3 ms·

Lots (most?) cars are going to LCDs for the instrument panel. The second screen is the infotainment.

al_borland 9mo ago
My previous car had its infotainment system reboot several times while I was on the expressway. The idea of my instrument panel, or other more critical systems, crashing and rebooting while driving terrifies me.
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  The infotainment is not connected to the ECU and other car control electronics. At least not on my Tesla nor my F150 Lightning. You can reboot them to your hearts content while driving down the road.
  - al_borland 9mo ago
    Yes, but it is still rather unnerving when part of the car goes dark. It also makes me question the QA on this stuff. If that is crashing, will the other systems be crashing at some point as well? Is there redundancy? These are the questions that went through my mind while hoping the screen would come back on before I missed my exit. Even knowing the systems are completely separate, it spoke to overall quality.
    - rootusrootus 9mo ago
      I agree that it is unnerving, but I expect it to be normal in the future. They save a bunch of time by being able to push out a 90% product with low risk of catastrophe and just push updates later to fix it up. As a bonus, they can market the frequent updates as a benefit rather than cleaning up technical debt they would have had to iron out before shipping the first car.
- vel0city 9mo ago
  I've had multiple vehicles have instrument cluster failures while operating them. None of those have been screens. "Analog" gauges have not actually been analog for a while. They're all digital controls being read by a computer. Even a carbureted motorcycle I owned from the early 2000s had "analog" gauges with values given to it from a computer!
  - rootusrootus 9mo ago
    > from the early 2000s For sure, and even earlier -- I had a 1995 Mustang with faux analog gauges, it has definitely been a Thing for decades now.

My previous car had its infotainment system reboot several times while I was on the expressway. The idea of my instrument panel, or other more critical systems, crashing and rebooting while driving terrifies me.

rootusrootus 9mo ago
The infotainment is not connected to the ECU and other car control electronics. At least not on my Tesla nor my F150 Lightning. You can reboot them to your hearts content while driving down the road.
- al_borland 9mo ago
  Yes, but it is still rather unnerving when part of the car goes dark. It also makes me question the QA on this stuff. If that is crashing, will the other systems be crashing at some point as well? Is there redundancy? These are the questions that went through my mind while hoping the screen would come back on before I missed my exit. Even knowing the systems are completely separate, it spoke to overall quality.
  - rootusrootus 9mo ago
    I agree that it is unnerving, but I expect it to be normal in the future. They save a bunch of time by being able to push out a 90% product with low risk of catastrophe and just push updates later to fix it up. As a bonus, they can market the frequent updates as a benefit rather than cleaning up technical debt they would have had to iron out before shipping the first car.
vel0city 9mo ago
I've had multiple vehicles have instrument cluster failures while operating them. None of those have been screens. "Analog" gauges have not actually been analog for a while. They're all digital controls being read by a computer. Even a carbureted motorcycle I owned from the early 2000s had "analog" gauges with values given to it from a computer!
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  > from the early 2000s For sure, and even earlier -- I had a 1995 Mustang with faux analog gauges, it has definitely been a Thing for decades now.