Slashdot Mirror
Dealing with Outdated Automotive Software?
Jan Hendrik Montag asks: "My car mechanics had problems to fix a problem in electronic motor management with my 14 yr old Audi. That was not too surprising. But as my mechanic consulted a Volkswagen/Audi-company, they received the answer, that my car is too old and they don't have the appropriate devices and software to read my cars' mind. I just wonder, what will happen in 20 or 30 years to then-vintage-cars from today? Shouldn't there be a necessity to declare old car-software and diagnostic devices open-source just to make sure a collector then can repair his/her car just as it is possible to repair an old car from the 60's? Or will those cars be doomed in case of failure? What would be a solution?"
There is a Frank Zappa quote that almost fits slashdot to a T...
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
You haven't bought a brand new gas guzzling, oversized monstrosity of a SUV|Pickup|Minivan yet? How un-American of you not to support the American and Middle-Eastern oil-based economies by doing this! Shame on you!!
I too, have delt alot with older cars, and one of the more frustrating things ive noticed is that the Kelly Blue Book online service, cuts off the models of cars at anywhere around like 80-89 depending on the make and model. What occured to me is how easy it would be for another site to harvest the data off Kelly's before it gets removed as newer cars get added.. its just a thought but such a site would be very useful. Also ive noticed theres little infomation on alot of Cars in terms of Reverse Engineering and Hacking solutions for problems that perhaps for whatever reason the part required is eather not available or wayyy too expensive. I think creating a "Everything2" style site but for Reverse Engineering would be a much welcomed change on the web.