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Microsoft Teams With Automakers To Put Windows, Office In Cars (microsoft.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Today Microsoft announced partnerships with several companies to bring Windows 10, Office 365, and Azure to cars. Volvo is having their Call Universal App integrate with Windows 10 smartphones and Microsoft Band 2 watches to let drivers interact with their cars. Harman, a company that builds infotainment systems, will allow drivers to access Office 365 services (while parked or while the car is driving itself). IAV, a similar company, will let users stream Windows 10 Continuum from their smartphone directly to a vehicle's dashboard. Finally, Nissan's LEAF and Infiniti models in Europe will run their telematics system on Azure. "The common thread between these announcements is that Microsoft is pitching Azure as an enabling platform, tossing in analytics and focusing on its core productivity strengths. Aside from the Microsoft Band 2 partnership with Volvo, Microsoft is taking an enterprise behind-the-scenes approach to the auto industry."
a Volvo with Vista?
First off, the entire idea of having a screen like that in any seat the driver can see is fucking idiotic and will cause crashes. But even ignoring that- I don't need my car to have a bunch of software that's always out of date and doesn't do what I want. If you're going to implement this, just let my phone screencast to it and take touch input from it.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
worked so well for Ford's collaboration with Microsoft.
Not.
It looks like you're trying to cause a 30-car pileup on the interstate. Would you like me to help?
I keep my cars a lot longer than my computers.
My car was built in 2003, the year the Pentium 4 (single core, 4GB max addressable memory) was released and WinXP was mainstream, but only 2 years old, maybe my car would have had Win98 or WinME.
What are the chances that these "smart cars" will be getting software updates and have upgradable hardware. (and even if they do have hardware upgrades, will it be affordable? I replaced my old factory stereo with a new USB+MP3+Bluetooth+speakerphone player for $150 - the OEM AM/FM/CD-only replacement costs $500)
Manufacturers of "smart cars" should be required to publish full programming and interface specs so third party manufacturers can release alternative hardware.
Will you have to open the Start menu to stop the car?
There's nothing like $HOME
Why! It looks like you're trying to drive your car and talk on the phone.. let me distract you further!
*BOOM!* BSOD!
I still get a chuckle about the time when Windows crashed and took down a battleship. If cars crashed like peoples' desktops, it'd look like a crash-up derby on the city streets...
The joke used to be, "The day Microsoft starts making a product that doesn't suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners."
To be fair, Macintosh used to be an acronym for Most Applications Crash If Not The Operating System Hangs.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
If Microsoft were GM
Microsoft should make cars, GM should make software:
At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating the following: "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would be driving cars with the following characteristics:
For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
Occasionally, your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would accept this, restart, and drive on.
Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart; in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought 'Car95' or 'CarNT.' Then you would have to buy more seats.
Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was more reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
The oil, water, temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single 'general car fault' warning light.
New seats would force everyone to have the same back-end size.
The airbag system would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.
Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more.
Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
You'd press the 'Start' button to shut off the engine.
"What was the cause of the accident?"
"Um, I was looking for the 'What-If Analysis' feature in the Excel ribbon, officer."
"Data tab, sir."
"Oh! Thank you!"
"You're welcome, sir. Step out of the car, please."
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I have a Ford F-150 with Microsoft software in it and it really sucks. In fact, Ford motor company ditched Microsoft in favour if QNX in 2014.
Fuck off.
I will not buy a car with your shit in it. Not now, not ever.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Is this another way of saying "back door"? As in your car will have lots of 'em?
Please do not turn off your car while Windows installs Update 1 of 32,000...
Between smartphones, tablets, and laptops... why would I put LESS portable computer in a car with a distinct data plan etc?
What I'd prefer is to have the auto people work on the bluetooth integration a bit more so that we can just screen cast our mobile phones to a car screen and integriate features... touch commands etc.
The car doesn't really have all this wizbang app bullshit in it. Its just slaving its interface to the phone.
And before someone says something like "what if the car gets hacked by malware from your phone"... any auto system that integrates that with control systems of the car is badly designed. The two systems should at most share a common power source... I see no reason for that system to interface in any meaningful way with the car's actual control computers.
Here again someone will say something like "what about opening my car with by blue tooth or pressing a button on my phone and getting the lights to turn on in my car"... I don't consider those to be useful features and certainly not when the risks are considered. That said, if you wanted to do that, the way you'd do it is allow the car to accept specific commands under specific circomstances... and nothing else. That is, if you want the doors to unlock if a command is sent from a paired bluetooth device or something... then so be it. That doesn't mean you get access to the ABS system or something.
As to MS's continuing mission to make itself relevant in mobile... the answer remains... allow native windows apps to run on your phones. Here someone is going to say "that's impossible"... but we've seen people run emulated windows on android and then boot up MS programs... and that was fucking years and years ago. So its technically possible. Here someone will say "but who cares if you have access to zillions of programs including hoards of proprietary programs which companies produced for internal usage and have no mobile analogs for..."... which is a dumb point that self destructs pretty much instantly.
There are a lot of ticky tacky reasons for not liking this... stuff about the interface or whatever... it doesn't matter. The power of having full access to those programs on a phone would be a paradigm shift. And if MS further leveraged that by making the screen casting and touch drivers slicker than snot... it would change everything.
But it probably won't happen... so whatever.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
The Microsoft difference
Automakers are choosing Microsoft as their connected car partner to help them transform the consumer experience with a platform for intelligent cars that complements their own strategies and ambitions.
With this partner focus, we’re able to leverage our cloud-based intelligence technologies, productivity services and tools, and even personal assistant technologies like Cortana in a neutral manner.
We’re able to strike the right balance between using data to create both intelligent and personal experiences, while helping maintain privacy and security. We’re able to create more natural, human computing interfaces. And, we’re able to develop and deploy secure platforms and infrastructure to enable innovation on top of existing systems.
To us, partnerships are a path to innovation. We are partnering to build mutual value, not to compete. The value of a true partnership comes when we’re able to help automakers accelerate their mobile and cloud strategies and unlock new experiences for consumers, like no one else can.
WARNING! Too many buzzwords!
....my car has just Blue Screen of Death'd again". :)
I have a Ford F-150 with Microsoft software in it and it really sucks. In fact, Ford motor company ditched Microsoft in favour if QNX in 2014.
Me, too.
I used to think that Microsoft had finally done something halfway right. Then I found out that the parts that were "right" were Ford applications running on top of the parts that were "wrong", which were the Microsoft platform (which still screws up in some of the usual ways, just not quite as often, and doesn't kill the whole car when it fails). Oh, well...
Unfortunately, Ford not only didn't provide it as a retrofit for older models, they switched hardware (to a TI chipset) at the same time, so a backport - from them or elsewhere - is not in the cards. This is a behavior I'll bear in mind when I eventually replace the (otherwise fantastic) vehicle.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"Do you want to save your document, or avoid that tank trailer ahead?"
"Increasing speed to 200. Decreasing font size of word "speed" to 80. Commands confusing, please repeat at a slower pace. Okay, stopping all activity now."
"It appears you are trying to accelerate while being pursued by a patrol car. This is a violation of the EULA and your service will be terminated accordingly and immediately. Brace yourself for impact."
"Your subscription to Microsoft Office 365 needs to be renewed. Until you have done so, the following optional features of your car have been disabled: air conditioner, radio, hands free functionality, central locking, ABS, power steering, and all non-essential lights. Please call 800-MICROSOFT to renew your subscription immediately."
Oh come on. I use Windows too, but it has not place where reliability is needed.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Can't wait for the first ransomware. "Please pay X if you wish to drive to work this morning"
So I can stay the FUCK away from them...
Will give new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death!
And when Clippy calls the police to report you speeding? Or driving the wrong way down a one way road? Or parking in a no-park zone?
Or when Microsoft decides it will sell advertising to you as you drive.... lunchtime? Near a service station? Sell the advertising slot to McDonalds.
Searching maps for a shopping location? Show icons from a mall that has paid to be placed, but not the mall that didn't pay.
That's the trouble with these apps, when you get a data link from car to BIG CORP, then it becomes a means for them to milk you for money. And for BIG GOVT, it becomes a way to enforce the pettiest things in the most micro detail.
You drive slowly down a street with known prostitutes? Kerb crawling.
You visit a bank, drive a car down a few windy roads instead of the highway? The computer reports it, the police spring into action: car acting suspiciously + money in car = CIVIL FORFEIT! Yeh, we can seize the money in the car! It's sure to be drug money look at the trace on this map!
If you think I'm kidding, see what Uber are doing with God mode, its tracking you 24/7 as long as its on your phone. Same with Google Play Services, it constantly tracks you, even wakes up the phone to get a new location fix. None of this is for your benefit.
Can't wait for the first ransomware. "Please pay X if you wish to drive to work this morning"?
I can't wait to start hearing that excuse from co-workers!
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
why should we want to look at Word/Excel documents in the car? Don't we already have our smartphones?
Nothing says safety like working on a powerpoint presentation at 60 miles per hour.
To the reinvented Yugo. nuff said
My wife has a Volt, and it's actually a pretty good car - great features, etc. Only major complaint is the microsoft part of it - stupid dash crashes frequently, does odd things, can't be made to not automatically play music from your phone when all you're bloody trying to do is plug it in to charge, etc. Seriously, can be listening to the radio already, plug in your phone, BOOM - randomly picks something from your phone and autoplays it. Because autoplay of removable media has worked out so well for Microsoft operating systems for so many years, I guess...
Can't wait for the first ransomware. "Please pay X if you wish to drive to work this morning"
"Please pay X if you wish the brakes to resume functioning. Otherwise, brake and acceleration control will not be available to the user."
I really like having Windows on my car, if it doesn't come pre-installed I'll be sure to install it. My old car had 8 Windows installed, three on each side and one on the front and back.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Any manufacturer who think I will buy a car that is loaded with MS crapware just lost a sale.
My 2014 Ford Edge has MS Sync and it is horrible. It can't do simple things like interface with Siri on my iPhone. The voice recognition is abysmal. Sometimes I actually have to turn my car off/on to get it to start working (yes, I actually have to reboot my car). If this is the best MS can do, I don't high hopes for loading office on it! The fact that they would suggest this confirms that MS has no clue about anything anymore.
The Microsoft attitude of features before validation is exactly the wrong paradigm for developong software for cars. A bluescreen at speed will require more than a recovery disk.
You will need a live account to get in the car, and the dash will be a mess of useless metro apps. Steering and control will be via Metro UI aka windows mobile phone.
And for the car to move, you will need an xbox gold subscriptoin...
Microsoft are a type of corporate hell...
Hey Microsoft. Only morons wants your Windows 10 spyware shit on our computers, and we certainly don't want it in our cars. So go fuck yourselves.
The last thing I want is a vehicle running MS Windows. I don't want a buggy vehicle, I don't want Microsoft in charge of it, and I don't want to have to wait for them to fix the bugs. I want something reliable and open: Linux or BSD.
This has got to be the most rediculous thing I've heard recently. As if people aren't stupid enough about playing with their phones while driving and getting distracted by that, now they want to put a full Windows OS in your car, too? Oh and by the way, the full-on dystopian 1984 future will then be here: you'll be spied on in your home, on your phone, at work, and in your car, all by Windows 10.
FUCK THAT SHIT!
Listen carefully, people: It's a car, not a lifestyle! It's transportation. You do not need Windows 10 in your gods-be-damned car; you need to forget all that, and put away your gods-be-damned phone, too, and PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
AH, PUT WINDOWS UP YER ARSE, YE BUFTIE M$ COONT FER I TROW A BUST MOOTH ON YER.
(the following text is only to defeat the stupid Slashdot filter that doesn't allow you to post in all caps, like a real Scotsman. Fookin' Slashdot coonts.)
You are welcome on my lawn.
People Typically Don't Change Cars as Quickly as Cell Phones. We'll have to stick will outdated software for 5 years and most likely more.
Not likely. One of the biggest weaknesses in the auto industry is its strength in this regard. The auto industry does not work with integrated wholes when it comes to electronics - everything is a separate unit, because the auto industry is based around bolting together various completely independent boxes from various manufacturers onto a frame. It's normally a huge weakness because it means a huge amount of component duplication, unneeded power draw (ever notice how much power cars draw these days?), huge wiring harnesses (you wouldn't believe how heavy they are, all together... also adds a lot of manufacturing cost), lost capabilities (for example, many units might find a net connection useful but can't justify adding it in for just their own use, or whatnot), etc. And it goes without saying that most are basically "sealed boxes" that you can't improve later without a hardware swap - no "app store" or even bugfixes or the like.
We're starting to see the first moves in the direction of unification and upgradeability, but the auto industry is such a dinosaur, it changes direction so slowly. And don't expect any "naive implementations". First off, safety-critical systems will be the last to be integrated, if ever - and a lot of systems on cars are classified as safety critical. Emissions-related systems also will be a pain to get unified due to the regulatory maze. Also, even for the non-critical stuff, redundancy and fault tolerance will be required to be far greater than with home computer systems. And they have to be built to higher standards because they face more wear and tear, vibration, G-forces, etc.
The auto industry has largely been rather mindless in the aspect of interfaces... but there are hopeful signs for the future on this front, they're starting to self-regulate out of fear of forced regulation from safety concerns. The concept of big touchscreens on a center console being operated by a person who's driving means that you're asking them to turn their head so that they can see it (they certainly generally get no tactile feedback) and make sure they hit the right thing. Really, in this day there should be no center console at all. Passengers (at least the front passenger) should have their own screens, just dumb terminals to the main computer - in bulk buy to industrial consumers, screens are cheap nowadays. These should be located in front of them - they shouldn't have to turn to a center console either. The freed up center console space becomes a huge gift to designers. Unlike the passengers, the driver's "screen" should be simplified and ideally concentrated within a few degrees of the windshield in front of him, reducing the distance his eyes have to move and increasing his peripheral view of the road when looking at the console (and vice versa). The usefulness of buttons on the wheel should be maximized in controlling the interface to avoid having to "peck touchscreens or distant buttons with fingers", and multiple types of feedback - visual, tactile, auditory, etc - should reinforce the driver's sense of what actions he's taking in what context.
They'll get there. But there's going to be a lot more garbage before then. Planned out by teams of overpaid people eating at absurdly expensive restaurants followed by overly expensive drinks at the bar followed by concluding the details at a strip club (pretty much standard practice in the auto industry :P)
Shiny New Australia.
....to BSOD
Volvo Cars will showcase new concepts that integrate Microsoft Band 2 with a Windows 10 smartphone and the Volvo on Call Universal App, creating new ways for customers to interact with their vehicles. From the new Microsoft Band, a Volvo owner can press and hold the action button and say, “Volvo, start the heater of my car,” among many other options.
Or they could just simply turn the dial to heat rather than requiring a $250 device to accomplish the same task?
... Blue ... of course...
No matter how much money you pay me, I won't get inside a car with MS software in it. Ever. Period.
I won't pick favorites here, I'll just mention that connected mobile devices go obsolete much faster than vehicles and vehicle manufacturers only care about vehicles they have already sold as long as some regulatory body makes them care. What I would like to see is an open standard for wireless display+input devices that can be a second screen for the mobile device that just about everyone has in their pocket these day. That way you can actually pay off that 6 year car loan before your factory infotainment system is completely worthless so long as you update/upgrade your "phone" on a regular basis.
Yes, "phone" because who the hell makes voice calls anymore?
Such a clever idea - panes of glass which keep the weather out while maintaining all-round visibility.
Still indicates a crash though.
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day. 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine. 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads. 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light. 7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying. 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. 10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off."
Cars with windows predate Microsoft by at least a few decades.
Following on the path of backup camera's any new feature which can be marginally considered a safety feature can be promoted over and over until it becomes a mandatory requirement that must be maintained. The path to (4) profit is clear.
I fear that we are in for more lock-in. With the fact that ECMs are getting more controlled, with more exotic defenses against chipping, combined with the talk about having cars require software upgrades, not to mention having the -software- not transfer when a vehicle is sold (so one has to pay for a relicense to have the ability to start the vehicle, much less use stuff like climate control or the audio system), it gets worrisome. Think consoles and DLC as an example.
I don't know what is worse. Vehicles that stop getting upgrades after a year, or vehicles that do get upgrades... but they come with more ways to reach in your pocketbook. Want 4x4? The front diff is there, but you have to pay $3000 for a license key so the TCM will use it, and that key doesn't transfer to the new owner, so if the automaker finds the vehicle under a new title, they can remove all the keys via a remote "kill switch" system (oh, you accepted the EULA when you drove the vehicle, including the arbitration clause, good luck suing.) Of course, you can "rent" 4x4 capability with another license for $100 per 24 hour period... This is a revenue stream automakers will enjoy, but not much good for the consumer.
One of the biggest weaknesses in the auto industry is its strength in this regard. The auto industry does not work with integrated wholes when it comes to electronics - everything is a separate unit, because the auto industry is based around bolting together various completely independent boxes from various manufacturers onto a frame.
Sometimes. Basically all of the European cars have basically all-Bosch electronics, including the PCM, ABS, and probably some other major modules as well. Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi used to all have PCM and TCM from Hitachi. Most cars up until they got more than five or six speeds had a TCM from the same manufacturer as the PCM, but these days the transmissions are complex enough for the manufacturer to need to do the TCM themselves... Fairly tight integration is required between the PCM, TCM, and ABS because they all work together. It's convenient to get them from the same place.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Please pay X if you wish the brakes to resume functioning. Otherwise, brake and acceleration control will not be available to the user."
How would that change anything? That's basically how a Volvo already works.
I have to say though, it is fitting that they pair the shittiest smartphone platform with the shittiest car company. That is the ultimate form of trolling for customers who don't read the JD Power reliability ratings before buying their cars. Well done sirs, well done.
Following on the path of backup camera's any new feature which can be marginally considered a safety feature can be promoted over and over until it becomes a mandatory requirement that must be maintained. The path to (4) profit is clear.
Equating a backup camera with windows is pretty silly. They are much more than marginally adding safety. I personally know two people who backed over one of their children, killing them. They were in the blind spot right in back of the car. All my vehicles have backup cameras in them, and I use them all the time. They've come in handy sometimes as well. They are even a great thing to have in the woods, as some times I'm backing up near cliffs.
Some people were really pissed about turn signals and brake lights as well. More guvmint interference.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Or trip into Canada = 15K data roaming bill for a 1GB update.
brakes.sys has caused a system error hold start to reboot.
Yeah, but how about adding an office into it? Complete with swivel chair!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
>Microsoft Teams With Automakers To Put Windows, Office In Cars
Good thing Volvo isn't on my list of cars I would buy, anyway. But I currently have an Infiniti. Would hate to have to throw them out in the future...
Didn't the automakers say that their cars would crash multiple times a day if they ran Windows? This was in response to Gates saying if the auto industry moved as fast as the computer industry, their cars would get 1000 miles per gallon.
So your car shuts down unexpectedly on the freeway. You manage to turn the stiff steering wheel so that as your car slows you go to the side of the road. Everything is dead. You shut off the ignition, then try to start it. Nothing. You go to the owners manual for help. It tells you that you have to close all the windows, then get out of the car, then go back into the car, and then you can re-open the windows and restart the car.
A Car needs office 365 as much as a bicycle needs a fish tank.
Selling a support service, interesting: Microsoft has the experience and the money to screw over BIOS/firmware vendors (See 3com, Symbian), but they've limited themselves to one burgeoning technology at a time. Facing well-established hardware manufacturers like Chrysler and Ford would be a massive escalation of their game. But there are other payoffs in taking the service-supplier route: Microsoft can grow their customer base (and thus, revenue) without buying/building new technology, plus R&D could be billed to the customer. Instead of a new computer bundled with software, it will be a new car bundled with software building a monopoly for Microsoft.
No, it does not, but *their* profits do.
The market for software on PCs is saturated, so the expansion into the auto market.
What does it matter if *you* get into an accident, *they* will no be liable.
And in addition, they charged you extra for some stuff you definitely do not need.
Interesting - the US survey puts Volvo near the bottom, but the UK survey near the top... maybe surveys like this are just flawed.
I never said that About any MS products I started with dos 1.1.
I hate it so bad that I will never purchase another PC.
I dont want it in my car.
I dont want it by far said sam I am.
I dont want it with green eggs and ham.
I'd never buy a car that included Microsoft Windows. It's bad enough that ATM's throughout the world run Windows now. You want cars running it too? No thank you.
Did they hire Balmer again?
That fool tried to put Office in every device that moved and it failed like a flying brick off the Eiffel tower.
That's all
Interesting - the US survey puts Volvo near the bottom, but the UK survey near the top... maybe surveys like this are just flawed.
The usefulness of buttons on the wheel should be maximized in controlling the interface to avoid having to "peck touchscreens or distant buttons with fingers", and multiple types of feedback - visual, tactile, auditory, etc - should reinforce the driver's sense of what actions he's taking in what context.
Microsoft and Ford are already close to this in existing cars with the Sync system. My 2015 Fusion, using the controls on the steering wheel, is actually very intuitive, and the voice control features aren't terribly implemented either. The menu affecting the vehicle itself is front and center in the instrument cluster, and is easy enough to glance at without completely distracting yourself from the road.
They do need to work on the feedback, though. If you're not using the voice controls, there almost isn't any outside of the tactile feel of pressing the button. Overall, what they're talking about here seems to be a good step in the right direction from existing technology.
Car crashed, Office crashed, and Windows BSoD. Triple slammer! Hahahahaha!
If people are dumb enough to willingly buy into this business model, I don't see what the problem is. Cars like that (with non-transferrable licenses) will likely have horrible resale value, so we'll probably see a more severe version of what we've already had: Japanese cars avoiding this silliness and holding their resale value extremely well, and American cars implementing these ideas and having awful resale values. (I'm not really sure which way Euro cars would go, probably more like the Americans but people will buy into it anyway because most Euro cars in this country are luxury models and luxury buyers tend to be pretty stupid about stuff like this because they have money to burn.) Just look at Jeeps for example: they really could pull off your "pay for a license or per-use for 4x4 capability". Jeep buyers will buy Jeeps no matter what: their prices are insane, considering how little you get for your money, and they have incredible resale values because their buyers are basically religious fanatics about them (like Apple cultists, only much worse; at least iDevices actually have a lot of features and attractive design unlike Jeeps). Jeep could easily implement the stuff you're talking about, and dumbass 20-something men will happily line up to spend every last dime they own on them.
You are all Cars which lock the drivers in. You can't get out! No! Noo! Nooo! No you cant get out, no! No says the car which doesn't let you out. YOU MICROSOFT CONTROLLED CARS!!!
Someone's made a news year's resolution to avoid mentioning cows.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Good to know.
The problem is a variant of the tyranny of the majority. If 95% of the population is OK with something, the mass manufacturers will make it that way and the other 5% be damned. Niche cars without the unwanted crap are hideously expensive, leaving the 5% to buy what they don't want, what they can't afford, or not at all.
Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suburu join Automotive Grade Linux group
https://www.automotivelinux.org/news/announcement/2016/01/ford-mazda-mitsubishi-motors-and-subaru-join-linux-foundation-and
All members
https://www.automotivelinux.org/about/members
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating, "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they painted new lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull ove r to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you bought "CarNT," but then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Apple would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -- but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "general protect ion fault" warning light.
8. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying.
9. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the antenna.
10. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally Road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 percent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
11. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
12. You'd have to press the "start" button to turn the engine off.
Maybe, but I honestly doubt that it would go that far. I could see certain brands doing that, and getting away with it. Others will avoid it because their customers won't accept it, or they might try it and it'll end up in disaster because it'll be like phone makers trying to copy Apple and finding out the hard way that Apple buyers just buy Apple stuff and their own customers don't want an Apple clone.
There were almost literally seconds in my life when I wasn't staring at a glowing rectangle to do work on.
Gives the Blue Screen of Death a new meaning.
I doubt that Microsoft will make any impact on this market. Who wants Office in a car? or connectivity to a range of 'also ran' smartphones that few people own or use? I imagine that Microsoft has offered some attractive terms to support mobiles that run Windows, and a few Microsoft services, but I very much doubt that any of the core technology is Microsoft. From the article, it sounds like some cars will have support for consuming a few Microsoft web services, which will no doubt have stopped being supported by the time these cars ever hit the second hand market.
Most cars have some embedded version of Linux running their in-car entertainment systems. I don't see Microsoft making ANY inroads into the embedded market with Windows. Nobody would touch MS products, given the past history of misbehaviour, lockin, and short lived proprietrary technologies.
error_msg { altert("I'm sorry, Start Menu and Cortana have stopped working. I'll try to fix it after the engine reboots.");
reboot;
call err_msg;}
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
Do you work in the auto industry? I guess the first part below is just a typo, naive instead of native, but the rest doesn't make sense either.
"And don't expect any "naive implementations". First off, safety-critical systems will be the last to be integrated, if ever - and a lot of systems on cars are classified as safety critical. Emissions-related systems also will be a pain to get unified due to the regulatory maze."
These systems are already integrated, did you read about the cars that can be hacked through the radio to control acceleration and brakes? How about the emissions control systems that are already software-controlled so that they can fake emissions information to regulators? These things are already integrated into a car control network.
2013 Fusion here. I have to agree that Ford's *interface* design is fairly intuitive. I'm a bit less impressed with its implementation -- too much doesn't work reliably, and I'm *really* unimpressed with the fact that the system had to remove features with each new iteration of the software, just in order to improve stability. The clock changes when you change time zones, based on the GPS, but it *doesn't* support daylight savings time? Really? (It used to...)
I was glad to hear that the next version of software will *not* be Microsoft/Flash based, but I think they're tossing the baby out with the bathwater by changing the interface radically (and going "flat.") I'd blame its stability problems on the platform, the interface was good.
In any case, it won't matter much to me -- I expect to keep the car another 8 or 9 years. I'm sure the software landscape will have changed radically in that time, but my current hardware isn't going to support anything more than what it has now.
Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
So I guess because this is Microsoft, we just make all the jokes that stopped being funny, or true years ago? Then the tinfoilhatists with the "any new tech is loaded to the gills with sly stuff and will steal your life. Any intelligent discussion going on here?
"Science is the power of man"
Longtime user of Linux, don't advocate it for everyone but love it myself.
Still found this post both clever and funny. Keep it coming!
Wtf slashdot auto redirects to a russian porn site? Imagine that on your car dashboard
"Microsoft Teams With Automakers To Put Windows In Cars"
Wow, that's some innovation. What's next, doors? A roof? Tires? Pedals?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
your car, or puting your car through windows and into an office?
When it is not safe to drive you get informed by the windscreen/windshield turning opaque blue.
Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make real computers act like the ones in the movies.
I don't want Microsoft junk that spies on me in my own car and if Microsoft gets their way I won't have a choice. With all the problems I've had with Microsoft products I would hate to put my trust in a vehicle that is controlled by Microsoft software and fear others who will be driving around with such cars. Get ready for these Microsoft powered cars to randomly shut off the engine at highway speeds, new updates render the car unusable, and Microsoft keeping track of where you travel and sell this to the government and data brokers to send you advertisements. Microsoft wants to force Windows 10 down everyone's throat!
With car companies adding software to cars you will eventually have to take your car to a dealer instead of a trusted independent mechanic. In addition, companies will eventually make simple tasks such as rotating tires or changing oil into something that must be done by a mechanic to make money off of servicing cars. Currently car dealers have an advantage over independent mechanics since they receive diagnostic equipment for their car company for free or at a reduced cost but an independent mechanic would have to pay a fortune for this equipment or simply tell customers who own certain makes that they cannot service their car and to take it to a dealer. Dealers are notorious for charging more for repairs that independent mechanics and sometimes the technicians at a dealer isn't as experienced at fixing cars as an independent mechanic.
...pop up on my windshield and offer to help me turn left?
"The wisdom of the Patriarchs was that they *knew* they were fools." --Master Foo