Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 12, 2025, 3:56 PM UTC

jorvi wrote: post #684

DanielHB wrote: post #564

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Just to add one more thing to your point, if embedded devs work really hard and make the code work faster/better all reward you get is an _even_ more underpowered chip for the next version. Hardware procurement is cut-throat, sometimes they have mandates to reduce component costs and the procurement people WILL reach them. Often procurement > product in the power dynamics so no matter how bad the product gets those p…

I hate the penny-wise pound-foolish attitude both in embedded and Android phone development. For years now, Samsung has used a 'virtual proximity sensor' in everything but their premium stuff. Sensors like that are a few cents. Degrading the entire experience on the phone for a few cents cost savings. Say you do that for 25 components, saving 4 cents each. You've now saved $1 on a BoM of $100-$200, whilst making the…

Post by sidibe » Mon, May 12, 2025, 4:00 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #653

lompad wrote: post #595

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[flagged]

> Because tesla as a brand is uniquely tied to musk. Which is because he is in the media a lot. I can understand the impact on your brand as things are, but it would be interesting to see how well other manufacturers would stand up to scrutiny. > musk wasn't tesla's face and main profiteer of any purchase. The face bit of it makes sense. As for "main profiteer", he is the single largest shareholder, but its about 13%…

Post by ashoeafoot » Mon, May 12, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

rconti wrote: post #705

awongh wrote: post #638

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For american cars at least, I read that one of the reasons this process exists is because car companies want to work around union rules for manufacturing by outsourcing components of the cars to subcontractors that they can make deals with. Ultimately it's a price control strategy to pit these suppliers against each other to lower costs. But it means that designing these electronic sub-systems isn't just a question o…

That smells plausible, but from my seat as am armchair car enthusiast, it seems that foreign automakers outsource components just as often.

Post by jabl » Mon, May 12, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

jameshart wrote: post #640

jabl wrote: post #496

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Was something like 20 years since I was in India, but IIRC at least back then they didn't have a "priority to the right" traffic rule, but rather some kind of "the one who first honks has priority". Traveling in a taxi felt suicidal, drivers just honked when approaching an intersection and continued blithely. Based on a quick googling, this seems to no more be the case, and there is a 'priority to the right" rule.

By priority to the right do you mean a French style priorité a droite? Or American style stop sign priorities? Neither system describes how Indian traffic works, which is much more of an iterated cooperative fluid dynamics simulation, with the main rule being ‘don’t drive into people who are in front of you’. And they drive on the left, so priority to the right makes no sense.

Post by moduspol » Mon, May 12, 2025, 4:31 PM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #411

moduspol wrote: post #371

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I think the market for base Mavericks is pretty small. At that point it's really not providing much value over an SUV with rear seats that fold down. I agree not everyone wants to spend 40-80k, but that doesn't mean they want to spend $20k for a small no-frills EV in the shape of a truck with not many other similarities. I like the "starts out cheap, then upgrade it later" premise of Slate, and I like that it's elect…

AWD is only standard on the fanciest Maverick trim and not an option picked by the couple of folks I know with them. But that + the bed length doesn't seem to be stopping them from loving their trucks. Tacos also start at 5' IIRC. But if you have even just those once-a-year "need a truck bed" needs the gap between "SUV with fold down seats" and "actual truck" is pretty substantial. I think the set of truck buyers wit…