as he is micro manager.
Re: Former Tesla Firmware Engineer Discusses the System
#510Why is this interesting or surprising? Of course almost all challengers have hacky tech under the hood because they don't have the resources. Winning from that position is possible not because of generally better tech but by delivering something that the incumbents don't. Remember the demo of the first iPhone (vs the huge expertise of Nokia). Or how Microsoft won the desktop starting from a single user, cooperative m…
In 2004 PHP is the standard. Any MYSQL is still the standard.