Qualcomm's Connected Car Reference Platform To Connect Smart Cars To Everything (networkworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Qualcomm wants to supply the next generation of autonomous and connected cars with networking to connect everything inside and outside of the cars. That means 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GNSS, DSRC, V2X, OABR, CAN, etc. ... [Networkworld reports: "Qualcomm today announced its Connected Car Reference Platform intended for the car industry to use to build prototypes of the next-generation connected car. Every category from economy to luxury car will be much smarter than the connected luxury car of today, creating a big opportunity for Qualcomm to supply semiconductors to automakers and suppliers. Qualcomm described the following features of the Connected Car Reference Platform in its release:

Scalability: Using a common framework that scales from a basic telematics control unit (TCU) up to a highly integrated wireless gateway, connecting multiple electronic control units (ECUs) within the car and supporting critical functions, such as over-the-air software upgrades and data collection and analytics.
Future-proofing: Allowing the vehicleâ(TM)s connectivity hardware and software to be upgraded through its life cycle, providing automakers with a migration path from Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to hybrid/cellular V2X and from 4G LTE to 5G.
Wireless coexistence: Managing concurrent operation of multiple wireless technologies using the same spectrum frequencies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy.
OEM and third-party applications support: Providing a secure framework for the development and execution of custom applications."]

Comments

connected cars

[Anonymous Coward]

What could possibly go wrong??

Re:connected cars

[Lumpy]

Nothing if engineers that had some education were involved. Sadly most of the car makers do not hire Experts that have any education at all in security and stability.

there is ZERO reason for a bidirectional interconnection from the car's ECM systems to the Infotainment system. a single direction serial data stream to report speed and other data to the Infotainment is all that is needed. No I dont need my FM radio readout on my tachometer, it can be over on the radio. if you really want a multi function HUD then the HUD is also a single direction receive only device and it get's it's own streams from the devices.

100% hacker proof because even all the best hackers in the world combined can not write software that will make an optocoupler transmit data backwards.

Something is missing...

[Barny]

I am pretty sure 'Security' should be in that list as well, must have slipped the advertising drone's mind when they wrote it up. Let's hope the engineers designing it are not similarly deficient.

Re:Something is missing...

[rtb61]

I want a more primitive, all appliance based. A brake chip that looks after brakes, a service chip that looks after servicing, a communications chip that looks after communications, a dash board chip that looks after the control GUI, a throttle chip that looks after the throttle etc. and maybe, just maybe a chip that ties it all together, this chip with a big red button that switches it off and allows those others chips to be individually manually controlled.

No way in fucking hell, I want a wireless computer that looks after the entire vehicle and can drive me off a cliff, or into a train or into a river. Just no way, no thank you. Well, at least without an off switch that enables the car to keep going whilst that chip is shut down and cut off. Three letter agencies with laws that allow hacking of that chip, fuck I'll be a seventies car thank you very much.

Re:Something is missing...

[rtb61]

Problem is matey, I have bought so much high tech junk over the last few decades that has routinely fucked up, in fact software programmers claim it as the norm and seriously, what do you expect perfect software. Well, yeah, when going 100km an hour down a road I expect perfect software, you can't deliver, well then, no thanks. Generally I have found appliance based application to be more software reliable but sometimes of questionable engineering quality. Now I have no problem with automated vehicles in a subway tunnel system with a controlled environment so in the event of system failure, high hazard risks are very limited, but out in the open air, with trees, rivers, cliffs, buildings and vehicles going in all directions, typical software warranties scare the crap out of me, when my life would be dependent upon them.

You missed the point about Luddites

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

There's plenty you can do with technology to make cars more interesting or useful. Look at all the modern driver aids, such as traction control or assisted braking. Look at modern navigation systems. Even the lights on modern cars are getting totally redesigned to be more effective.

However, connecting cars wirelessly to anything and everything is foolish with today's technology. There was a story just yesterday about how an OTA update broke the radio and navigation systems on Lexus cars. A couple of days before that, there was a story about how the alarm on a Mitsubishi model could be remotely disabled due to poor wireless security. Paranoia is irrational distrust. It's hardly irrational to be concerned when we've had two major failures so far this week and plenty more before that.

The point about the Luddites was that they were opposed to technological changes that would potentially make them redundant by doing their jobs better and more efficiently. Nothing about having hopelessly vulnerable control systems attached to vast numbers of heavy, fast-moving vehicles falls into that category.

Who would want that? Marketing People

[BrendaEM]

Just put an line-input jack on the stock radio, and make the radio opening is a standard replaceable size, and stop fucking around with it.

It's a car--not a information center. Even GPS may be replaced someday. Are we just supposed to throw our car out because the some codec or protocol isn't supported in your stupid hackmagnet monstrosity of pointless obsolescence and seething complication?