Operating Systems for Cars?

[Aphex_Twin]

Does this mean we'll soon have to reboot our cars once a day?

 

[Eastern Knight]

No, but it means that our car is going to freeze in the middle of the road every once a while.

 

[jpowers]

Originally posted by Plexus


XP with a decent computer and a firewall is a near perfect system, IMO.

I have this setup at home, and while it is less buggy than other Windows systems, I still get at least one blue screen of death a week, and have to reset my internet connection almost daily.

 

[Kinniken]

Originally posted by Plexus


XP with a decent computer and a firewall is a near perfect system, IMO.

Though I'm not using it myself, from what I've seen around me it is true - for a computer.
Most people running WinXP I know have a crash every once in a while, which is acceptable for a computer and definitly better than Win98, but would be *devastating* for a car.
Even an average of a crash a year would make such cars terribly dangerous to use.

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Aphex_Twin
Does this mean we'll soon have to reboot our cars once a day?

car computers do crash, if that is what you mean. It can be nasty, hard to fix problems.

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Eastern Knight
No, but it means that our car is going to freeze in the middle of the road every once a while.

I posted too fast. This is indeed what can happen. Especially when cars get a bit older.

 

[Phantom Lord]

From a professional point of view it's pretty likely that embedded versions of Microsoft operating systems will appear in automotive systems. You can't, of course, compare those systems with MS consumer / PC stuff. Embedded systems like brake control are highly critical and a systematic error that causes mass accidents has the potential to ruin an entire car company, so these things will face quality assurance measures that have not much in common with those applied to everyday consumer software. The development of such systems will rather equal the development of software for aeronautic, life-critical or powerplant control applications.

Stuff like wireless upgrading of critical systems (e. g. brake control software) is complete marketing-driven nonsense on the other hand, the risks of technical failure and sabotage are far to high.

 

[EdwardTking]

Great, I can look forward to:

(1) Suddenly my car goes out of control and starts running over pedestrians because a teenage fan of Deathrace 2000 has hacked in.

(2) I'm at the level crossing with a train coming and the car stops, a charming lady announces that my MS licence expired.

(3) I'm driving to Burger King when suddenly I find myself in McDonalds because McDonalds have paid MS to do a redirect.

 

[Enemy Ace]

Computers running every aspect of human life is somewhat disturbing.

 

[Thadlerian]

Originally posted by SanPellegrino
It really scares me. I guess you all know the comparison the GM Ceo made about Microsoft and the car industry.

And for those who don't know, here it is:
Link

In response to Mr. Gates' comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO): "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

a. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice daily.

b. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

c. 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.

d. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT". But then you would have to buy more seats.

e. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive.

f. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by one "general car default" warning light.

g. New seats would force everyone to have the same size bottom.

h. The airbag system would say, "Are you sure?" before going off.

i. 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.

j. 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% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice department.

k. 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.

l. You'd press the "Start" button to shut off the engine.

 

[Skullbones]

Hehehe, wonder how often the cars will have to be periodically updated to fix security holes.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Originally posted by jpowers

I have this setup at home, and while it is less buggy than other Windows systems, I still get at least one blue screen of death a week, and have to reset my internet connection almost daily.

People tend to blame any problem with their computer on windows when their are tons of other programs on their computers that causes problems. If you can't figure out how to avoid the blue screen of death once a week on XP box I wouldn't blame MS. Cars have been running on computers for a long time. The reliability on them hasn't always been that great and if you try upgrades on the wrong car you could end up in big trouble.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Originally posted by Thadlerian

And for those who don't know, here it is:
Link

I was hoping someone would post that, cracks me up every time.

 

[Phantom Lord]

Originally posted by GrandAdmiral


People tend to blame any problem with their computer on windows when their are tons of other programs on their computers that causes problems. If you can't figure out how to avoid the blue screen of death once a week on XP box I wouldn't blame MS.

I second that. And besides that, the XP some of us run at home has nothing to do with the "embedded" version. No plug'n'play, no myriad of interfaces, no compromise for the sake of a commercial user interface. MS commercial software ain't perfect or even close to being perfect (registry concept, different file formats for similar applications etc), but in fact it runs on millions of computers that work most of their time if left untouched by so called "power-users". At least you can consider their stuff heavily acceptance tested and of course the leading OS is the leading hacker target.

And as said before, embedded (automotive) software is a completely different thing. Gimmicks don't count here and it's not like MS couldn't produce something working, because MS as such is certainly flexible with it's hundred thousands of people working for them.

 

[bobgote]

i'm looking forward to problems being easier to locate.

"General Car Fault 000000x0132"
"Your car has performed an illegal operation and will now shut down"

taking a car to MS tech support more often than a mechanic?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Originally posted by bobgote
i'm looking forward to problems being easier to locate.

"General Car Fault 000000x0132"
"Your car has performed an illegal operation and will now shut down"

taking a car to MS tech support more often than a mechanic?

You obviously don't drive a Ford.

 

[Enemy Ace]

Never had any major problems with my Fords. I guess I take better care of my vehicles than most, though.

 

[Pongui]

The navigation systems are growing robust enough that a better interface is needed. Plainly, that same screen and same interface could convey and receive other information. MS wants to be there, and I don't blame them.

***

I saw a car in Japan with this interesting feature: if the airbags deployed, the car itself would automatically call an ambulance dispatch with its map co-ordinates.

 

[Martacus]

Originally posted by Aphex_Twin
Does this mean we'll soon have to reboot our cars once a day?

Nothing quite like having to replace the entire back end of your car every day...