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Microsoft Bets Big On Computing For the Car
dstates writes "The automobile industry may be hurting, but Microsoft is doubling down and making a massive new investment in its automotive business unit. Microsoft already works closely with a number of car companies and will enhance that effort with more people and more resources. Sync developed as a collaboration with Ford Motor Co. allows motorists to control their cell phones, music players and navigation systems with voice commands while they drive. Microsoft is also making 'Live Search' technology available to automakers to develop in-car search and navigation. Detroit native Tom Philips, the new unit leader said 'There are a lot of technologies that are two to three years out that are going to provide even more connectivity and innovation. There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives.'"
The major navigation units like TomTom run embedded linux.
fuck Mr Coffee, i want Mr Fusion!!!
Before anyone is going to post the story about Bill Gates and the director of GM about cars crashing 3 times a day: it never happened...
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
There's two points of computation in a car. There's the part that interfaces with the locomotion, like the engine chips that are commonly modded for performance by people who are like that, and then there's the part that doesn't, like GPS and your MP3 stash and your wardriving kit.
This is where I'm employed now, more or less. I don't expect to see any car company making it easy to be more than an observer of your engine and transmission any time soon. And you can brick your GPS, MP3, etc, and as long as you can trip the starter, you can drive your car.
Maybe you've got a more basic or an older unit or something but AFAIK most half-decent modern in-car GPS systems support bluetooth phone coupling and can play MP3s from an SD card. Only thing that might be missing is the radio.
How can they be that bad? because the asshats put too tight a grip on the crap.
AutoPC was a utter and horrible failure because of their "do it our way or Fark yourself" rules. Signing your app with their expensive signng policy was DESIGNED to keep the little guys away. Hardware hacking and building new interfaces was even harder as you had to shoehorn in driver updates with a full OS update.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Cars manufactured after 1996 have OBD-II (On Board Diagnostics). You can get a code reader/clearer for about $130 IIRC. Your local auto parts or tool store can get you more info. There are more exotic solutions out there that will do more if you're willing to spend big$, but I don't use those.
Here's a link to a basic tool similar to the one I use: http://www.autozone.com/R,904174/store,2366/shopping/accessoryProductDetail.htm
Also, a lot of auto parts stores will read your codes for free.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
...From past mistakes about how long a car is actually on the road compared to how long a computer is considered usable. We look back and laugh at cars that came with cassette tapes, 8-tracks, and god forbid, vinyl record players but they were innovative and useful for their times.
If M$ is serious about getting into this business, they need to take a lot of notes from the auto industry on longevity and modular design that makes the core easily replaceable as technology shifts. While full integration is great initially, it becomes cumbersome later when the changes come.
I can cite one example where Ford dropped the ball in in-car entertainment design. 1990's and early 2000's Taurus (and other models) had this full integrated, non-standard audio system that encompassed the entire center console, and when the buyer was sick of hearing the crappy audio system it was an absolute nightmare to back it out and put a standard DIN headunit in the car - not to mention the expensive and ugly aftermarket dash kit that was required.
Now, on the other hand, the Sync technology in the new Fords is very well done. Being a jaded anti-M$ person, I didn't want to like it, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well done it is. Sure, it has its flakiness, and the display on Ford's head units are dismal 1980's technology, but the phone integration, voice prompts, and usability make that pain go away. While it could use some improvement, I have to give hats off to Ford & M$ for a well done execution.
Whats the state of navigation for linux in car systems? It'd be fun to homebrew one, but without decent navigation it's not a whole lot of use.
I'm sure i should have some BSOD joke in here too, but i haven't had my coffee yet
Navigation is a hard problem, primarily due to a lack of data. There are free sources (as in public domain) of street line data for many countries, however you need topological network data to accurately route a car -- street intersections, one-way streets, weighting of streets according to real-world local conditions, etc.
The US Census releases the TIGER data, and OpenStreetMaps builds on that (and other) data with a public domain wiki-style site, but neither sources have sufficient topological data to route autos.
There are two primary providers of topological map data -- you'll see their logos at the bottom of most maps, including Google Maps: NavTeq and TeleAtlas. For a brief introduction to the scale of the problem, I'd actually recommend watching TeleAtlas's marketing video on their production process
I'd love to see furtherance of open topographical data -- data about the communities around us is useful for more than just routing automobiles. One very interesting development is Google StreetView. In taking these photographs, Google has removed the need to actually drive the routes to gather, correct, or refine data -- they can collect the photographs en-masse, allowing more specialized analysis to be done offline -- anyone, anywhere, can determine whether a street is one-way, where the freeway on-ramp is, etc.
I should also mention that OpenStreetMaps uses a share-alike creative-commons license. The definition of an "aggregate work" of data is very fluid -- I can not use OSM data, since I can't combine it with data available under different licensing -- even publicly available municipal data that simply can't be re-licensed CC Share-Alike.
http://plausible.coop
Harbor Freight sells OBD-II readers for $40 and have several other more expensive models as well. They read and clear diag messages.
You can build your own based on a pic microcontroller; this will interface to a laptop and give you real-time access to all the OBD-II information. There are opensource software packages for Windows and Linux that allow you to build virtual instrumentation if you want to see what your oil pressure or water temperature are, rather than just relying on the dashboard disaster lights, or see what your oxygen sensor or mass air flow sensor are reading, if you're really curious.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Turns out "SYNC" isn't so hot either and has very MS-esque screwups. Check out that dude's review. I couldn't believe it:
1) Apprently, it claims podcast support, but doesn't actually, er, let you say, "play podcast X", like a reasonable person with a functioning brain would assume was possible -- manual supposedly doesn't even have much mention of podcasts, despite other literature I've seen claiming it supports podcasts, which implies some level of support beyond "can play whichever ones it feels like".
2) Can't quite tell without dimensions on the picture, but he reports the button you're supposed to hit to use the voice commands, requires your thumb to be in a contorted, irritating position to use.
3) You must -- as you probably guessed-- navigate through irritating menus every time you start, including a lecture about your (ahem) lacking metadata. Don't use pirated stuff on Microsoft products! Even if it's um, something you created yourself.
4) The special compartment, designed SPECIFICALLY to hold your iPod, leaves it in plain view for thieves.
5) If you hit the phone button when you don't have a phone with you or it's not been set up, that disables the car's audio system until you "reboot" the engine. WTF?
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.