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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 edIII on Tuesday July 17 2018, @08:47PM (6 children)
In this case it's a good thing, because the 1% are the ones dying behind the wheel while being utterly stupid. We've already gotten rid of a few executives this way because they decide to watch movies instead of the road.
I'm not even remotely interested in the technology because there will be no way to divorce it from the surveillance machines. I'll enjoy a 40 year old rust bucket, that has a street rod engine in it, no OnStar, and no ability to stop it via electronic means because it has a carburetor and not electronic fuel injection. That's if I want gasoline. The prices on custom hybrid or electric engines will only go down, while gas continues to be economically nonviable.
As for the leasing, that is the only way I would use one of those vehicles in the future. With fake identification and cash, or whatever means I need to be untrackable. Really, that's assuming we will have an economy at all that creates enough wealth in the middle and bottom for people to enjoy it.
All that advanced crap actually is for the 1% with their unearned incomes at the expense of living wages for the Middle Class.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 17 2018, @09:01PM (5 children)
I want an EV modded to scream like a tie fighter on the attack. No, wait. Scratch that. Can't get the foul taste of The Last Jedi out of my mouth... A shadow ship from Babylon 5 on the attack.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 17 2018, @09:36PM
Ford and Dodge have you covered, I think they both play artificial engine noise through speakers to satisfy their customers' expectations of what a performance car "should" sound like - shouldn't be too hard to tap into that firmware and replace the simulated V8 with a strafing run soundtrack anytime you floor it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 17 2018, @09:42PM
Well, I actually want a fully modded vehicle to look and scream like a tie fighter with this [youtube.com] blasting, while doing 80mph down the freeway. I'll enjoy it immensely. Once. Maybe twice, but that presumes I can escape a stock Crown Vic with a radio :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday July 17 2018, @10:02PM
LOL, I always wanted an EV that sounded like an old steam train coming down the tracks.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)
Just make sure to wear your tin hat or the government will simply take control of your shadow vessel.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:51PM
Not gonna happen. I'm around a P50. Even PsyCops are only P12.
Washington DC delenda est.