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Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

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Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#721

Post by hedora »

71bw wrote: post #673
raxxorraxor wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That happens decently often. This is the reality for all systems aside from braking system in trucks perhaps, which are more sophisticated. The decision to do an emergency break is the same problem fully self-driving cars need. You need to interpret sensory input and have a model of the environment. Ironically some genius made these systems mandatory despite them being a safety concern. Granted, they tend to work if…

Never had this happen in an EU-spec 2020 Audi A4.

This subthread is about ISO standards. The implementation quality of the new safety systems varies wildly.

On one of our cars, it is fine. On the other, it’s so bad they should have to buyback the last N years of vehicles. I hear the same high-variance story from friends.

The standards for this stuff are completely inadequate.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#722

Post by hedora »

lmm wrote: post #467
jim180 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to my wife, while driving at about 110km/h…luckily no one was behind her.

Braking at any point is safe with a competent driver behind. There's a reason we know our stopping distances and don't follow excessively closely.

Not on a hard curve with oncoming traffic.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#723

Post by bigstrat2003 »

Peanuts99 wrote: post #535
seszett wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is nothing good that can come out of installing Android in your TV, fridge, let alone a - for fuck's sake! - a car. Android Auto is not Android on the car, it's a protocol that allows an Android phone to use the car's system as a display, with limited UI integration.

The version in Volvo and Polestar's is actually Android Automotive, which is it's own Android distribution with it's own version of Maps/Spotify etc. Funnily it even has Android Auto functionality too.

Although it didn't use to have Android Auto, which was awful. Because as you alluded to, Android apps are not automatically available on AAOS. As it happens the music app I use is not available on AAOS, so until Volvo added Android Auto support to their cars I could not get a good experience with my music.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#724

Post by joezydeco »

amarant wrote: post #718
acheron9383 wrote: post #199

As someone who works professionally on embedded software devices that update over the internet, car companies are stuck not because they can't get software talent, but because they have no ability to actually build the electronics alongside the software, which is ultimately what constrains embedded software. Without the right hardware, the constraints are just insurmountable, you can not do X feature because board A…

Sounds like a potential business opportunity! I don't know much about cars, how much is standardized in car electronics? Would it be possible to build a infotainment module that you could sell to several car manufacturers with only minimal modifications? I think I've heard of something called an ICANN(?) bus that is used to communicate stuff in cars and is fairly standardised, maybe?

It's CAN, and it's old serial technology.

There are already companies doing 3rd party electronics as mentioned above, such as Visteon and Continental, and Garmin is trying to get into that business too.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#725

Post by bigstrat2003 »

LeonM wrote: post #559
metadat wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't understand this sentiment. Should all VW drivers have a "I hate Hitler" sticker on their car too? Because in case you aren't aware: VW was started by the German Labour Front (part of the Nazi party). Adolf Hitler himself oversaw early development of the first models. Why the need to apologize for the CEO of the company that you buy products from? Should we also have an "I hate Foxconn" sticker on every Apple…

At least some people are probably putting "I hate Elon" stickers on because assholes are out there destroying people's cars because they have beef with Elon, and they don't want said assholes to destroy their car. It's lamentable that people are willing to act so poorly that they think it's OK to destroy innocent parties' property as a form of protest, but so it goes.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#726

Post by hedora »

minusLik wrote: post #224
1a527dd5 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does. But that isn't what I want it to do. I want to manually lock the doors as soon as I close my driver side door.

Does it work better when you use the key fob from inside the car? I would expect that because they surely tested a "unlocked accidentally and locked again right away" kind of scenario.

At least on ours, it tries to maintain the invariant that all doors lock at once (for aesthetics?), so you cannot lock anything if any door is open. It also likes to auto-unlock, but not auto-lock when you’re outside the car.

If two people lock it at the same time, it locks, then unlocks.

The smart lock stuff on it is even worse. I didn’t think it was possible to screw up car door locks so badly, even knowing Tesla’s implementation burns people to death sometimes.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#727

Post by bigstrat2003 »

ratatoskrt wrote: post #119
paulddraper wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> required That’s…terrible

...why? Seems pretty sensible to me?

There's nothing at all sensible about legally mandating that all cars must have a device which can be used for surveillance. Still less so for something which is at best a marginal gain in safety.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#728

Post by fragmede »

0xFNaaNg wrote: post #623
whiteboardr wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get out if you can! Spent 7 years at the three pointed star within design and UX - one day, when i’m over all i had to witness and experience i’ll write a book about the downfall of the german automotive industry. It’s all politics and due to constant battles and changing ownership throughout departments they won’t ever have a solid foundation. And i dare to assume that this goes for most of the automotive industry.…

> downfall of the german automotive industry I hear that kind of statements all the time but if you take like real important car things germans are (still) pretty good: their cars handle really well, powertraian usually works perfectly smooth (or sporty), ergonomics is good to perfect, it will not rust for decades, list goes on ... The real things killing germans I think: cars are expensive and unreliable

Given that the driving characteristics of most of the cars on the road don't match a BMW, what're the real "real important car things"? The revealed preference seems to be that the things you listed aren't actually that important. Long term cost is. Maintenance cost is. Not having to bring your car to the dealership for service is. Having the car have a long lifetime is. Handling well is nice; sporty drivetrain is nice; but that sort of stuff is clearly just a luxury, and the bottom dropped out of the luxury market recently (see: LVMH restructuring). If you're going to buy a sporty luxury car, why not get a Porsche or something with more cachet? Obviously there are reasons, but BMW's in an awkward position.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#729

Post by unethical_ban »

knifie_spoonie wrote: post #572
homefree wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah those suck - the vents often break, they’re ugly, they don’t work as well. The Tesla vents are great, the ui is good or can use voice. Other companies that attempt what Tesla does do it poorly with bad software.

I've driven many cars over the years. Not once has a vent ever broken. Which cars are you driving where they break often?

Plastic in the 1990s was more brittle than today. Even back then, my 10-15 year old Ford had issues with the vents not easily moving, then breaking from force.

More modern cars of decent build do not have this issue.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#730

Post by slaw »

mlrtime wrote: post #646
0xFNaaNg wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> downfall of the german automotive industry I hear that kind of statements all the time but if you take like real important car things germans are (still) pretty good: their cars handle really well, powertraian usually works perfectly smooth (or sporty), ergonomics is good to perfect, it will not rust for decades, list goes on ... The real things killing germans I think: cars are expensive and unreliable

Agreed, Germany still makes some of the best cars in the world. Who is making them better?

Huawei,Xiaomi,Xpeng.

For example

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maextro_S800

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