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The Era of Open Source Cars
An anonymous reader writes: An article at Ars Technica details how open source is slowly but surely working its way into the automotive manufacturing industry. A company named StreetScooter is flattening the design process, having designers and engineers work directly with suppliers right from the get-go. Another company, Local Motors, has built an open source community that's 50,000-strong, whose members include everybody from hobbyists to industrial engineers. Even the existing auto-giants are getting in on it: Ford has created OpenXC, a platform that is attempting to standardize how to get data out of a car's computer. The article concludes, "These various automotive open source advocates come at the topic from different backgrounds and with different approaches, but they can all recognize we've entered an era for open source cars that simply didn't exist before."
I thought car makers were using the DMCA to send the Copyright Police(tm) around to kick in your door in the middle of the night to gas your dog with Zyklon B for having the audacity to read your odometer without their permission (and licensing fee).
What the hell is going on here? Is this some kind of sting? IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!!
Hopefully they know the lesson we've learned in aerospace (e.g. ARINC-653), to partition critical and non-critical assets into separate computing units (hardware and/or software). That way some yahoo can't hack your in-car Facebook app to disable your brakes. Don't these guys watch Battlestar Galactica?
My friend Debbie Ann is so promiscuous, instead of an appointment book she needs a package manager
... as long as they don't use systemd.
Yeah, but will these cars be allowed on the road without full safety and emissions tests and certification? Certainly not in my country. Will they be able to be insured?
You can if you build it yourself. Most places have exemptions for that, so you don't need to pass the crash test safety and emissions regulations.
Open-source engine management is alive and well and has been for at least 8 years. I think you have screw loose if you drive a car with closed, proprietary systems in the wake of the On-Star/NSA police alliance, and all of the other privacy-invasive intrusions into your car and your life.
How many /.'ers practice what they preach WRT to their vehicles?
People have been building their own cars for decades and decades. Go get yourself a Jegs catalog. How about a Year One Catalog too. Go buy a kitcar magazine. Get yourself a welder. Kids these days. is everyone a moron now?
Afraid of laws or insurance? Buy a cheap donor car from the junkyard and strip it to the frame.
Open source works for software, surely we can open source cars and underwear and _____ and it will be awesome just like how Linux rules over Windows, right? I'm guessing that's what the tool who wrote TFA (which I didn't read) is thinking.
Cars are not like software. Start-up costs for Linux was zero. Start-up costs for an automotive factory is so stupendously large it's laughable to think you can crowdfund this. The design cost of the car you're driving is tiny, most of cost is labor, raw materials and capital equipment. Going open source will help you exactly zero here.
Not to mention all of the certifications. The argument forming here against that seems to be along the lines of kit car analogies, but if I wanted to build my own car I already would have. Open source has no impact on that. I'm expecting to buy an open source car from someone already built at a steep discount over that of a manufacturer with all of the same warranties and features. How that magically will occur without incurring liability and regulation is seemingly... well, magic.
To produce cars quickly in high volume, the costs are high.
To produce a car over a long period: use 3D printers, local fitters and turners, suppliers for some pre-arranged COTS items, and a lot of your own time. Cost considerably reduced.
Cost savings: don't pay for large auto company's executive salaries, legal departments, marketing, shipping across the world, dealership networks, dealership marketing, ...
It is just the natural evolution of the kit car industry. If it wasn't viable, they would've died out long ago.
Will someone please make a systemd joke?
You are welcome on my lawn.
... there will never be a production car with an open source ECU. Until then, lots of reverse engineering is in order.
http://s4wiki.com/wiki/Tuning
The vast majority of the standards that cars have to meet are about passenger safety, emissions, and fuel economy. There is a standard for electronic interfacing to an automotive computer, but its specifications are widely known. The "open source" side of bringing a car to market (ie, the computer controls) is probably not the hard part.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Would they come with that GNU car smell?
"Even the existing auto-giants are getting in on it: Ford has..."
Let's wait for their reaction when the first garage shop is 3d-printing body parts cheaper than theirs, before we celebrate their open-mindedness about Open Source.
Is it cost effective to actually build your own car?
Sola Scriptura Sola Fide Sola Gratia Sola Christus
You expect it to be cheaper? You are funny.
Are open source laptops cheaper than Windows laptops?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
They used to be until MS cut their prices. That is, with the exception of the agreements MS had preventing commodity PC vendors from selling systems without Windows.