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> Qt 5 has contributed to the largest disruption in this century in the automotive industry, making electric cars available to the masses. That is quite a bold

> Qt 5 has contributed to the largest disruption in this century in the automotive industry, making electric cars available to the masses. That is quite a bold claim. Tesla used QT which I think they are referring to, but I don't think the choice of QT contributed to the disruption on the automobile industry.

chungy 3y ago
Hey, when selling a toolkit/framework, they've gotta spin the data in their favor as much as possible. If I was in charge of Qt marketing, I'd do the same.
tensor 3y ago
As far as I know Qt is legit a standard for advance UI in automotive and other industrial applications. I think it's fair to say they contributed.
- kramerger 3y ago
  vscode is now the standard editor for development at Tesla. I don't see Microsoft making such claims.
sho_hn 3y ago
I'd say it's fine. Tesla is widely praised for their software experience, and Qt sells a product with the value proposition of speeding up and enabling software development. Linking the two in a marketing message isn't crazy. And frankly, there are some technical properties of Qt that do make it well-suited to the kinds of problems car makers need to solve. For example, Qt is quite good at offering customizability and extension points at low/mid/high levels of the toolkit. It's easy to subclass/extend/replace UI controls in various ways. When you need your UI controls to do unusual things not found on other kinds of systems, for example implement regional rules for driver distraction, that's useful. At the end of the day, there's likely more EVs on the road with Qt on them than without.
- TechBro8615 3y ago
  Isn't SpaceX using Chromium with a JavaScript app in their space capsule dashboards? It's interesting that they chose that while Tesla used Qt. Obviously the engineering teams aren't the same but I wonder if there is a story behind the two choices.
  - chungy 3y ago
    I think if you can afford to build a rocket, you can afford to build a computer capable of running Chromium. Average people need not apply.
    - asddubs 3y ago
      the thought of having a javascript app control a spaceship is viscerally terrifying however
      - TechBro8615 3y ago
        Why? V8 is probably the most widely deployed and tested execution environment in the world.
        asddubs 3y ago
        v8 maybe, but javascript isn't exactly a language known for having few footguns
        TechBro8615 3y ago
        I can see why you wouldn't want it running your guidance controller. But for interactivity, is there really a better choice? I would argue physical knobs and buttons are better, but if you've decided to write a software dashboard, what's a better option than Chromium + JS for interactivity? There are no formally verified GUI frameworks (AFAIK), so the only available evaluation metric is "how battle tested is it?" Surely Chromium wins just by sheer scale of deployment. What I'd be curious about is how they handle updates. The Web platform is a moving target, and it's not like Chromium engineers are pushing features with "astronomical" failure cases in mind. Even if the SpaceX software is perfectly tested, it could break in possibly uncovered ways with each new update. So does SpaceX keep it up to date and run the same battery of tests on each version? Or do they freeze the version and only update along with their normal SDLC? EDIT: FWIW, it looks like the original source of the Chromium claim is a Reddit AMA [0] with more details from the SpaceX software team. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/gxb7j1/we_are_the_spacex_software_team_ask_us_anything/ft5zou3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/gxb7j1/we_are_the_s...
mtkd 3y ago
It's also the gift that keeps giving when setting up capybara-webkit on a new box
steve1977 3y ago
I guess it’s “contributed” in the same sense that many people use term in their CVs (as in “I happened to be in the same building when project x succeeded”)
- sho_hn 3y ago
  Qt Company does also sell professional services and has engineers work directly on customer projects.

chungy 3y ago

Hey, when selling a toolkit/framework, they've gotta spin the data in their favor as much as possible. If I was in charge of Qt marketing, I'd do the same.

tensor 3y ago

As far as I know Qt is legit a standard for advance UI in automotive and other industrial applications. I think it's fair to say they contributed.

kramerger 3y ago
vscode is now the standard editor for development at Tesla. I don't see Microsoft making such claims.

sho_hn 3y ago

I'd say it's fine. Tesla is widely praised for their software experience, and Qt sells a product with the value proposition of speeding up and enabling software development. Linking the two in a marketing message isn't crazy. And frankly, there are some technical properties of Qt that do make it well-suited to the kinds of problems car makers need to solve. For example, Qt is quite good at offering customizability and extension points at low/mid/high levels of the toolkit. It's easy to subclass/extend/replace UI controls in various ways. When you need your UI controls to do unusual things not found on other kinds of systems, for example implement regional rules for driver distraction, that's useful. At the end of the day, there's likely more EVs on the road with Qt on them than without.

TechBro8615 3y ago
Isn't SpaceX using Chromium with a JavaScript app in their space capsule dashboards? It's interesting that they chose that while Tesla used Qt. Obviously the engineering teams aren't the same but I wonder if there is a story behind the two choices.
- chungy 3y ago
  I think if you can afford to build a rocket, you can afford to build a computer capable of running Chromium. Average people need not apply.
  - asddubs 3y ago
    the thought of having a javascript app control a spaceship is viscerally terrifying however
    - TechBro8615 3y ago
      Why? V8 is probably the most widely deployed and tested execution environment in the world.
      - asddubs 3y ago
        v8 maybe, but javascript isn't exactly a language known for having few footguns
        TechBro8615 3y ago
        I can see why you wouldn't want it running your guidance controller. But for interactivity, is there really a better choice? I would argue physical knobs and buttons are better, but if you've decided to write a software dashboard, what's a better option than Chromium + JS for interactivity? There are no formally verified GUI frameworks (AFAIK), so the only available evaluation metric is "how battle tested is it?" Surely Chromium wins just by sheer scale of deployment. What I'd be curious about is how they handle updates. The Web platform is a moving target, and it's not like Chromium engineers are pushing features with "astronomical" failure cases in mind. Even if the SpaceX software is perfectly tested, it could break in possibly uncovered ways with each new update. So does SpaceX keep it up to date and run the same battery of tests on each version? Or do they freeze the version and only update along with their normal SDLC? EDIT: FWIW, it looks like the original source of the Chromium claim is a Reddit AMA [0] with more details from the SpaceX software team. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/gxb7j1/we_are_the_spacex_software_team_ask_us_anything/ft5zou3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/gxb7j1/we_are_the_s...

mtkd 3y ago

It's also the gift that keeps giving when setting up capybara-webkit on a new box

steve1977 3y ago

I guess it’s “contributed” in the same sense that many people use term in their CVs (as in “I happened to be in the same building when project x succeeded”)

sho_hn 3y ago
Qt Company does also sell professional services and has engineers work directly on customer projects.