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What amazes me is that any grown up person thinks it is a good idea to update vehicles as if they were telephones Owners should have to bring the vehicle into
by worik 3y ago
What amazes me is that any grown up person thinks it is a good idea to update vehicles as if they were telephones
Owners should have to bring the vehicle into a shop to have changes made, and they should be very rare.
This lazy, control freakery of the worst kind
Something very bad is going on happen and people will die before we realize that it is a stupid dangerous practice
- qmarchi 3y agoI understand the sentiment, but think about the alternatives. There are a few different kinds of updates that can be applied, each with their own protective layers. Infotainment updates, like what happened to Rivian aren't that dangerous. You lose "convienience features" like maps, air con, etc, but generally nothing that could kill you or someone else. Then there's system updates, which is where danger noodle things happen. Automotive manufacturers are significantly more risk averse to updating these components, and generally, if _anything_ within the system looks wonky, it's an immediate revert. If I, as a Polestar owner, wanted to get an update for my vehicle, the nearest service center is 1.5h away. If I lived in Montana (United States), it would be realistically impossible for me to update my car. Thus, if we want to enable competition within the markets, we shouldn't have regulations that force a new manufacturer to have a global network just to add CarPlay to a screen.
- neoromantique 3y ago>Infotainment updates, like what happened to Rivian aren't that dangerous. You lose "convienience features" like maps, air con, etc, but generally nothing that could kill you or someone else. Also speedometer, which is hardly a convenience feature.
- fyrn_ 3y agoThe dashboard panel is working, at least according to Twitter updates. "Only" affects the infotainment console.
- neoromantique 3y agoThe reddit thread in official subreddit suggests otherwise, with people suggesting using 'speedometer apps' on their phones as a workaround. I don't know, I have car from 1991 so I'm just observing the trainwreck.
- matthews2 3y agoMy car from 1997 with an analogue speedometer still has issues, because the wheel speed sensors have corroded and don't work when wet...
- neoromantique 3y agoDoesn't take a drive to dealer to fix that, and even then you have engine RPM and engine sound to guesstimate the speed.
- brewdad 3y agoLosing air con in Phoenix in July might not kill you but you'd wish you were dead.
- mulmen 3y agoDad has a 1966 Oldsmobile with air conditioning. In the last 57 years General Motors has never found a need to update the switch. It still works flawlessly. It’s stupid that we invented a way to not only remotely break an on/off switch but also a culture that rolls the dice on that until the inevitable happens.
- vore 3y agoAs the update only affects infotainment and not critical systems, it seems like a reasonable tradeoff to me. Just because a car can fail in ways that kill people doesn't mean all parts of a car are equally critical.
- windexh8er 3y agoThis isn't true. If you look at the release notes for any of Rivian's updates they all include vehicle related firmware changes. This is not simply infotainment. Beyond that "infotainment" includes driver critical information - like the speedometer which, for many affected, means there's no working driver screen.
- Daneel_ 3y agoThe article states that the speedometer is unaffected: "Speedometer, charging, backup cameras, locks, lights, wipers, and turn signals are all still functional with the 2023.42 error."
- bradleyjg 3y agoThe art of shipping software—like on a disk, where once it’s out the door, it’s out the door and you may never get another shot—is dead or dying. Even in some embedded areas of the industry now.
- LastMuel 3y agoOn the other hand, we update irreplaceable spacecraft billions of miles away with new software. It should be fine to push software updates out, as long as the correct safety and fallback procedures are in place. It simply has to be designed to handle failure and procedures need to be in place to mitigate risks. It sounds like that wasn't the case here. Also, why wouldn't you have a small initial release pool when you have such a large potential for disruption?
- fargle 3y ago> What amazes me is that any grown up person thinks it is a good idea to update vehicles as if they were telephones What amazes me is that any grown up person thinks it is a good idea to update telephones as if they were software and not phones. Or rather that it is a good idea to have phones that need updates? Either way, we're all one 1/2 assed push update to a fridge, vacuum, washing machine, phone or car away from a really annoying day.
- worik 3y agoToucè