5 ms·

> On multiple occasions they've had to pull off the highway to turn their car off and on again to get the screen working. Surely not? The touchscreen is run b

> On multiple occasions they've had to pull off the highway to turn their car off and on again to get the screen working. Surely not? The touchscreen is run by the media computer which does not control the car. You can reboot it with the 'two finger salute' while you are driving down the highway. Some things will be unavailable (you cannot, for example, engage autopilot while it is rebooting), but the car still runs & drives. I hope they just miscommunicated the situation to you, otherwise they are really working too hard just to fix a touchscreen. Turning the entire car off is kind of a pain in the ass. I've never done it. And I have only rebooted the touchscreen a couple times ever. Your friend may want to schedule a service appointment if they really do have to power cycle the whole car, because that is super abnormal.

wlesieutre 6y ago
I'm not suggesting it had any function on that automotive functions, but I was also not aware of the media center reboot with steering wheel buttons. From what he described to me I don't think he was either, I'd have to check and will pass that along if not! I'm a little surprised that the media computer doesn't have a built-in heartbeat check and know to reboot itself if it stops responding. I've heard of other cars and embedded systems doing that. EDIT - asked him about reboot via steerling wheel: > It’s not great because you lose lots of feedback. No speedometer, no sound from turn signals, etc. But it does work.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  It's called a watchdog. And it's 99% running Android and should have that.
  - comboy 6y ago
    Last time I've heard they were using Ruby on Rails.. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17835760&p=2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17835760&p=2
- extrapickles 6y ago
  It probably does, but you always have issues where the task that feeds the watchdog works fine, but another does not (eg: GPU gets in an odd state). In single core systems its somewhat solvable, but in multicore and if you want to include multiple chips in the crash domain it gets very hard with off the shelf chips.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  In my experience the couple times I've had a touchscreen glitch, the watchdog will activate and reboot it after a bit. It's not very aggressive, though, for sure, it can take a minute or so. > It’s not great because you lose lots of feedback. No speedometer, no sound from turn signals, etc. But it does work. Yep, this is very true. You are driving blind, as it were, because the touchscreen is the dash. Fortunately it doesn't take long to reboot, but it is still much less than ideal.
VMisTheWay 6y ago
> I have only rebooted the touchscreen a couple times ever 0 of the OEMs I worked for would consider this acceptable. Reminds me how Tesla ranks high with customer satisfaction but had objectively low quality vehicles.

wlesieutre 6y ago

I'm not suggesting it had any function on that automotive functions, but I was also not aware of the media center reboot with steering wheel buttons. From what he described to me I don't think he was either, I'd have to check and will pass that along if not! I'm a little surprised that the media computer doesn't have a built-in heartbeat check and know to reboot itself if it stops responding. I've heard of other cars and embedded systems doing that. EDIT - asked him about reboot via steerling wheel: > It’s not great because you lose lots of feedback. No speedometer, no sound from turn signals, etc. But it does work.

mav3rick 6y ago
It's called a watchdog. And it's 99% running Android and should have that.
- comboy 6y ago
  Last time I've heard they were using Ruby on Rails.. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17835760&p=2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17835760&p=2
extrapickles 6y ago
It probably does, but you always have issues where the task that feeds the watchdog works fine, but another does not (eg: GPU gets in an odd state). In single core systems its somewhat solvable, but in multicore and if you want to include multiple chips in the crash domain it gets very hard with off the shelf chips.
rootusrootus 6y ago
In my experience the couple times I've had a touchscreen glitch, the watchdog will activate and reboot it after a bit. It's not very aggressive, though, for sure, it can take a minute or so. > It’s not great because you lose lots of feedback. No speedometer, no sound from turn signals, etc. But it does work. Yep, this is very true. You are driving blind, as it were, because the touchscreen is the dash. Fortunately it doesn't take long to reboot, but it is still much less than ideal.

VMisTheWay 6y ago

> I have only rebooted the touchscreen a couple times ever 0 of the OEMs I worked for would consider this acceptable. Reminds me how Tesla ranks high with customer satisfaction but had objectively low quality vehicles.