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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.
"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!
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?
The technology reached that point years ago, but auto makers haven't kept up. It would be pretty simple to detect that the driver has both hands on the steering wheel when the car is in motion, and enable those functions under that condition. Maybe they're worried that the driver would try to push the buttons with his nose.
It hasn't failed as such. It's very difficult to compete with an entrenched monopoly.