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New Zealand Developers Building Open Source Code For Electric Cars

Posted by Soulskill on from the free-and-open-source-wheelin' dept.

MatthewVD writes "New Zealand electric racecar developer Greenstage is close to finishing an open source project called 'Tumanako,' which would allow owners of electric cars and motorcycles to tweak the code in their vehicles. Electric vehicle gearheads grouse about proprietary code that keeps current, torque and speed within very conservative limits. 'In racing, you need the system to push all those parameters to the limits. You only need the system to survive until just past the finish line,' says Bill Dube, the owner of the record-setting KillaCycle. Open source code could also be used to build any type of electric vehicle, from cars and submarines to motor-launched aerial gliders, from scratch. It's like Linux for your Chevy Volt."

29 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Hooray! by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 1

    Now everyone can screw up the priority between the gas an brake pedal in regen mode!

  2. couple things by Osgeld · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1) I dont have a chevy volt, I bought a 40mpg Kia 2 years before the tax credits, and cash for clunkers were announced, and a little bitter that I did the right thing and got fuck all nothing for it.

    2) I dont want to sound too assie, but how many gearheads are computer / electronic nerds? This may well be the future for more professional setups, but when you have local racer Johnny brazing spade terminals for a simple toggle switch with a blow torch looking at written instructions at the drag strip I dunno, seems ripe for people to come in, take the fruits of your labor, slap it on a 1$ rom and sell it as a 299$ speed chip.

    1. Re:couple things by eggfoolr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Me, me! I'm a gear head and an electronics nerd.

      I work in IT and race a Mazda RX7 on the weekends. I rebuilt and modified the motor and programmed the ECU! I've been wanting to build an electric race car like this for years and now I can get a head start with this project. Fantastic!

    2. Re:couple things by Formalin · · Score: 1

      The knack.
      It's a rare condition characterized by an extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical... and utter social ineptitude.

      I know a few others with this diagnosis. varying amounts of all three, of course.

    3. Re:couple things by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      I dont want to sound too assie, but how many gearheads are computer / electronic nerds?

      I'd say about 2/3rds. EFI's been around for a long time and now there's fucking CANbus, you pretty much have to deal with computers to be a gearhead (whether the situation calls for it or not).

      Also, "Linux for you Chevy Volt?" Really? More like Megasquirt for your Nissan Leaf.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    4. Re:couple things by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      I dunno, seems ripe for people to come in, take the fruits of your labor, slap it on a 1$ rom and sell it as a 299$ speed chip.

      Damn dude....why did you have to broadcast my new business plan like that?!?!?!

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    5. Re:couple things by sjames · · Score: 1

      Have you seen the tech in an F1 racer these days? It takes a while, but that does slowly trickle down. Soon enough, dirt track racers will have a software specialist on the team.

  3. Just don't let... by Zapotek · · Score: 2

    ...people named Keith download it and flash their car. (Top Gear reference, in case you're wondering)

  4. Interesting Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    200kW Inverters, Battery Management Systems, and chargers are all high price items right now. I'm curious to see where this goes. It's an ambitious undertaking but it could be done with the right people working on the project.

  5. Electric != Autonomous by robwgibbons · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had a weird mixed reaction to this, before I remembered what "electric car" actually means. Open-source electric cars are a great idea. However, if this were to be extended to autonomous cars I would begin to get worried. Allowing people the ability to modify the software controlling their autonomous vehicle seems to me an inherently bad idea.

    1. Re:Electric != Autonomous by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Pick up that can, citizen!

      --
      Good-bye
    2. Re:Electric != Autonomous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      An electric car is about a ton of metal that moves in public under only loose control of its driver. It's not quite autonomous, but, for the most part, the only thing that makes it slow down and stop on demand is the software, which is designed and tested to ensure that bad things don't happen. Can you say the same of the latest source release you downloaded from the internet? .. And if it isn't?

      Put another way: It's illegal for people to drive on public roads without being qualified. Why would you let unqualified software control a car in public?

    3. Re:Electric != Autonomous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Amen, brother!!

      I said the same thing when a thing called "Linux" was created and nobody believed me. And now we have Android!!

    4. Re:Electric != Autonomous by shippers · · Score: 1

      Umm, how is this any different from linux which exist in so many important things?....

      The big difference here is that if something were to go wrong with your desktop / smartphone / tablet then people tend not to be seriously injured as a result. All it would take is for a stray pointer to screw with some RAM used to calculate PWM or inverter output frequencies and you've got real potential to lock the drive wheels in an instant. Anyone who has put DC current through an AC motor will know how much braking torque it can develop. And that's not the kind of thing you want to happen, without warning, when tanking down the highway on your bike at 70mph.

      And if things do go wrong? Well, I suppose being able to lay blame on a particular company or organisation would be scant consolation for someone who has lost the use of their lower body.

    5. Re:Electric != Autonomous by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Why would you let unqualified software control a car in public?

      Because, you can do it today...you are free to do anything you want with your car's system computers...and many cars are already pretty much drive by wire.

      The only difference between now and your question, is the engine (internal combustion vs electric).

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  6. Linux car distros by qrwe · · Score: 1

    ..always knew they would come at last.

    --
    There are 2 types of people in the world - those who understand decimal and those who don't.
    1. Re:Linux car distros by c0lo · · Score: 2

      ..always knew they would come at last.

      So, when the "year of Linux on race cars" is supposed to be?

      (ducks)

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    2. Re:Linux car distros by DCFusor · · Score: 1

      You can get GM's linux car distro online.

      --
      Why guess when you can know? Measure!
  7. ArcticCore by jd · · Score: 2

    Is the gas engine equivalent. It'll be interesting to see if/when anyone actually uses either project, versus the software merely being there. The world doesn't operate according to Field of Dreams, building it means nothing. What matters is not what is there, but what people find useful.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    1. Re:ArcticCore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      [Arctic Core] Is the gas engine equivalent. It'll be interesting to see if/when anyone actually uses either project, versus the software merely being there..

      Arctic Core is being used in several University projects around the world (with main focus on scheduling, multicore and diagnostics; have a swift look on Google Scholar for a couple of them). Its commercially licensed branch is already being used in some commercial ECUs in actual commercial vehicles, and several ECUs are in testing. Although far from all of the AUTOSAR standard is covered to date, the most important parts are, and has been proven useful and stable.

      As you might imagine, the automotive world is very keen on its secrets, which is why details on who uses what are often hard to find. Also, the big players of course do not want to use the GPL as this has virous infections on trade-secret software for the thousands of functions hidden inside the vehicles.

  8. What is the relevance? by udippel · · Score: 2

    ... of an article of 2009 on April 11, 2012?
    I mean, technically.

    1. Re:What is the relevance? by tqk · · Score: 1

      ... of an article of 2009 on April 11, 2012? I mean, technically.

      Some things need gestation time? Some things are cool ideas out of the box, but what's its application? I've worked with startups that had cool ideas, but no real plan as to what to do with it or how to sell it once done. Who's the eventual target market?

      "Uhh, ... But it's cool, yes?"

      Not good enough. In this case, I see 1st day Redhat admins hypermodding their cars which end up slamming into bridge abutments.

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:What is the relevance? by docilespelunker · · Score: 1

      Indeed, it's all very nice having some software, but it'll nail you to a particular set of hardware - and that's now 3 years out of date...

  9. What could possibly go wrong? by thoughtspace · · Score: 1

    See comment!

  10. silent danger by Max_W · · Score: 1

    Once I was almost hit by a silent electric motorcycle, which was speeding on a cycling path in a city at about 70 km/h, completely silent.

  11. Mario is slowing down! by FairAndHateful · · Score: 1

    You only need the system to survive until just past the finish line,' says Bill Dube

    While this is, in a race, true, it is a limit that a lot of race teams have bounced against and lost. Also, while I think most people receive value from what is learned in races, but they want their daily driver to have a little more longevity. Hopefully there's still enough pep to let the thing merge in traffic.

  12. Re:Fuck by oztiks · · Score: 1

    Maybe they can mange the repository on megaupload.

  13. Just another process crash? by seniorcoder · · Score: 1

    "I'm going to rebuild the car kernel and take her out for a spin" Sentences like this can give a more literal meaning to the crash and burn of a process. I suppose they take the injured driver to a hospital with his core dump. Who guarantees there was even adequate unit testing done before a car goes out onto the highway with other unsuspecting drivers? Then again, I suppose its the same answer as to when I added the airbag suspension to my low-rider without getting my car re-inspected.

  14. Chevy Volt is linux already by DCFusor · · Score: 1

    And they've posted some changes to comply with GPL. Not bad, guys. I love my Volt, it's a cool car, and I charge it with off-grid solar. It might not fly, but hey, I'll take this over the George Jetson car, because I can actually have this.

    --
    Why guess when you can know? Measure!