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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: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 17 2018, @08:08PM (1 child)
For as long as there have been vehicles, people have been modifying them.
Some of these nodifications weren't safe
But the vehicles weren't safe to begin with.
Governments, to varying degrees, introduced "safety" legislation.
Modifications continue, but more and more restrictions have been added over the decades.
At the same time, manufacturers have *also* built restrictions, by design, you can't swap engines, gearboxes, glass..anything. Sometimes, you can make adapters.
Add software, with all the complexity and DRM bullshit, and you get cars being a full network, and idiots connecting all the controls to the one network, and the security for the network having all the protections of an eight-year-old's self-hosted website.
Now we get to re-enact the last 25 years of internet security "improvements", but "in cars" Websites don't kill people. Cars can.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday July 18 2018, @08:04AM
But it sounds like this is pushing for "accessibility", as in little Bobby down the street can slot in a "nitro" module to his car before going on a joyride through the next house.
The lack of standardization may have created a knowledge barrier for modification, such that people doing mods had some high probability of being smart enough to not do something blatantly stupid. Thus, I'm wondering if fighting for standardization and accessibility of modding to the average teenager will have unintended consequences.
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