3 ms·

I drive the cheapest possible car. I'd seriously consider paying double that for one which was genuinely open-hardware. I'd never consider Tesla since the way

by blagie 3y ago

I drive the cheapest possible car. I'd seriously consider paying double that for one which was genuinely open-hardware. I'd never consider Tesla since the way it works, you buy the physical hardware, but in practice, Tesla controls your car. It's not true ownership. This seems like a 180 degree turn. At least for me, it would seriously increase the odds of buying a car and the price I'd be willing to pay. It'd be interesting to see a company pull this off with an in-production car. Knowing the crowd, ideal audience would either be a pickup truck or a basic sports car.

IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
You could say this about almost all modern cars. This is the same issue that is leaking into phones, TVs, PCs, and other devices: If you don't purchase the cloud-sub, that piece of hardware is just expensive paperweight. We keep reading that people are willing to pay for a "Dumb TV", etc. Yet they are not startups or manufacturers stepping up. All words, no action ?
- jacobr1 3y ago
  > We keep reading that people are willing to pay for a "Dumb TV" They aren't though. People might be willing to chose a dumb tv, all else being equal. But not pay _more_ for a dumb TV. With subsidies from the smart tv services, it isn't cheaper.
  - m463 3y ago
    in fact vizio makes more from selling data than selling the tv itself.
- __d 3y ago
  > Yet they are not startups or manufacturers stepping up. All words, no action ? I suspect the problem is more that the possible market share for such products is tiny.
  - iancmceachern 3y ago
    Yes, and the big manufacturers still make these, you just have to buy a monitor not a TV. I just bought a 40" LG one
- iancmceachern 3y ago
  It's because the big manufacturers still sell them, they're called monitors. I have 40" 4k one from Lg
Aurornis 3y ago
> This seems like a 180 degree turn. At least for me, it would seriously increase the odds of buying a car and the price I'd be willing to pay. Take a look at the linked files before you get too excited. They didn't release much more than the service manuals. There's very little source material on the page. 3 simple circuit boards and some definitions for the CAN interfaces. They released an .ISO of the diagnostic software, but that's generally floating around on the internet for most cars if you know where to look anyway.
LightBug1 3y ago
My weekend driver is currently a 69 Beetle ... you could offer me double but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't sell.
Voultapher 3y ago
An inkjet printer on wheels https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de...
iancmceachern 3y ago
Old American cars are basically open hardware. An old American V8 has about a million options for everything, can get parts everywhere for cheap (I got a brake rotor for $8 recently). It seems that it would be ideal to have the open source cad design files so you could make your own rotor when it breaks, until you realize it would cost you $1k to make one. If this is your goal get an American car from the 60s. The problem is they're super unreliable, because the things that make internal combustion engines reliable are complicated and not easily replicatable by the average hobbies engineer. I design this stuff for a living and I just buy a car, don't touch it, get it serviced at the dealer, and get a new one when I reach the right side of the bathtub curve and it's service life is up and is stops being reliable.

by blagie 3y ago

IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago

You could say this about almost all modern cars. This is the same issue that is leaking into phones, TVs, PCs, and other devices: If you don't purchase the cloud-sub, that piece of hardware is just expensive paperweight. We keep reading that people are willing to pay for a "Dumb TV", etc. Yet they are not startups or manufacturers stepping up. All words, no action ?

jacobr1 3y ago
> We keep reading that people are willing to pay for a "Dumb TV" They aren't though. People might be willing to chose a dumb tv, all else being equal. But not pay _more_ for a dumb TV. With subsidies from the smart tv services, it isn't cheaper.
- m463 3y ago
  in fact vizio makes more from selling data than selling the tv itself.
__d 3y ago
> Yet they are not startups or manufacturers stepping up. All words, no action ? I suspect the problem is more that the possible market share for such products is tiny.
- iancmceachern 3y ago
  Yes, and the big manufacturers still make these, you just have to buy a monitor not a TV. I just bought a 40" LG one
iancmceachern 3y ago
It's because the big manufacturers still sell them, they're called monitors. I have 40" 4k one from Lg

Aurornis 3y ago

> This seems like a 180 degree turn. At least for me, it would seriously increase the odds of buying a car and the price I'd be willing to pay. Take a look at the linked files before you get too excited. They didn't release much more than the service manuals. There's very little source material on the page. 3 simple circuit boards and some definitions for the CAN interfaces. They released an .ISO of the diagnostic software, but that's generally floating around on the internet for most cars if you know where to look anyway.

LightBug1 3y ago

My weekend driver is currently a 69 Beetle ... you could offer me double but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't sell.

Voultapher 3y ago

An inkjet printer on wheels https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-de...

iancmceachern 3y ago

Old American cars are basically open hardware. An old American V8 has about a million options for everything, can get parts everywhere for cheap (I got a brake rotor for $8 recently). It seems that it would be ideal to have the open source cad design files so you could make your own rotor when it breaks, until you realize it would cost you $1k to make one. If this is your goal get an American car from the 60s. The problem is they're super unreliable, because the things that make internal combustion engines reliable are complicated and not easily replicatable by the average hobbies engineer. I design this stuff for a living and I just buy a car, don't touch it, get it serviced at the dealer, and get a new one when I reach the right side of the bathtub curve and it's service life is up and is stops being reliable.