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Microsoft Wants To Power Self-Driving Cars With Software, Not Build One (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's Peggy Johnson said at the Converge conference (Warning: WSJ source paywalled) in Hong Kong this week that the company is not interested in manufacturing its own self-driving cars, but instead is interested in building software for cars. "We won't be building our own autonomous vehicle but we would like to enable autonomous vehicles and assisted driving as well," said Johnson, head of business development at Microsoft. "We in different ways enabled a variety of different partners and you'll see us continuing to do that." Microsoft is open to partners requesting an operating system for cars. The company has partnered with Harman to integrate Microsoft Office 365 into its infotainment systems, bringing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to cars for the first time. "You're sitting in the car for many, many minutes a day. Can that be part of your new office, can it be your new desk, a place where you actually get work done?" asked Johnson. "We believe it can." Two years ago, Microsoft unveiled their "Windows in the car" initiative to compete against Apple's CarPlay.
...to blue screen of death! :: CRASH ::
Cars are powered by gasoline, or battery-supplied electricity, or even natural gas. But they will NEVER be powered by software.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Car software.... Bringing new meaning to "blue screen of death".
Who would be responsible for the accident in the case of a BSOD? Microsoft? The car maker? The owner for making the mistake of buying it?
How about the accident caused when the car is forced upgrade to Windows 12 with no close or cancel button why traveling down the highway at 70MPH?
...to texting while driving!
The world made the mistake of trusting you guys once. You'll notice how excited the industry was to adapt Windows Phone 25 years later. Expect the same general level of enthusiasm for Microsoft Car.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
To upgrade to the new version of the software, which you already said you didn't want.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
brakes.sys has caused a system error.
Hold down start to reboot.
More than a silly comment, I wonder if that kind of software will leak information to Microsoft like Windows 10. Just imagine: GPS maps of where and when you did drive. Where you stop for get gas/enegry. How many people travel in the car and their faces just for safety. If you get tickets and how many. Just for deliver ads in the front panel or phone home to your Microsoft profile for sync all the data they harvest for you. Better get a 2000s car where you are the driver and not a product for harvest data of.
Well, they do have experience, just look at the absolutely wonderful piece of work they did on Ford Sync.
"Can we stall your car out with forced upgrades? Can we put ads on your dashboard?" asked Johnson. "We believe it can."
I've been a systems engineer since 1995, and before that worked networks and as a technician.
Based on my experience with the reliability of Microsoft products: I will never EVER put my life in the hands of Microsoft.
If the car runs Windows (or a Microsoft product) I won't own it or ride in it. Simple self preservation.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
The idea of getting work done in your car on the way to work is ridiculous, bordering on scary - in Alberta, we have distracted driving laws and almost certainly this would fall into that category. Not only is that a terrible idea, but the idea of software to assist with driving should be developed by a company with a much better track record than Microsoft when it comes to stability.
If Windows wants to be automatic car software, the question I have is very simple. It is about liability.
If Windows software makes a mistake, I assume Microsoft can be sued. Like Toyota has been sued.
But if Linux (Ubuntu, or, perhaps, Carbuntu) will be managing hardware - who do I sue if I get into the accident? Should we expect Open Source software insurance fee aka contemporary equivalent of "uninsured motorist" insurance charge?
Sorry Microsoft but when it comes to software, you put the "exception" in "exceptional". You cannot even get software that runs the media played on subways and buses to run without crashing. Just yesterday I was on a metro with the tvs displaying a windows crash instead of information about the stops. If you cannot get software that can do the simplest tasks without crashing, how can I except you to succeed doing something 1000x more complicated. Microsoft, your software stinks and at this point it's obvious you have a culture that will always create software that stinks. There's no way in hell I'd want my life to be entrusted to your bug-ridden code.
...of what Microsoft did to the PC industry.
"Oh, you want to do that boring software and user interface stuff so we can just manufacture the car hardware? Sure, that sounds great to us!"
... the company is not interested in manufacturing its own self-driving cars
That's too bad. From what I understand, Microsoft hardware is generally pretty good, or at least, it used to be.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I'm very pro-self driving cars, but the thought of Microsoft, with their unenviable record on security and stability, running the thing? Oh, hell no. I'd walk first.
I can just see it now, Microsoft crams the upgrade onto your car, schedules it during rush hour, with no close box and no way to opt out.
.. want the cure to cancer.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Just buy a new car every time you get a virus. Microsoft can't be held responsible for you getting viruses and a hacker gaining control of your car. That's between you and the hacker.
Until the microsoft cars are much bigger than yours and just crash through you if you are in the way.
I have a rather new Kia with a Microsoft stereo system. I've had it lock up, Bluetooth is broken, and occasionally it loses all functionality for minutes at a time. If they can't make stereo software, I severely doubt their ability here.
That this will nearly equal the success of Windows on a phone, and Windows based digital media products (aka "Zune").
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
An oldie from many years ago, copied from http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/pnw...
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), 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 $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
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 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."
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
How the hell am I going to do my Microsoft/car analogies now?
"Cortana, take me home."
"Okay. Relax and enjoy these sponsored messages from our selected partners."
"Cortana, skip ads"
"Skip ads is not available on Microsoft Drive Home Edition. Upgrade to Drive Professional Edition? $6000 USD will be deducted from your savings account at... Wells Fargo Bank"
"NO! Do not upgrade!"
"Okay. We are passing by Applebee's San Bruno. Would you like to travel to Applebee's San Bruno for their new hearty Chicken Ravioli Pot Pie?"
"NO!"
"Say 'no' again to confirm travel to Applebee's San Bruno."
"Argh. Uh. Yes?"
"Okay. Traveling to Applebee's San Bruno."
"NO! Cortana! Take me home!"
"This is hacker group carhakz.ru. We now control your car. Transfer $1000 to our account or car will drive into oncoming traffic in 10... 9..."
"Shit! Shit! Cortana! Transfer $1000 to carhakz.ru!"
"Okay. Updating to Microsoft Drive Enterprise Edition. $10000 USD being transferred from... Wells Fargo Bank."
Need I say more?
Oh yes, yes I do. Recall that US Navy Battleship (or Destroyer) that went BSOD during a military exercise about 13 years ago? Now imagine yourself in LA traffic (or NYC, DC, or a wind-ey country road), and having your car BSOD.
Microsoft has been arguably irrelevant for some time now, but this is the clearest post-irrelevance indicator that I've seen. Other companies are making our visions of the future into realities, and the best Microsoft can come up with is "Let's make Office on Windows in a car happen"? Let's make everything into a desktop, let's make every appliance do the one old thing we make, let other companies make new products that do new things.
Maybe this will make them relevant again as long as nobody dreams up a computer that you could take into a car.
As for the "enabling autonomous vehicles", I think they'll see the same problem they saw with phones. They'll do things the way they want, and write specs that don't make sense for the hardware manufacturers (their problem, not Microsoft's), and it will have a lot of useless features prioritized because they were important to MS and no one else, and they'll end up with a generic system that's meant to work on whatever hardware an OEM builds, but doesn't work well or at all on any specific hardware because the software wasn't designed for it. Meanwhile the competition's been designing the hardware and software together are also years ahead.
Maybe they'll stay relevant as long as no other big competitors or car companies are interested in doing their own autonomous driving.
into ring 0 in NT 4. You just know there's going to be some very poorly written proprietary video drivers that will bring the system down. 3.x was great wrt the fact that the video driver could crash and even though you couldn't log into the console, services still ran. We stuck with 3.51 for a decade just because of that extra protection.
Is what is told here
https://www.consumeraffairs.co...
Self-drive means to rent a car in some parts of the world.
Automotive industry stay the foobar away from Microsoft after what they did to Nokia
...and not for the reasons you might think.
Yes, we can all make jokes about blue screens and bugs and stuff.
But the main reason I'd never take a car with MS software in it; MS is a serial murderer of their own products. They jump into any and all potential markets, do their product and then when the beancounters say that the profit charts do not look like a hockey stick with infinite moneys in the horizon, they drop it like a hot potato. Sometimes for another version of the same thing, often for some new initiative. Either way, anything you buy from MS has a lifespan of 1-3 years, tops. For cars that is a terrrrible deal.
(see: Zune, "Plays for Sure", original XBox, Windows Phone, PC Joysticks, Kinect, any number of games-related initiatives - Games for Windows, Microsoft Flight, Flight Simulator, Project Spark, Fable...)
As soon as the beancounters say that this thing here isn't raking money hand over fist and has no immediate prospects to do so, they'll toss the whole thing to a bin. Updates stop etc. I already have enough MS-related paperweights (physical and software) that would otherwise be serviceable, but MS no longer supports them.
This is also the reason why I could never touch HoloLens. The tech & idea looks sweet, but I know that by the time beancounters have determined that it will not make then gazillion bucks, they'll just pull the plug and you'll have an expensive piece of junk with no more software support.
The only things they seem to be keeping up are lates XBox version, Office, Windows and DirectX. And even on DirectX they seemed to require outside prodding (Mantle and new generation of consoles) to get them going. In other words, they would've been happy to sit on the old software stack, but there was a real risk they would lose a major competitive advantage (Windows, gaming) if they decided to ignore third party advances there.
So, buy a MS software filled car and find out that 3 years later software updates stop and, if you are lucky, that means your in-car entertainment system is now rapidly degenerating into a non-working state, if you are unlucky your car no longer works.
Ford just finished completely phasing out Windows Embedded after years of supporting their lovely OS.
Who replaced them? QNX - who, I can say from personal experience, is well entrenched in the current and future HU (head unit) space.
I want a FOSS gnu/car without all the binary blobs - already compatible with a 1969 WV Beetle, with a few modificatons.
Any car maker who trusts Microsoft's code to control a car is looking at nine-figure payouts.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
A company so synonymous with cludgy, unreliable software that NOT ONLY crashes all the time, but what's more, actually has spelled out RIGHT IN THE E.U.L.A. that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES is it to be used in a "mission-critical, life-and-death" situation, should NOT even so much as float the idea of their considering being involved in any way with any field of endeavor in which there is so strong an opinion in the popular consciousness regarding CRASHES.
The jokes write themselves.
"Mr. Jones, you have been charged with driving your car through a park and running over 23 members of a kindergarten class, and their teacher Ms. Swanson, while doing doughnuts at 70 miles per hour, fatally injuring all but three, who will likely be quadriplegics for life, if they survive their horrific injuries at all. How do you plead?"
"Your honor, my client had authorized me to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of duress."
"What duress?"
"My client's car's computer became unresponsive when he activated his right-turn signal while braking, causing the car to suddenly accelerate violently to the left, hop a curb, and cross the grassy field, despite his throwing the override switches, pushing the brake through the floor panel, and tearing the steering wheel off in an effort to stop his car. He did everything short of jumping out and trying to halt it with his body, which he couldn't because the doors were locked shut and he couldn't open them."
"You're blaming the CAR, Ms. Preston?"
"Your honor, it's computer was running Microsoft CarOS 11."
"Case dismissed."
i mean after the overwhelming good will garnered from the Windows 10 rollout, who wouldn't be champing at the bit to put their very lives in the hands of Microsoft Corporation?
i could live a little longer in this prison
I can't wait the moment when Apple claims a patent on a moving vehicle with four rounded rolling devices and starts suing the likes of GM, BMW, etc.
Best case: "Gonna be late again, boss. It's patch Tuesday."
Worst case: "Yes, sir. When we arrived on site we discovered the same blue screen that led to the crash prevented the airbag from deploying."
That's actually part of Microsoft's new devices and services approach. They don't want to build a car, but have the services that you need to build one, so they could thus conquer the market without investing specifically in car development. And with the same services they can sign several manufacturers at once, whereas building a car would be much more expensive.
In other news. A pedestrian was hit by the same self driving car that he previously refused to ride, because it powered by Microsoft.
I don't want to be harassed for a months to upgrade my car.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I work developing software in the automotive industry, so have a little background in this area.
Microsoft faces some big challenges here:
1. There software will have to be free to complete
2. It will have to be open source. We frequently re-target to different hardware platforms.
3. To be competitive, it will have to support many hardware platforms. Windows currently lacks device drivers for nearly all embedded hardware. Linux supports nearly everything.
4. Microsoft will have to offer some compelling advantage to use their products in favour of the free alternatives.
5. Microsoft will have to pay system integrators to use their product.
I suspect Microsoft will only be interested in competing in a sort of 'apps for cars' market. I can't serious imagine a 'windows for cars' making any inroads into any other area, and I really don't see much hope of success, given Microsoft's poor grasp of human computer interaction anyway.
Lol no.
You're sitting in the car for many, many minutes a day. Can that be part of your new office, can it be your new desk, a place where you actually get work done?
Or, how about our employers stop finding new and increasingly intrusive ways to gain from us our endeavours, and we just read a book in the car instead?
I was already against the idea of so-called 'self-driving cars' in the first place, but now? Oh, HELL NO, I'd rather walk than ever have to endure any vehicle that has Microsoft anything operating in it.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
to have other-than-Global-Mother-Fucking-Spyware stories on Microdot every day?
Fuck all their shit. Literally, Bill, fuck you.
Here come's Clippy to assist those teenage drivers... 'I noticed you're trying to make a left turn, would you like some help?'
That's just what we want. A company that took several decades to figure out that security and stability might have some value and that has a legacy of releasing barely beta quality software as commercial ship so that its customers could find the problems building the software that controls our cars. Anyone who has been stuck with a Ford Sync (sadly I am in that group) or MyFord Touch radio running the crap software MS built knows how bad of an idea this is.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
The company has partnered with Harman to integrate Microsoft Office 365 into its infotainment systems, bringing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to cars for the first time.
WTF? While the first part of this summary has gotten a lot of attention, I didn't see anyone address the latter part. Just how out of touch is this person? Who in their right mind would be working on a spreadsheet on the infotainment system while driving? This makes about as much sense as integrating Office 365 into a toaster or a swimming pool.
No.
Knowing the reliability forte it's unlikely that MSFT would venture in this area. So they would end up building value add services to be used in the car. I'm glad they are focusing on their niche
http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/autos.asp
No thanks.
Have gnu, will travel.
Just glue a tablet to the dash, there, no need for microsoft to be IN the car's software itself.
Last thing I need is for the car to blue screen or be remotely attacked.
"The company has partnered with Harman to integrate Microsoft Office 365 into its infotainment systems, bringing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to cars for the first time. "You're sitting in the car for many, many minutes a day. Can that be part of your new office, can it be your new desk, a place where you actually get work done?" asked Johnson. "We believe it can."
How about NO? Does NO work for you?
Stop trying to making every second of everyone's life about working. HOW ABOUT "FUCK YOU", MICROSOFT?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Given Microsoft have produced anti-customer and anti-developer technology like Win 8 & 10 - I will never again buy a Microsoft based product or recommend one... They are not engineering led anylonger.
Microsoft would come up with a ass backward UI for sure...
There's no way I'm even getting in any self-driving car with Microsoft software in it. I certainly wouldn't ever buy one.
You know... those Gary Larson cartoons where wide-eyed, terrified anxious people are experiencing some incredible calamity, unfolding in slow motion, that is inexplicably yet hilariously funny (because it is not happening to us, comic relief humor)...?
Well I feel the same way every time I see a headline where tech giants, who earned their money in other ways, as humanity is facing some serious technology and economic hurdles, have oddly decided that what the human race most needs right now is --- wait for it --- self driving cars.
It's impossible to fathom why this is. Is it the result of some deeply researched problem, where self-driving cars emerged as a brilliant stroke of lightning solution to everything? Is it a direct-to-skull whisper campaign from space aliens? Could it be a psychosis resulting from exposure to some additive in the food or water supply?
Perhaps Musk's holographic faux-Universe theory hints an an answer. Perhaps we are not in a simulation, but a cosmic Gary Larson cartoon.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Well officer, I was driving along, and clicked the X button to postpone an upgrade but the thing went ahead - and here we are - 4 feet under swamp water.
These are the steps, in order, Microsoft will go through:
Microsoft will work on a self-driving car for a very short time and figure out they cannot do it fast enough to compete.
They'll partner with another company. There will be lots of hoopla, but nothing will come of it, and the partnership will dissolve.
They'll buy a company which is well-respected and doing well/poised to succeed. It will rapidly go down the toilet and they'll sell it.
[ optional step ] They'll come out with their own product too late.
They'll partner with successful companies to get hooks into cars which link to their other products. This will be marginally profitable. They will attempt to use this to gain as much leverage as possible. This may or may not be successful, but will anger people.
https://secure.static.tumblr.c...
I think the title is sufficient for a +5 funny seeing as nobody else thought of it. /Smug
Microsoft will buy up Blackberry for the QNX OS and be in control of everything.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
You should replace it with a Kenwood system. They're built on Linux. Mine reboots itself 2-3x a week while driving/navigating, takes 45 seconds to start when the engine turns on, and requires updating the maps (for $150 a pop) every two years or the nav system simply refuses to operate.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Gotta pursue that vertical, no matter what!
Throw a few hundred H1-B workers at it, because it's essential, and the only ones who know Microsoft are the ones who slurped it up at Indian universities when Microsoft started shoveling it in.
have oddly decided that what the human race most needs right now is --- wait for it --- self driving cars.
Self-driving cars, when they reach a requisite level of maturity, will be of enormous practical value.
What I don't understand is the people who think predatory advertising is some kind of public service rather than malicious harassment.
Your car drives through red kills an mother with her 2 month infant, because you first need to finish updating the next version of windows.... Well? Thanks NO WAY!!!!
I already have Windows installed in my car. Works great! Very transparent.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
One day this will be a selling point for car.
Car manufacturers start to play a dangerous game with the users: the choice of the car might became more complex just because some users will not buy a car with a system it don't like.
I'm pretty sure many people will die once Driving v10 is pushed to unsuspecting victims.
Johnny come lately
Microsoft has been really good at recognising a new market way too late.
Wish they'd just stay in the market they do well - Windows 10 upgrades.
dick heads
Go well
A forced system upgrade at an awkward time would be exciting..
is a Windows is force updating your operating system. Brakes 1.0 is not compatible with the new update.
Ram foot on brake pedal.
"Brake pedal pressed. Do you want to stop ? OK/Cancel"
Panic is not an option. You manage to click OK.
"Car cannot be stopped at this time. Please try again later."
Texting or playing an app on your phone will get you a ticket in many states. So will looking at PP slides at a stop light that turned green 5 seconds ago...
Would be a serious pain in the ass at 65mph.