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Bruce Perens is organizing a conference on Open Cars. It will take place Tuesday, November 6th, 2018 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The concept behind Open Cars, is the idea that the hardware as well as the software conform to open standards and that, as an automotive product, it must be sufficiently accessible and modular to enable technology upgrades, aftermarket products, and testing by security researchers. The interfaces must be openly documented and be backed by openly disclosed APIs and hardware interfaces. It would not have to run on open data, but could nonetheless protect data privacy and security as well as or better than proprietary automotive products do today. As the emphasis is on the standards and interfaces, both hardware and software, it would not necessarily require that manufacturers base their vehicles on open source software.
The automobile industry thinks they have a solution: lease rather than sell autonomous cars, lock the hood shut, and maintain them exclusively through their dealers.
That works great for the 1%. But what about the rest of us? The folks who drive a dented, 10-year-old car? We should have the option to drive autonomous cars, and to participate in the same world as the more wealthy folks.
Open Cars will be the solution. These are automobiles sold with standard fittings, plugs and standards, so that an autonomous driving computer can be purchased in the aftermarket, installed and tested by a certified mechanic, and put on the road. Similarly, the on-board computer, communication, navigation, and entertainment system on an Open Car will be pluggable, purchased on the aftermarket, and will fit into well-defined niches in the vehicle.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday July 17 2018, @06:38PM (4 children)
At the very least, if it looks like it will go somewhere then the big automakers will crush it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 17 2018, @09:17PM (2 children)
These are cars, so they need a PC analogy: do you remember the "open notebook PC" standard from ~15-20 years ago? Standard swapable modules, boxy overly thick design. It was an idea with many merits, but none that could overcome the ugly, expensive problems.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 18 2018, @12:23PM (1 child)
Just as project ara was an intentional failure, I guess the notebook was intentionally going to fail (too much modularity possibly).
SBC and go pro clones have standardized a bit around some form factors or accessories. Tell me that a portable pc cannot look like the lenovo 500 and be modular.
If you dig up a little you will find scams but also potentially good ideas buried by hardware suppliers failing to deliver in time and quality probs.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:20PM
The modular notebook project had a little grasp on reality. They thought they were going to address the "serious" industrial markets (i.e. knew they could never compete in consumer space). The kinds of places you see Toughbooks, etc. Still, the speed of progress on the consumer side of things made the Toughbook approach of repackaging consumer tech in durable cases with long term availability of specific models much more successful than attempting to run a bespoke custom modular development ecosystem in parallel with consumer notebook development.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday July 17 2018, @10:18PM
Who cares how ugly the car is? Only your mechanic ever sees it. All you see is the shell that's put over the top. We already live in a world where most cars are standardized per-manufacturer. Pretty much every mainstream Toyota is actually the same vehicle - sedan, wagon, SUV, or light-duty pickup truck - it doesn't matter, it's all the same frame, drive train, etc. Ditto for Ford, Volvo, etc,etc,etc. Each manufacturer has a very small selection of "platforms", and almost all their products are an interchangeable body installed on one of those platforms.