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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

#741

Post by lotsofpulp »

sidibe wrote: post #733
graemep wrote: post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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%…

Even ignoring his initial shares from funding Tesla, he has been compensated more than Tesla has ever made in profits

The majority of the owners of the other shares voted to compensate him more (by market value of shares that cannot be sold for 5 years, not cash, which is a relevant distinction) than Tesla has ever made in profit.

And since the compensation is equity, comparing it to profit, which is cash, makes no sense. One can discuss if the market price of the equity is too far removed from current profit, but surely even Elon doesn’t have any influence over what millions of investors around the world choose to pay for Tesla shares.

Should majority owners of a business not be able to vote on compensation?

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

#742

Post by qcic »

whstl wrote: post #593
jabl wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I saw something similar when visiting Latin America a few years ago, in a neighbourhood friends lived in. Some people would just go full speed in residential streets and hold the horn while crossing intersections because I guess that's what's gonna keep their car intact?

Latin America is “just” 33 countries each with their own culture (not to mention Brazil with its massive size).

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

#743

Post by whstl »

qcic wrote: post #742
whstl wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw something similar when visiting Latin America a few years ago, in a neighbourhood friends lived in. Some people would just go full speed in residential streets and hold the horn while crossing intersections because I guess that's what's gonna keep their car intact?

Latin America is “just” 33 countries each with their own culture (not to mention Brazil with its massive size).

Yeah, I know. I just don't want to self-doxx by mentioning the country.

I also don't think this is part of any specific culture, mine or someone else's, it's just something I saw in one neighbourhood.

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

#744

Post by [deleted] »

gerdesj wrote: post #321
latchkey wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I wish they would install tiny horn buttons on all the vehicles in Vietnam! In that country, the horn is a method of communication, much to the ire of literally everyone trying to exist.

Excessive horning (made up word) is not just a Vietnamese thing. Italy is probably Europe's worst offender, with Greece a close contender. I'm not so familiar with Asia, but I get the impression that the entirety of Indian and most of Chinese drivers feel the need to lean on the horn with gay abandon (fnarr). In Britain the horn is generally reserved for "fuck that was close: I think you are a bit of a tosser" or "yo…

[deleted]

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

#745

Post by dbolgheroni »

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?

That's what many OEMs have been doing for decades and this is exactly what many SDV have been trying to get rid of, since integrating many different products from many different manufacturers are slow, let alone iterating and designing new features.

Related to CAN, the bus is standard, but the thing is, CAN is just a bus, not a protocol. There are many ways you can have two ECUs (vehicle's modules) talking in incompatible ways.

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

#746

Post by loeg »

DanielHB wrote: post #557
loeg wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The memory goes bad because they write useless logs to a chip, and it eventually fails. I worked for a $ ~billions revenue software storage vendor who had the exact same issue (excessive logging wearing out under-spec'd flash drives).

We had the exact same issue as well haha These kind of problems only happen years after the software roll out so no one cares when you are under time pressure.

We sold physical hardware with bundled software, so we could actually create the problem via in-market software update that didn't exist at time of sale! Fun times.

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

#747

Post by loeg »

immibis wrote: post #513
loeg wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The memory goes bad because they write useless logs to a chip, and it eventually fails. I worked for a $ ~billions revenue software storage vendor who had the exact same issue (excessive logging wearing out under-spec'd flash drives).

Issue, or revenue driver?

Issue. We warrantied the longevity of those flash drives, and they were cheap anyway. The problem was mostly the customer pain.

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

#748

Post by ben_w »

brightball wrote: post #738
lompad wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I've seen the video. His excuse isn't good enough.

It's not just that I live in a city with small brass plaques on the pavement, in memory of those who were made to disappear last time[0].

It's not just that protestors projecting the image of the guy himself in the middle of that salute, on the walls of his own factory in Brandenburg, was enough to warrant an official investigation because such symbolism is unlawful in Germany[1].

He tried to support to the AfD political party in Germany, who were already suspected of being an extremist party (and have since been officially determined as such), and where several party members had already faced legal problems for using banned Nazi slogans[2] while their former friends at the EU level dropped them for trying to rehabilitate the image of the actual SS[3].

This is who they were before Musk chose to support them. And you trust his word on the innocent interpretation?

It's not like Musk has otherwise got a reputation for being particularly trustworthy — Musk got away with calling someone a pedo by claiming it was a joke; he's been punished for claiming that an offer to buy Tesla for 420/share, which can only be interpreted as a joke, was serious, and that he's really upset to be accused of saying anything untrue; he's mislead people about how close his cars are to full self driving, leading to out-of-court settlements[4].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolperstein

[1] https://www.dw.com/en/germany-musk-tesla-nazi-salute/a-71403...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/german...

[3] https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/european-parl...

[4] https://electrek.co/2023/11/07/tesla-owner-wins-10k-settleme...

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

#749

Post by zhengyi13 »

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?

ITYM "CAN bus" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus

Pioneer has been selling standard-sized Android Auto head units for over a decade at this point.

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

#750

Post by paulddraper »

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

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> required That’s…terrible

...why? Seems pretty sensible to me?

One more thing to increase cost, fragility, security concerns, in an age when virtually everyone already has a cell device anyway.
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