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Auto Makers To Standardize On Open Source
Lucas123 writes "There are efforts underway within the auto industry to create a standard, Linux-based platform for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems so that cars will act more like smartphones instead of having only about 10% of that functionality today. For example, Tesla's Model S IVI system, which is based on Linux, is designed to allow drivers to navigate using Google Maps with live traffic information, listen to streaming music from any online radio station and have access to an Internet browser for news or restaurant reviews. Having an industry-wide open-source IVI operating system would create a reusable platform consisting of core services, middleware and open application layer interfaces that eliminate the redundant efforts to create separate proprietary systems by automakers and their tier 1 suppliers like Microsoft. By developing an open-source platform, carmakers can share upgrades as they arrive."
Just make the damn thing take in bluetooth and HDMI. The car infotainment should have no brains. Just let it run off of a normal device the user already owns.
Just like your phone, a vehicles IVI can be updated months or years after the car drives off the line... but how likely is that?
We've come to expect a ~2 year update cycle with phones... and many a manufacturer will simply stop issuing updates well before that time as an insentive to upgrade to the latest & greatest.
Cars have a much longer lifetime on the road, do we really think that the currently shipping Model XYZ from AutoCo with all of the bells and whistles is going to get the latest IVI update in 3, 5 or 10 years?
"Sorry, but you need an IVI 3.2 based system for that upgrade" will be the excuse.
Yes... even with OSS "you can just upgrade it yourself!"... which assumes the average user has the knowhow, skill & a vehicle that is so easily upgraded.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
XKCD Standards
Why not just use Android?
OK, show of hands, how many of us want our cars to behave like smartphones?
Now, the second show of hands, how many of us think this is probably not what you want in the dash of your car?
Driving your car is not the place to be reading restaurant reviews, and once some moron can text from his dash, we'll get the same problem we have with people with their phones now. Hell, from what I can tell if you put most people in a car with the radio off, they still wouldn't be able to safely operate the car.
I don't imagine it would be long before places started outlawing using the screen in your car for some of this stuff while you're driving.
Me, I think most forms of 'infotainment' in a car is a potentially fatal combination. I see enough drivers that can't actually stay within their lane now, let alone while trying to catch up on Breaking Bad while in their car. The last thing most drivers need is even more shiny things to distract them while driving.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
See, when it comes to cars, anything new and exciting is a selling point for the new models. So while the makers of these IVI products could share updates, the car manufactures are going to be advertising the latest version or spiffy new features incorporated only in this new model, and try hard to keep other makers' models from having that upgrade.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
As the the automaker CEO listened to his kids cry about their phone being almost unusable after a software upgrade, he realized the true genius of Steve Jobs.
Place nail here >+
"a reusable platform consisting of core services, middleware and open application layer interfaces"
Sounds like comp sci wankery. Once marketing, legal and design people get involved it will all be so customized, hacked and extended that none of those concepts will remain true.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I know how to drive. All I need is a temperature and oil pressure gauge, keep it simple stupid!
Can I replace the abomination that is Microsoft Sync in my Ford? I have tried to enable the "read text message" option with several brands of Android phones, with no success. Ford's suggestion? Reset to factory settings, which does dick-all.
"Could be worse...could be raining." Igor
Microsoft still licenses their software like it's 1982 and they are the toll collector on progress. You buy a copy of their newest [whatever] program and pay them the fee that they set. They never look at what they provide and ask themselves 'are we providing value equivalent to what we are collecting in tolls?' Auto companies, in contrast, have to do that with absolutely every thing that they provide since cars are very complex performance-driven devices that are competitively mass-produced and consequently sell for little money relative to their high cost of manufacture. Moreover, cars must be both reliable and supported/maintained for 20 years after they are sold. All of these are foreign concepts to Microsoft which can't see any reason why they should not just release V x.x of their 'car OS' and sell it to manufacturers who would eagerly link everything to it. The manufacturer's, though, need to have control over the source code for critical updates, control over the licensing and distribution, and control over the overall structure and software design. Manufacturer's have been putting software in cars for over 20 years and they could never settle for Microsoft's way of doing things...so turning to OSS is inevitable for them.
MS is not a big player in car infotainment.
My new Ford C-Max Hybrid, with the infamous MyFordTouch, has a Microsoft label on the dash and a Microsoft EULA in the owner's manual.
I got a ford recently and holy shit does Microsoft Sync blow chunks. It had bluetooth but only in mono?!?! The phone quality was terrible and worst of all the entire damned thing was integrated into every electronic system in the car so when I wanted to rip the junk out and put in a decent head unit (cd player) I had to spend $130 on a small computer to translate everything and keep all my dash lights and steering wheel controls working. The only headunits compatible with MS Sync are $600 kenwood Nav systems.
Touch screens are solid state so last a long time. You will be able to control the air con, play music, connect to GPS satellites..
Anyone who thinks touchscreens should be involved with anything that is likely to be manipulated while driving should be hit (At low speed. We want them to learn, not die) by a driver who was looking down to fiddle with one of their stupid creations.
Thou shalt not require visual feedback. Anything the driver is going to use while driving shall be usable blind. That means buttons and knobs that do exactly one thing and provide tactile and/or aural feedback.
The only things that the driver should be looking at are the road, the mirrors (or equivalent. Well-positioned exterior cameras can give much better visibility than mirrors), and the gauges.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Huh? No, I disagree.
I'm fine with the car supporting technologies like bluetooth or offering HDMI connectivity to an external screen. But I don't want it to "just run off a normal device the user already owns". (I'd assume this implies a smartphone for most situations.)
I'd prefer the device in my car to be completely self-sustaining. If I happen to not bring my phone with me for whatever reason, I don't want the whole in-car infotainment/navigation system to be rendered useless! By the same token, I'd rather not have to bog down my smartphone with apps that need to run every time I get in my car, just because my car is just another dumb "remote control device" for it on my phone.
I can't wait till the IT department can enforce password changes very 6 months on users cars because the IVI can access corporate data. It'll be sweet!
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