Slashdot Mirror
Linux For Cars: Tesla Isn't The Only Automaker Running Linux Under the Hood (zdnet.com)
ZDNet reports that by 2020, "many, if not most, new cars will be running with Linux."
While some companies, like Tesla, run their own homebrew Linux distros, most rely on Automotive Grade Linux (AGL). AGL is a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open platform for connected cars with over 140 members... Its membership includes Audi, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Mercedes, Suzuki, and the world's biggest automobile company: Toyota. Why? "Automakers are becoming software companies, and just like in the tech industry, they are realizing that open source is the way forward," said Dan Cauchy, AGL's executive director, in a statement.
Car companies know that while horsepower sells, customers also want smart infotainment systems, automated safe drive features, and, eventually, self-driving cars. Linux and open-source company can give them all of that. The AGL's goal is to develop an open-source, common platform for infotainment systems: The Unified Code Base (UCB). This is a Linux distribution and open-source software platform for car infotainment, telematics, and instrument cluster applications... The AGL's hope is that this will serve as a de facto industry standard. It's well on its way.
Yesterday Hyundai announced that they were also joining both the AGL effort and the Linux Foundation.
Car companies know that while horsepower sells, customers also want smart infotainment systems, automated safe drive features, and, eventually, self-driving cars. Linux and open-source company can give them all of that. The AGL's goal is to develop an open-source, common platform for infotainment systems: The Unified Code Base (UCB). This is a Linux distribution and open-source software platform for car infotainment, telematics, and instrument cluster applications... The AGL's hope is that this will serve as a de facto industry standard. It's well on its way.
Yesterday Hyundai announced that they were also joining both the AGL effort and the Linux Foundation.
Woo. First! LANA!
Can my passengers connect their Bluetooth phones, or program the GPS while the car is in motion, or has the technology not reached that point yet?
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
2020: the year of Linux on the desktop, err, I mean the roadways.
"customers also want smart infotainment systems, automated safe drive features, and, eventually, self-driving cars" - No, FUCK YOU. Make a car that can't be trivially hacked and stolen out of my driveway, how bou dah?
Make user-replaceable parts, make them in labor-friendly countries, pay your pensioners, don't cheat the SMOG test, and fucking STOP with the pseudo-hip-hop adverts, you have ZERO coolness cred, you make fucking APPLIANCES.
AND YOU MAKE THEM BADLY!
The distinguishing factor is more likely that it's free. A single seat license for a VxWorks developer costs tens of thousands of dollars.
I did get a chuckle when I was aboard a plane recently. The seat-back entertainment player in front of me crashed, and when it rebooted it came up with a Red Hat splash screen
could be Microsoft. I guess most automakers have given up on Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform.
Are there any car manufacturers that makes a non-connected just plain, regular car currently?
I'd prefer a standard transmission, maybe a couple USB ports, AC and no OnStar, No built-in cellular, no computers for anything more than controlling fuel injection...
I sincerely thought mention would be made of the "failure" of Linux on the desktop, even as it seemingly scores success after success and [is] a formidable force in the automobile industry.
Something like Windows CE is only a few dollars a time though, and I don't think development kits are expensive.
Not sure there's a huge benefit over Linux - possibly developer support - but the cost isn't all that restrictive.
I write the firmware for several different classes of ECUs. While I don't dispute that Linux is useful in infotainment (an area of automotive software I've never worked on). Areas like autonomous driving and drive assist aren't going to be Linux. Even real-time linux is a bit too heavy handed for something so timing critical. The argument of faster CPUs isn't really an issue. It's more about interrupt latency, TLB misses, and other fundamental design choices that make Linux unsuitable for hard real-time applications.
Most automotive software either uses a very tight executive style RTOS (like WindStart from WRS) or something akin to VxWorks. Personally, it's a shame eCos (an embedded RTOS) never took off; or RTEMS.
High quality, secure, least buggy software.
Linux is far superior to its alternatives.
When Blackberry purchased QNX, they intended that the auto industry would be fertile new soil for that terrific real time OS. Years later, the rise of Automotive Grade Linux seems to indicate that the QNX platform has had some sort of impediments that are likely non-technical, perhaps to do with licensing?
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
I took apart one of the upgrade images and that appears to be using Linux as well. I suspect there is some Android down inside there for the apps half.
Runs linux at least in the Volt, or so they told me about mine. They rewrote a shell to be tighter and faster and shared the source as well. Since people remember when they screw up, they should also remember when they do something decent.
I'll 2nd, 3rd and more anyone who hates the idea of the car companies trying to basically build a proprietary smartphone into their cars, and make the audio infotainment system no longer replaceable or upgradable. That's just bullshit, no one wants that unless they upgrade cars as often as some "please let me get laid" iCrap.
My 2010 Camaro SS would only play iTunes format from the USB jack in the car. Really? I had to find a converter, not owning any iCrap...which apple got taken off the internet with legal threats....
At least the Volt just understands ext4 and so on...But gheesh, NO!! It's even hard to find an aux input these days, kinda like a headphone jack on iCrap. Hmmm....some kind of insiders dealing that makes the obvious way to source audio in a car proprietary for most people, at extra cost.
Glad I'm done buying cars for this lifetime.
Open source means (in this case) that the OS can be fully modified/debugged/updated however they want, without having to depend on the vendor's permission/openness/cooperation. That is an advantage they can have/see without having to share underlying open source ideals others may have.
A car doesn't even need an OS. just this extra garbage they put in them does.
I just need a controller for the fuel injection, dashboard lights... etc
There will always exist idiots that will think that their system is better. Think for example what happened in the mobile phone industry.
Where can i download the code? Where do i submit patches?
It's not a fault tolerance kernel, it is not designed to run dangerous machinery. It should not be in a car.
currently AGL is only entertainment system which is the fluff more or less.
The actual autonomous driving will require a real DISTRO, organized around standards and hardware, and including the AUTOSAR Adaptive Runtime.
We are very far from there, and it is not a given that AGL is going to be the driver for that.
There is a huge opportunity there that currently no Linux Distro is filling.
Maybe other OSes like QNX will fill that niche, if Linux is not playing.
OK so it is high time Ford hand out the keys to the Sync2 / MyFord Touch systems and let the community really hack the units. The hardware may be limited but it is completely crippled by the OS. While it is a joint venture between them and Microsoft, given that they are both going "open source" it would be a gesture of goodwill to make the certs needed to install apps and even new operating systems on these systems that are in so many cars out there but can not be changed without loosing access to key features for the vehicle.
I took a look at the website, I find it interesting that Ford / GM / Chrysler are not members. Perhaps each has decided that they can go it alone?
This only makes sense. The casino gaming industry switched to Linux years ago. I used to work at a casino as a slot technician. All of the machines were computer-driven, even the slot machines with mechanical reels. The few non-linux machines we had were quickly replaced because the would crash multiple times a day, needing to be rebooted, which would take 20 minutes, and then the customer had to be payed before you could reboot the machine, as it would lose their credits at reboot.
Linux is free, and can be customized much more easily than proprietary OSs.
From the summary: "Car companies know that while horsepower sells, customers also want smart infotainment systems, automated safe drive features, and, eventually, self-driving cars. Linux and open-source company can give them all of that."
No, you are insane. Many of us don't give a rat's ass about any of that crap. I want a car that never breaks down if properly maintained, gets excellent gas mileage, and isn't expensive to maintain.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Looking through the Honda system, I noticed it's Android based. I think Android is a major enabler for Linux domination, as automakers don't have to start with a bare kernel.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".