8 ms·

At some point, I think we have to start asking if the addition of non-critical features like having a favicon for each radio station is worth the increased atta

• mbreese 5y ago
  Mixing the car radio and actual critical systems (backup camera) doesn't seem like a great idea. Especially when the car manufacturer doesn't control the entire system. I know nothing about the supply chain for car radios, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was all made by some secondary supplier, so Mazda doesn't even necessarily have the code to the section they need to patch. But, I'm honestly more surprised that it's a Mazda specific issue. I would have expected for the same bug to hit multiple infotainment systems.
  • walrus01 5y ago
    This may be pedantic but I wouldn't call a backup camera critical, people need to learn how to drive and parallel park without those aides. I sure would be pissed if I had a car with a backup camera and something like this bricked the big center screen in my car, however.
    • avidiax 5y ago
      A backup camera is required safety equipment (at time of sale) on new cars.
      • hallway_monitor 5y ago
        Great, another unneeded feature forced down our throats at additional cost to who? You guessed it, consumers!
        • myself248 5y ago
          Yeah, drives me nuts. Some cars have really great rear visibility and should be exempt from the requirement. I understand it on SUVs and stuff though.
          • zelos 5y ago
            Wouldn't the entire rear of the car and the rear seats have to be glass to exempt a car from having the camera? A bigger rear window wouldn't have let me see the toddler who'd wandered a short distance off from his parents in a car park and was standing right behind my car.
            • myself248 5y ago
              Look at the split rear window on the Prius; it does exactly that. If the driver is tall and turning their neck, or short and using the center mirror, the sight-line from the driver's seat extends below the rear seats and down into what would ordinarily be the tailgate. You can't see the pavement under the bumper, but you can see a kid on a tricycle right behind the car. Personally I find rear view cameras to be quite disorienting. The view is quite distorted by the wide-angle lens and it's not clear where it can see and where it can't. Do I still have blind spots if I look at only the screen? Where are they? With a mirror I get an intuitive sense of what it can and can't see. Also, I expect the view to move when I move my head like in a mirror, which is part of what makes it so easy to get a sense of where the mirror can see. I suppose someday I'll get used to cameras, but today is not that day.
          • astrange 5y ago
            Do they still sell any cars with good rear visibility? My hatchback has about the best you could get (and they don't sell it here anymore) and I still added a backup camera, it's very useful.
            • thedevelopnik 5y ago
              I used to pride myself on my ability to fit into small parking spaces and parallel park even big vans pretty precisely, and a backup camera blew all that out of the water because I can fit anywhere now. My little GTI with a backup camera made me an invincible parking machine.
        • hodgesrm 5y ago
          Well, you could also say the same about seat belts and ABS. I very much prefer cars with cameras at this point.
          • deleted 5y ago
            [deleted]
        • Teever 5y ago
          I think parents who have lost their children to cars backing out of driveways while children are playing on the sidewalk would disagree with your description of 'unneeded'
          • wowokay 5y ago
            • renewiltord 5y ago
              This is true. Any kid who is capable of naming themselves has also opted out of child safety. The two characteristics are irreversibly linked. In addition, the existence of kids who are capable of naming themselves must mean that other kids should be bumper mush. This is the only way to preserve the American Way.
              • tom_ 5y ago
                If anything, it's the drivers who are the real victims here.
                • krallja 5y ago
                  Actually, it’s the shareholders, who have to bear the costs of these expensive lawsuits from the parents of these irresponsible children! Won’t anyone think of the shareholders?
            • elevader 5y ago
              That's classical victim blaming. We are all humans and make mistakes.Some mistakes only result in some property damage or money lost and some, like running over a person (doesn't even have to be a child, don't forget that there are handicapped people who might not be able to react fast enough to get out of that situation), can't be corrected afterwards. Handwaving that away because some people like to save a few dollars is not a great idea. By your logic we could also hand everybody heroin and an assault rifle and abolish most laws, people watch TV after all and therefore can be taught not to do bad things.
        • notreallyserio 5y ago
          Don't get me started on turn signals! Who's paying for these features? That's right, Joe Consumer. People just need to learn how to use hand signals.
          • bregma 5y ago
            Turn signals are not what makes a car expensive. Look at BMWs.
            • Arrath 5y ago
              You could tell me BMW's ship without turn signals and I'd believe you.
              • cferr 5y ago
                I know BMW turn signals are a meme (with good reason...), but I've noticed the exact same behavioral trend with Lexus drivers as well. It's really just those two makes in particular.
        • jedberg 5y ago
          It’s not unneeded, it’s there to prevent you from killing someone, just like every other required safety system.
        • jacobolus 5y ago
          Great, another feature that will save dozens to hundreds of lives (disproportionately of young children) every year, while adding only a few bucks to the bill of materials for cars that already have a display screen.
          • Moru 5y ago
            I do wish parents would stop teaching kids to take the short route over the carpark on the way to school. They save a couple of meters but walk behind cars backing out of the car garages... The back camera is handy but you won't see them if they walk on your side of the lane, too close to the 90 degree edge of the car. And to make it more fun, our car has an overlay on the left edge with a top down view of the sensors around the car. That one blocks the view completely in that edge. And has a black background window that slowly fades away.
        • Tagbert 5y ago
          Also demanded by customers. A well implemented backup camera is much better than trying to use a small rear view mirror or twisting around to look out a small rear window. The backup camera can give you a wider field of view including low down where a small child might be. It is also much brighter in the dark than your eyes normally see. This doesn’t mean that I am not also checking the surroundings but the backup camera is such a big improvement that I would not buy any car without one.
    • brewdad 5y ago
      Backup cameras are going to become critical beyond "learn to drive properly" very soon. My college aged son has literally never driven a car without a backup camera. I taught him to use his mirrors after checking the camera for obstacles the mirrors can't see but I'm sure he's already developed the habit of simply relying on the camera. I'm pretty much there and have 30+ years of driving without them.
      • bregma 5y ago
        Where I live you could fail your driver's test if you look at the rearview camera while reversing. You can glance at it before you start the manoeuvre but if you take your eyes off the road while the vehicle is in motion, you get the silent note taking.
        • jessaustin 5y ago
          I usually look at the mirrors rather than the road?
    • tessierashpool 5y ago
      you're getting a ton of criticism, but I have two cars, and only one has a backup camera. I reverse more safely in the car with no backup camera. I've caught myself just backing up without thinking about it in the car with the backup camera. never done that in the old-school mirrors car. I don't know if there are any studies that back up backup cameras.
      • pbhjpbhj 5y ago
        I've read that people ride more dangerously, and are tested by car drivers less carefully, when wearing a cycle helmet. Perhaps there's a similar effect here -- I think we do tend to rely on safety equipment and ignore due diligence.
    • boardwaalk 5y ago
      Some cars are designed around having that camera in exchange for rear visibility. Generally for better aerodynamics. It likely pays for itself in fuel pretty quickly.
      • klyrs 5y ago
        My understanding is that it's partly motivated by rollover crash safety -- with smaller windows in the back, they can make those pillars sturdier. That said, I'd much rather have a backup display in my rear-view mirror than a giant touch screen
  • myself248 5y ago
    Yeahbut, they both need access to the same screen. And yes, it's all made by suppliers, and therein lies most of the trouble with cars today.
    • withinboredom 5y ago
      Electronic KVM switches are pretty ancient tech. So getting access to the screen/input between different hardware modules shouldn't be that complicated. They just don't want to pay for the parts and additional complexity.
  • nanidin 5y ago
    > I know nothing about the supply chain for car radios, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was all made by some secondary supplier, so Mazda doesn't even necessarily have the code to the section they need to patch. You are correct that in general the automotive OEM's farm out the various components of the vehicle to suppliers. In that case, they probably also have some sort of support contract in place that ensures the supplier will address issues like this in a timely manner for the duration of the warranty period for the vehicles it is included in.
  • tjohns 5y ago
    At least in my car (2013 Chevy Volt), the backup camera is on an internal KVM-type switch. The moment I switch into reverse the camera forcibly takes over the infotainment screen. You can occasionally see the signal flicker when the switch happens. But also… a backup camera is hardly critical equipment. It’s there for situational awareness (and a good idea), but doesn’t replace the mirror. And since nobody drives in reverse at high speed, stopping is always an option if it malfunctions.
    • genocidicbunny 5y ago
      On many newer cars, the backup camera is approaching critical equipment. With the rising safety standards, the visibility in cars, especially out the back, has gone down significantly. Incidentally, this is very apparent on the Mazdas that I've owned. My old old Protege had good visibility out the back, an early 10's 3 had passable visibility out the back, and the now handful-of-years-old 6 has atrocious visibility out the back, to the point where more than half the field of view is obscured.
      • kortilla 5y ago
        That’s still not critical. The backup camera is not used as a rear view mirror replacement and the ability to back up, let lone back up safely, is not required for safe operation of the vehicle. Brakes are critical, steering is critical. Reverse and everything that entails is not.
        • ipython 5y ago
          Backup cameras are great for avoiding things low to the ground but do give a false sense of security. I managed to back into a fan box at about head level in a parking garage because I became too reliant on the camera alone. If I had turned around to look behind me I could have avoided a thousand dollar repair.
        • alamortsubite 5y ago
          > Brakes are critical, steering is critical. Reverse and everything that entails is not. The statistic is that every year, in the U.S. alone, over 2000 kids are run over by vehicles reversing. I had to read what you wrote a half-dozen times, but in hindsight the dissonance makes perfect sense.
• berkes 5y ago
  I'm quite certain the dev teams here did ask themselves this. And decided it was worth it. (If my experience told me anything: Probably under some pressure of marketing or C-level)