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Your predictions seem quite likely.
But that’s where European law makers will show up to save the day (as always). The European laws will then inspire other countries to legislate so that things don’t get out of hand as you’ve described.
We’ve seen this already with the GDPR and it’s already happening with freshly voted laws to regulate gen-AI -
Well, if they got their shit together they would do two things:
1. Make sure critical systems and entertainment systems are reasonably separated so a malfunction of the latter does not impact the former. Consider the entertainment part as untrusted.
2. Adopt a reasonable update process, like applying the update to a different partition/device and verifying it before setting it as the active one. (like A/B partition updates)
My hopes aren't very high that they do... -
> "BSOD in a Ford car, saying the vehicle cannot be driven due to an update failure."
Last year we rented a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee (trip to New Orleans), when we left the hotel and getting ready to merge on the interstate, the vehicle acted like it was stuck in first gear. Where we were wasn't the best part of town, so we tried to get to a 'safe' parking lot at around 4K-5K RPMs (only going around 10~20 MPH). Turned the car off, waited a few seconds, tried to start the jeep and 'System Update...please wait' message.
If we had stopped when the Jeep acted up at the overpass, my family would have been surrounded by New Orleans' best and brightest.
Eventually, the update completed and we were able to start the Jeep.
Guess what vehicle brand we will never, ever purchase? -
@saucyatom , those would indeed be best practices, but we know how managers just loooove those.
For 1), it would require redundancy systems, including network connections, computing power and storage. That leads to: "what do you mean I have to pay for TWO PHONE BILLS just for my car?!? no way, I'm buying from those guys across the street, their vroom-vrooms only require one data plan"
For 2), your procedure might work for reducing update errors. That leaves cases like reported by @PaperTrail : update scheduling. Windows makes updates mandatory otherwise users won't bother. That means updating while some vehicles are moving. If the software is a mission critical system, it will lead to deadly situations.
Alternative? Deploy updates while loading petrol. One would just need the right type of connection and properly sized update packages.
So, we're doomed. -
@JsonBoa
If only they cared, there would be easy solution:
Re 1: IIRC many years ago I saw Intel presenting some system on CEBIT or something that supposedly leads to a reasonable* separation without going all the way with two fully separate systems. Still costs more money that YOLOing it, but it will safe a lot down the line when shit (doesn't) hit the fan.
* Think virtualization instead of different hardware, but I don't remember what exactly they did, nor do I care that much to research..
Re 2: Obviously the user should be asked and updates to the entertainment system should mean that worst case radio/navigation doesn't work. Updates to the car firmware should be separate and even more require the user to confirm that it's a good time to do so. Not doing this is just plain stupid and ignorant of that their business is.
That said I agree that some kind of companies are horribly mismanaging their software. Luckily I don't want or need to own a car..
when your code is a mess but everything work out in the end
When you keep getting +1s on a rant you posted a month ago.
Go big or go home.
Recently many of us may have seen that viral image of a BSOD in a Ford car, saying the vehicle cannot be driven due to an update failure.
I haven't been able to verify the story in established news sources, so I won't be further commenting on it, specifically.
But the prospects of the very concept are quite... concerning.
Deploying updates and patches to software can be reasonably called *the software industry*. We almost have no V0 software in production nowadays, anywhere (except for some types of firmware).
Thus, as car and other devices become more and more reliant on larger software rather than much shorter onboard firmware, infrastructure for online updates becomes mandatory.
And large scale, major updates for deployed software on many different runtime environments can be messy even on the most stable situations and connections (even k8s makes available rolling updates with tests on cloud infrastructure, so the whole thing won't come crashing down).
Thereby, an update mess on automotive-OS software is a given, we just have to wait for it.
When it comes... it will be a mess. Auto manufacturers will adopt a "move fast and break things" approach, because those who don't will appear to be outcompeted by those who deploy lots of shiny things, very often.
It will lead to mass outages on otherwise dependable transportation - private transportation.
Car owners, the demographic that most strongly overlaps with every other powerful demographic, will put significant pressure on governments to do something about it.
Governments (and I might be wrong here) will likely adapt existing recall implementation laws to apply to automotive OS software updates.
That means having to go to the auto shop every time there is a software update.
If Windows may be used as a reference for update frequency, that means several times per day.
A more reasonable expectation would be once per month.
Still completely impossible for large groups of rural car owners.
That means industry instability due to regulation and shifting demographics, and that could as well affect the rest of the software industry (because laws are pesky like that, rules that apply to cars could easily be used to reign in cloud computing software).
Thus... Please, someone tells me I overlooked something or that I am underestimating the adaptability of the powers at play, because it seems like a storm is on the horizon, straight ahead.
rant
updates
future
cars