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Tesla, Ford, Amazon Hint At Cloudy Future For Cars
Nerval's Lobster writes "The automobile, once the most analog of technologies, is rapidly becoming a smartphone on wheels: Amazon announced Feb. 13 that Ford SYNC Applink-equipped vehicles will include the Amazon Cloud Player, allowing drivers to access their music libraries via voice command or dashboard controls. Ford isn't the only automotive company seeking to integrate cloud computing into the driving experience. Tesla Motors' Model S electric sedan boasts a 17-inch capacitive touch-screen in place of the usual dashboard buttons and dials. And who could forget Google's self-driving car? This isn't a future everybody wants—there are more than a few wannabe Steve McQueens who won't feel complete unless they can stomp on a pedal connected to an internal-combustion engine, flick a physical dashboard knob to the radio station of their choice, and peel out their driveway in a cloud of burning rubber. But as the latest technology migrates into automobiles, it could well be the future we're going to receive."
Oh! I see what you did there!
it doesnt move depending on what mode my screen is in or require me to look to change the volume
To be honest I would trust amazon more than the average driver.
The main issue is probably privacy, but the internet is doing a good
job of getting rid of that anyway.
Until that key moment when the Royal American Federation prohibits manual control that you'd actually lose your freedom, & that's not due for another 50 years. Besides, road deaths account for 1/50 of all deaths; we COULD undo that cause of death almost entirely, but no, let's just let them die because people might end up too stupid to know how to turn the governor off & then can't play IRL Mario Kart.
Except most of the manufacturers won't want to expend the effort to keep their old products up-to-date. Look forward to drive-by hackings of your buggy car firmware. And new web technologies relegating your $60k+ car to the status of a 5 year old PC.
A touchscreen dash is an absolutely horrid idea. Physical buttons can be accessed via muscle memory. A dynamic control with zero tactile feedback requires you to focus on it for every function. How can anyone in the automotive industry not see this as an enormous liability?
Having a video or computer display in the line of sight of the driver is already illegal in most states (distraction) and having a computer in the front seat of a vehicle is illegal in at least California. I can't help but wonder how a 17" touchscreen with computer controls will be viewed by the police and court systems.
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What they are really afraid of is the fact that once cars become self-driving, no one will need to own one anymore.
Technology is actually upended the business model of the entire autoindustry. They might innovate themselves right out of business.
I mean seriously who cares about cloudplayer in a self-driving car? If it can drive itself I'll just leave my earbuds in.
The most common vehicle in 10 years will be the autonomous Dodge caravan, taxiing us all around. Rich people will have maybe their own auto-Bently's or something, but the rest of us will just share a car.
It already costs a good amount to get, for example, a basic replacement temperature control knob thing, whatever the hell the proper name for it is. I don't want to know what a 17" touchscreen will cost, even a decade into the future, just to get your fan/heater/AC controls working again. I really do not like the way cars are heading; even without the cost, who says I want all this bullshit? Seriously, the more computerized they make cars, the more revolting they get.
I agree. Cell phones and texting and all that jazz is making crashes more common. It's killing people, literally. It's as bad as driving drunk, some people have said. I just bought a '12 Civic Si and I plan on driving it for 10+ years, so I don't have to worry about tech ruining my ride. Stick shift n' clutch all the way, baby. Electronic doodads are just a sideshow anyways. The real advancement in automobile tech will be whatever energy source dethrones these godawful fossil fuels we use to power vehicles.
Entirely unrelated: the more digital cars get the more unreliable they will become.
You realize cars have been almost completely computer-controlled for about a decade? Digital isn't to be equated with unreliable, bad design is.
How long til a malicious person is able to crash (potentially lots of) cars in the real world by hacking into some cloud servers? Or make the cars run over pedestrians instead of avoid them?
This is potentially a really serious problem, that people so far are ignoring. Maybe we need a law requiring physical isolation of a self-driving car's control computer from all networks. They need access to GPS data, but this can probably accommodated with special hardware that does its best to ensure only GPS data is passed in.
commenting to remove my accidental -1. mod parent underrated.
FCKGW 09F9 42
The biggest problem I see with these systems is very rapid obsolescence. You'll generally replace a phone or tablet a lot more often than a car. There should be a standard port to attach a tablet to and the car manufacturer can offer software for all the major platforms, or you can choose to use something else. Instead we seem to be getting a bunch of built in tablets running code that we have no control over and can't replace. Is anybody sorting this out?
well.. that depends..
the 17" touchscreen instead of proper controls is actually a cost cutting measure. less designing, less tooling, less commitment early on in the design phase.
so a 17" touchscreen should be easier to source than exotic lever systems.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
he's on a motorcycle.
#DeleteChrome
Indeed. I think however that as with any trend it will evolve. I think cars becoming more sophisticated (well ....) become also more and more expensive. It may be that automation of driving experience may be at t he same time expensive for a common owner and cheap if used as a service. If these things can drive by themselves why not let them drive the whole day long instead of two commuting drives a day plus some odd shopping, cinema, massage parlor drives a week? I can imagine that you live in a metropolitan area this may be a good choice and one enforced by raising prices. I do not mind if that were the case. OC car companies would not appreciate that this much as such new trend would mean less cars sold but if I look at our streets and park lots I see too many cars not too few and frankly owning a car is a nuisance unless you live in a countryside. I have already met people leasing cars: one for commuting and common needs and another for holidays etc. Moving this direction would be perfect for me and I think plenty of other folks that do not want to bother having a car and caring for its maintenance etc. Hell if I had real brains I would patent the idea the hell out of public domain.
It's not just the touchscreen either as it'll be a whole assembly, which certainly will not scale in the consumer's favor 10 years after the car was built.
Touch screens are a really bad and dangerous idea in cars if not coupled with very good voice control. I briefly used Pioneer's App Radio and found it a good idea but utterly dangerous to even change radio channel whilst driving.
Knobs and buttons all the way!
Dennis Onstenk
What they are really afraid of is the fact that once cars become self-driving, no one will need to own one anymore.
Technology is actually upended the business model of the entire autoindustry. They might innovate themselves right out of business.
I mean seriously who cares about cloudplayer in a self-driving car? If it can drive itself I'll just leave my earbuds in.
The most common vehicle in 10 years will be the autonomous Dodge caravan, taxiing us all around. Rich people will have maybe their own auto-Bently's or something, but the rest of us will just share a car.
...like me, they'll own motorcycles, probably. Riding a bike (full disclosure: I love my Ducati 1098) is about as close to flying as you can get in two dimensions. The subset of the population that enjoys driving cars and riding bikes for the sheer exhilaration of it (vanishingly small, to be sure, but extant nonetheless) are immune to the marketing gimmicks you are basing your argument on. I have a BT-enabled comm system in my helmet that already lets me voice control my phone -- I can drag a knee at a buck-twenty while listening to Moby *and* send a sell order to my broker at the same time. No amount of autonomous vehicle goodness (and it is a goodness, btw) will alter that in the slightest.
I'm currently repairing my friends car made in 1999 that has the heater controls on a 7" LCD. It's not touchscreen, it uses physical controls but the setting is shown on the screen and it is impossible to even demist the windows without it.
The replacement is prohibitively expensive but used units are available from end of life cars, however they may not last very long and the labour involved in fitting them is very lengthy.
You're neglecting cultural aspects. People will continue to use cars, even when other means are more affortable and practical, because a car isn't just a means of transport. It's a symbol and statement of freedom: The power to go where you want, when you want, bound by no schedule and dependant on no-one. Less so in Europe than the US. Over there, owning their first car is one of the big rites of passage for teenagers.
I don't want to know what a 17" touchscreen will cost, even a decade into the future, just to get your fan/heater/AC controls working again.
More than that: I can work the controls on my 2003 Golf TDI without taking my eyes off the road. The folks at VW did their homework enough that most knobs and buttons having a unique enough feel and movement that I can adjust settings (audio, HVAC) with my right hand while keeping my left hand on the wheel, and my eyes on the road because of the tactile feedback.
I cannot see how the same thing can be done with an all-screen control panel.
I wouldn't against a large screen for information display, with touch functionality, but I also want (properly designed) knobs as well.
I just want a plain AFFORDABLE electric car. 100 miles a day on an over night charge. $20000 or less. What is so hard about that?
No hour on a horse is ever wasted. Winston Churchill
I've got an 05 car without anitlocks or traction control and an 08 car with both. Guess which one I drive in heavy winter weather? Just because the last fifty miles were cleared perfectly doesn't mean the 500 ft when I want to be able to stop aren't pure ice. I want all the "oh shit where did my dry road go" gizmos on my car I can get since I can't spot ice a few hundred feet ahead of me in the dark.
I am an experienced mechanic who loves old cars. Your post is bullshit.
Those cars were simple, pretty, unreliable, maintenance-intensive, and did a fine job of killing their passengers in a crash. Their brakes were garbage (front drums, single master cylinders) which is why brake shops in mountainous areas were a common sight.
Your post is nonsense and deserves no respect. I grew up working on those rides. It's no accident that many modern owners update them so they actually steer and stop.
Feature bloat is not necessary, but sells cars. I can and do work on my modern vehicles and don't pay anyone else to wrench them. The way to repair modern vehicles reasonably is the same as ever. Use good parts from salvage with a few new bits as needed. I've built many cars and trucks for a used car lot where we did this. It's standard. I'd rather bolt on factory parts as assemblies to save time and labor, so salvage rules.
I'm disgusted with "mechanics" who won't learn modern systems. Modern hot rodders take full advantage of improved ignition control and fuel management, so there is no excuse for snivelling.
Modern CNC production methods are what make TODAY the new Golden Age of performance. It's cheaper and easier to maintain your beloved antiques than ever before. The aftermarket has plenty of support for whatever you want to do.
I'd get off your lawn but I can't find it and suspect it's located in Atlantis.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
An existing example in another market is the Boeing/Airbus duopoly. In the current world market no one outside of Europe or the US has a lot of control over what kinds of long and intermediate passenger planes are built. (Short range passenger aircraft are a different story.) The Chinese are already working on joining this club, by the way.
It is incredibly difficult to enter this market: pretty much everything has been swallowed up and the two major powers are supported heavily by their respective governments. Not saying that China can't do it, but it's a very big uphill struggle since they don't have 60 years experience in building large long range jet aircraft. Even Anatov don't do much by the way of large passenger craft any more, although they are quite clearly capable of mass producing large airframes.
Of course modern airframes are apparently beyond the capability of one company to produce now (never mind the ancilliary parts), so there may be a way in, but it won't be easy, especially as they'll have to go through all the "oh crap my aircraft just fell apart mid air for no apparent reason" moments because they don't have the institutional knowledge yet.
Manufacturing is shifting: consumer stuff has long gone. The high tech, high margin stuff, like precision tools, airframes etc hasn't shifted. The main reason for shifting is due to the cost of labour. If that's not a significant factor, there's not much reason for it to shift. That doesn't preclude a country developing it's own competing industry though.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The second part is entirely untrue. If you grew up in the 70's and 80's you would remember that a car owner would feel lucky to get 100,000 miles out of a car. Now, if you don't get at least that many miles, you bought a lemon. Better manufacturing techniques are part of it, of course, but no small part of the increased reliability is computer controlled combustion.
God is imaginary
I'm sure there will be a market for private roads where people can continue to drive manually for fun. Honestly, I don't want people having fun on the road I'm using to commute. I want them to be focused on operating their vehicles safely.
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