It gives an amazing user experience, "Hey restart your car and it's now got X and Y". Respect.
Edit: clarifying the term "product".
This forum: http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2014-mazda-3-skyactiv-aud... has some excellent info, and someone usually posts the new FW files. I've done an upgrade and the hacks myself.
Fuck that. I deal with shitty software enough everywhere else in my life. I'm not going to put up with that in a 4000lb piece of metal going 70 MPH.
Stereo still has a cassette player, so a $5 adapter lets you plug in your phone for music. There's not a touch control in sight, the ergonomics are well thought through, and it even has a crude form of dual zone AC. Sure, it's more expensive in gas money, but when you factor in the reduced depreciation that's peanuts.
What a disappointing attitude to have toward fuel consumption in 2015. :/
An older functional car may be better for the planet than destroying and replacing it.
I own a 960, Volvo won't sell parts for it anymore. Two generations and 20-years after your suggested car was designed I find mine has no thought given to ergonomics. Row of switches on the flat dash, behind the steering wheel where you can't see them... yeah.
As for your 960: I can't comment on the ergonomics, never having been in one, but I know for sure that you can still get parts for it in Europe.
[1] http://www.safercar.gov/Vehicle+Shoppers/5-Star+Safety+Ratin...
A much better system, IMHO, and doesn't mandate a nav system style screen.
Do you assume that we will purchase self driving cars frequently enough that the infotainment will keep pace? Do you anticipate purchasing a personal train or fighter jet? Do the handlebars on a motorcycle count as a steering wheel?
Of course such vehicles will have infotainment. I've long been thinking about what sort of content would work best. Short, serialized content released on a weekday schedule would certainly be an opportunity. Perfect watercooler fodder.
As an employee you could get the ride in the car free, as a perk, iff you watch the educational material and pass a test on it. This would be assessed during the ride via onscreen multiple-choice questions; get less than 50% correct (or, turn it off) and you have to pay for the journey!
PS: I can see the argument for a highly limited system when they can distract the driver, but if I am effectively a passenger that's a non-issue.
If I'm the passenger, I should be able to tinker with the infotainment system as I like, without restriction (especially when my dad is the driver and I want to enable bluetooth audio to play music from my phone - my dad drives a newish Outback, great car from a driving perspective, crappy from the infotainment system perspective).
But the overall state of infotainment systems is laughably bad, there's a few that are merely ok, most are bad, and some are rage-inducing. (Hello Cadillac!)
I know a dealership mechanic and he told me even with the proprietary scan tool, and access to the companies database; he spends hours a week learning every new upgrade, and feature these newer cars/trucks are implementing. He said it's usually on the customer's dime.
We need to standardize, and I believe, even mandate that if a person buys a automobile; they will have access to all the repair information for that particular vechicle.
I foresee a junk yards getting bigger, and bigger, with cars that no one car work on, or worse--just crushing the vechicle when that transmission with 10 sensors, and two computers fails?
A note to mechanics; I know the amount of ongoing learning you gave to do in order to keep your job. I know your employer expects you to learn this new technology on your time. If these vechicles keep going in the direction I think we are already at(too complicated, and car companies refusing to release data), it might me a the right time to unionize in certain counties? With unionization you could afford Lobbiests, and in the end you would be paid what you are worth, with retirement benefits? With paid training on all these propiatiary systems? (I think the San Francisco Bay Area could pull off a union takeover?)
Basically, when I buy a car--I don't want to be forced to bring it to a dealership in order to repair! I gave a family member who has a 1996 Dodge Dakota. After years of working on it, I can repair the vechicle, but I spent a lot of time learning how to flash the computer, and only got the software because I have a buddy at a dealership. I told him, if he buys a new vechicle--I probally won't be able to repair it for free. I told him to drive it until it blows up. We are not a wealthy family.
Check this out: http://www.mazda3hacks.com/doku.php
You can turn off the annoying restrictions, change the ordering of some menus and drastically reduce the time of the starting confirmation dialogue box. All you need is a USB to Ethernet adaptor.
Also make sure to disable watchdog or you can get into a reboot loop that makes it difficult to ssh back in and fix (we almost thought we'd have to bring it into the dealer, but we were able to get out of it with some script on that forum).
The P5 and predecessor Protege were fun to drive, worked OK, etc. but both were their high-end trimlines and my experiences with the two cars gave me the feeling that Mazda was prone to leaving out stupid really cheap stuff that would have drastically improved the feel/experience of the vehicles.
The examples that still jump out at me are:
* a front passenger door with no internal power lock switch - using the key on the outside you could lock/unlock everything, but from the inside passenger seat you had to lean over to hit the switch on the driver's door. Likely manufacturing cost savings? Maybe $5 including labor? I'd be surprised if the switch and wires would have cost more than $1 at car manufacturer volumes.
* trunk carpeting that was basically nylon felt placed on top of a smooth plastic spare tire cover - not attached anywhere, just sitting there where anything on it would just cause the whole piece of carpet to slide all over the trunk. My fix was 5 hook sides of wide adhesive-backed industrial Velcro. Worked for years with no problem, cost if done at the factory? Probably less than $0.50, but it might have cut into the options of selling aftermarket trunk liners so maybe it was intentional.
* cupholders that were not in fact deep enough to retain any cup, can or bottle commonly sold in US convenience stores during a turn. Make a sporty little car with a stiffened suspension, put in a 5-speed manual, then require that drivers going through curves at speed or turns without a full stop have to hold any beverages in the cupholders or have them go flying underfoot.
The cars themselves were fine for 100-135k miles each and there were workarounds I could put in place for everything, but stupid little crap like that still makes me feel like if they don't care enough to take cheap steps like that then what more expensive things are they skipping?
If you don't disable watchdog then when it starts up and isn't working watchdog will have it automatically reboot. Since this isn't a transient issue, but a misconfigured file it'll just keep rebooting making it very difficult to ssh back in and fix the file.
If watchdog is disabled then while the infotainment system won't work it's easy to ssh back in and fix the file.
Of course maybe your car is new enough that you already have that software version, in which case mine might be about to get worse... :)
Look at mobile phones.
An old Nokia 3210 or something, just works. It does everything fine. It works as a phone. It was designed from start to finish, and built.
Compare that with Android. Every update they seem to break or remove some functionality. Endless software updates, restarting, etc. It was shipped with bugs, it'll always have bugs.
I'm not convinced this is an improvement. Also obviously has some pretty big consequences if the update system is hacked, or if there's critical bugs etc.
Also, software will always be more buggy than hardware. The more software there is in something, the less reliable it is.
Old phones didn't have apps that required constant connectivity and didn't have screens at all, essentially.
So the problem is that this is comparing yesterday's phone with today's pocket-sized computer.
Note: you can still buy a feature phone today if you'd like.
If I run my Samsung Note 4 in it's extreme power saving mode, it's got a standby that is something like 17 days! I can easily go a few days, if I'm just talking on the phone, text, and the occasional web browser session.
If I want to play audio, it will do that for the better part of a week in that same mode. Just point Chrome at the files and go.
One of my worst gripes with android is just how often it changes the UI just as I'm about to click on something, so that I click on something else. It's maddening.
If I need a phone, I use my Nokia 3210 (With its ridiculously long battery life and far superior reception).
Move fast break things! Hmmmm.
Hold down the top steering wheel button on each side for several seconds, then release. That'll reboot the instrument cluster. Hold down both scroll wheels for several seconds and release -- that will reboot the center console. Perfectly safe while driving, and everything still works.
Everything that Tesla considers essential, of course. You can't tell how fast you're going while the instrument cluster is rebooting, and you can't hear the turn signal while the center console is rebooting. You also can't lock the doors while the center console is rebooting, but apparently no one at Tesla ever lived or stopped the car in a dangerous neighborhood.
* while holding down both scroll wheels for several seconds to reboot the center console for whatever reason.
The electric motor is a much simpler device compared to a classical Carnot heat engine. This, combined with Tesla's over-the-air root access to the deepest levels of the vehicle's systems, makes the actual process of tweaking and tuning the car feel much more seamless.
Any other car company would save software updates for the latest years model and tell users that they have to purchase a new vehicle to receive the updates.
Great precedent Tesla, thank you, and I hope other car companies follow your lead.
I was so hoping the D would have stood for distance/double/ etc before speculation ruined that idea. Now it seems their only news is, look its faster which runs counter to the conservation idea of EVs
While conservation is certainly the idea of EVs, they need to have certain performance characteristics before they are widely accepted. PR stunts like this get people more interested in a great thing.
But I suppose this is the internet so we just need to slam everything and insult everyone. :\
"they need to have certain performance characteristics before they are widely accepted"
EVs need to be able to do 0-60 in 2.8s to be widely accepted??
ryguytilidie's comment, in context, included this explanation: "PR stunts like this get people more interested in a great thing."
And yes, products which are new and different generally need good PR in order to be accepted by consumers. Quite a lot of the press is talking about this today, which is what Tesla hoped to achieve.
I have a feeling that many auto manufacturers still think more in terms of artefacts than in terms of products (like many corporations used to treat software).
To only call something a product when it has auto-update is such ridiculous HN navel gazing that it's just funny.
EDIT: removed useless rant for fear of losing even more internet points!
the electric cars are pretty much gadgets (especially the way Tesla did their car - everything what is possible is implemented in software vs. hardware) where is typical ICE car is mostly hardware.
This is why Apple is getting into electric car business - because Apple has great skills doing gadgets while it is obvious (at least to me) that oily ICE car is alien to Apple.
I.e. while electric and ICE car both share "car" term and both do the same function for end-user and have the same 4 wheels/tires/brakes/etc..., they are actually 2 different things. You just add to your iTunes new gadget - iCar - and it gets synched with your other iPhones/iPods/etc... . Google's self-driving "cutie" of course will get connected to Google Cloud/Play/etc... . No Ford or GMC can do that and thus they would be relegated to the roles of Samsung - chip solders.
I mean a non-disposable, dynamic and upgradable hardware product. This is the first time that I see this in the hardware world, where every object is manufactured and then all plans are towards a V2 or a new product.
The few exceptions are for recalls, but that's obviously a different story.
AMG also doesn't make parts anymore, they make tuned versions of existing cars, as new products.
This car gets better after you have bought it. For free! They are continually adding features that just "magically" appear. Kind of amazing.
It's basically Apple's model with iPhone and Macs, except applied to automobiles.
One of the major selling points of the iPhone is that it will continue to receive full OS updates for 2+ years.
Continuing software upgrades are pretty Apple-specific in the smartphone market, but it's also just as true of Windows and Linux in the desktop space.