Hyundai Now Offers an Android Car, Even For Current Owners

An anonymous reader writes: Looking more like a computer company than a car company, Hyundai ships Android Auto on 2015 Sonatas and unlocks it for owners of the 2015 Sonata with a software update. Says the article: To enable Android Auto, existing 2015 Hyundai Sonata owners outfitted with the Navigation feature can download an update to a USB drive, plug it into the car's USB port, and rewrite the software installed in the factory on the head-unit. When the smartphone is plugged into the head-unit with a USB cable, the user is prompted to download Android Auto along with mobile apps. Android Auto requires Android 5.0 or above. That sounds like a good description of how I'd like my car's head unit to work -- and for that matter, I'd like access to all of the software.

Comments

Not "all software"

[davidwr]

When it comes to the software that makes a car a car, things shouldn't be so simple that even an idiot could do it.

Yes, I'm all for revoking copyright- and DRM from such software, but it should be a little more regulated than "plug and play."

Here is what I would recommend:

1) Use a standard, very simple, well-understood, non-patent/copyright-encumbered interface like a serial port or, if they aren't encumbered, existing car diagnostic ports.

2) Allow "anyone" to upload software that is "signed" by the manufacturer and for which the manufacturer will take full responsibility for. This is so Joe SixPack or any shade-tree mechanic with the hardware to access the diagnostic port can install factory-authorized software updates such without having to go to the dealer (think "your car has been recalled due to faulty software, here's the patch if you want to install it yourself rather than driving in to the dealership").

3) Any user who chooses to blow a hardware "fuse" can install any software he wants to without permission from the auto-maker, BUT prior to driving the vehicle on the public road he must register his car as an "experimental vehicle" and he assumes complete responsibility for it from that point on. Not only is the warranty void but he inherits the legal liability from the automaker if any mechanical or computer failure causes anyone any injury or death. Why? Because maybe there is a latent bug in the air-bag-sensor computer that, thanks to a different bug in the main computer's factory firmware, is never reached. A few days or weeks after the customer loads his own software into the main computer, the air bag bug rears its ugly head and someone dies because an air bag didn't deploy or deployed when it shouldn't have.

4) A dashboard indicator would show that the fuse had not been blown and it would be illegal to cause the indicator to come on if the fuse had been blown. The absence of this indicator would alert the driver that either he had a faulty indicator light or that he was driving an experimental vehicle.