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I've worked in industrial process systems where firmware is pushed out to millions of devices. The process is pretty rigorous - first the engineering team deve
by ghshephard 13y ago
I've worked in industrial process systems where firmware is pushed out to millions of devices. The process is pretty rigorous - first the engineering team develops a candidate build, they run it through full regression and acceptance. Once it passes all the various code quality tests (coverage, static analysis, etc...), it's signed. Only code which is signed can be run on the production bootloader. The process required to sign a firmware image requires M of N people to come together with their credentials (hardware keys) to have the HSM (Hardware Security Module), sign the firmware.
The actual roll out of the firmware is of course staged - in Tesla's case, they likely roll it out to all of their employees teslas for a period of time, and then to a candidate group, and eventually everyone.
The team that actually pushes the firmware, is completely separate from the team that builds, and signs - they have a fairly detailed set of procedures that ensures a quality push, which is their entire focus.
The likely difference, is that the process I described, usually took 4-6 months after the code was completed, whereas Elon Musk/Tesla can probably spin it around in 4-6 weeks.
- drpancake 13y agoI could get behind that process, and I don't doubt that theirs is similarly rigorous. I guess the issue is that, in the long-term, how do we know that it's still being applied consistently and that there are no security holes. This is a much wider and rather tricky issue (how do I know that my Bitcoin exchange is performing cold storage correctly and consistently?) You could answer: more regulations and oversight. Doesn't solve the issue.
- lnanek2 13y agoI've done the same at smartphone OEMs, and I can tell you, even after all the precautions and testing similar to what you said, there's always a few units that get stuck in a bootloop or fail to update out of millions. That a happening for a car instead of a phone is much more dangerous.
- thenewbtg 13y agoHow is it bad for the car? Are Tesla's accepting OTA updates while driving, and updating firmware while the vehicle is moving? If so then you're right, they've made a terribly unsafe decision. But if you have to stop the vehicle, put it in park or off, before it actually updates the software, then a bricked car isn't exactly dangerous, just a massive inconvenience and a source of incredible frustration.
- nathancahill 13y agoI believe they update when the car is parked at home.
- sliverstorm 13y agoYea, I would be pretty livid if one morning my car is just dead for no good reason. You might object that a dead battery can cause that. But I take constant preventative measures, can tell when a battery is starting to go, and I can fix a dead battery.
- brownbat 13y agoAnd in 2030 we'll look back and think, yeah, OTA updates are how cars became a subscription service.
- sliverstorm 13y agoOr, god forbid, an advertisement delivery platform. (Yeah, radios deliver ads, but I don't have to listen to the radio. Can you imagine if your car ran banner ads around the spedometer?)
- richardw 13y agoIt would be driving us so we won't be looking at the speedo. Because of the new "free rides while you listen to our adverts" deal. Big red button for "just buy the goddamned product and leave me in peace".