Hey wait a minute… that car has windows on it!
How does Microsoft manage to be both ahead and behind the curve? A decade before Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, they already were doing the same thing, and somehow blew it?
Windows CE in general blows me away how the underlying tech is fundamentally the same as modern smartphones (system is a ROM, had ARM support, goes to sleep by default) and Microsoft was still too slow to react to the iPhone. God I miss my PDA.
Most cars already run on Linux
Ironically, my cars don’t run Linux for the same reason my computers do: I’m militant about protecting my property rights and privacy, so I refuse to have any car new enough to have “infotainment” because it’s all closed-source and Tivoized. It’s effectively hostile, despite the Linux kernel at the bottom of it.
I’ll buy a car made after the mid-2000s when I can re-flash the whole thing with non-DRM’d community-supported software, and not a minute before.
I mean; there’s nothing stopping you from using a car from an earlier era; and bodging in an Android Tablet into your dashboard as an infotainment system.
The thing doesn’t need to be concerned with your climate controls or anything else on your CAN bus for security reasons anyways. So you can leave those controls as they are and just let the tablet replace your Radio effectively for 100% DRM free media enjoyment with your favorite fully rooted and flashed tablet running whatever FLOSS version of Android firmware you like.
I’m in the same boat. So much that I just paid a bunch to replace the transmission of my 2012… I could probably have not done that and invested in something newer, but I don’t… want that…
I’ll stick with just getting more of this exact car when this one isn’t repairable anymore (it has telemetry, but it can’t be accessed without plugging in directly, which isn’t typically a huge concern I have) Or when they can be flashed, as you say. Like I’d love to have an EV because I rarely drive far, but I absolutely won’t buy a spymobile to get one.
Yeah, just like how DIYing car repairs and modifications has been illegal for decades now.
…oh wait.
Back in reality, yet again “X but on a computer” is not somehow magically different from “X”, and pretending it is as an excuse to curtail property rights is nothing but authoritarian fearmongering.
Until recently, I had a Ford Flex.
The only thing I didn’t like about it was the proud “powered by Microsoft” emblem (and its implications).
The entertainment system might run something windows based, but there are dozens of microcontrollers that do run linux.
Sure, and for the eight years I owned it before it broke down beyond being worth repairing, I had no problem with those. The infotainment system did kinda suck, but it was a 2014 so I think it would get some leeway for that even if it weren’t Microsoft powered.
The emblem just offended my sensibilities. I never pulled it off, though, because the friends who rode with me all knew how passionately I feel about Linux (they mostly also work with it - I try not to proselytize to the disinterested) and found it funny.
According to KBB, the car was worth $8k when it broke down. I put almost double that into repairing the same part of the engine at three different mechanics before giving up. Sadly, for some silly reason, Ford no longer makes the Flex. I think the Explorer is pretty close, but I couldn’t find one close enough to test drive. I would have loved to convert my car to an EV, but I wouldn’t trust my own work on that front and didn’t want to pay as much as would cost to have a professional do it.
Every time I get into my new vehicle - a 2024 Ford Edge - I think to myself how much I miss the Flex. That said, I did get a great deal on the Edge.
SYNC 4 is QNX, the next gen units like the one in the new Lincoln Nautilis is QNX + Android with some Linux on other ECUs. MS is firmly gone from Ford vehicles.
This is useful information and the depth of your knowledge is impressive. Not that I expect operating system expertise from a car salesperson who has no reason to have any, but my salesperson told me it was still Microsoft. Thank you.
Suddenly I miss the Flex just a tiny, tiny bit less.
Linux is not a real-time OS*. For a car ECU, something like Speeduino would be a more appropriate choice.
(* Or wasn’t until a week or so ago, at least. https://www.zdnet.com/article/20-years-later-real-time-linux-makes-it-to-the-kernel-really/)
That’s the joke 😉
You could certainly do it but let’s hope that fuel injection timings and realtime system response aren’t that important to you.
Well you can tell they don’t use arch because there’s no humblebrag sticker
“Linux femboy? Wha- oh nevermind.”
-Me after seeing way too many c/unixsocks posts.
Are you even a Linux user if you don’t randomly wonder what operating system the person in front of you in traffic prefers? It’s a good thing that this person says “wonder no more.”
