Al Sherman
It's about THIS car.
as the current navigation system is a toy at best.
It's all relative I guess. I'm the 21st century equivalent of the guy with the VCR flashing 1200. I think the Nav system is pretty great.
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as the current navigation system is a toy at best.
It's all relative I guess. I'm the 21st century equivalent of the guy with the VCR flashing 1200. I think the Nav system is pretty great.
It's all relative I guess. I'm the 21st century equivalent of the guy with the VCR flashing 1200. I think the Nav system is pretty great.
It's all relative I guess. I'm the 21st century equivalent of the guy with the VCR flashing 1200. I think the Nav system is pretty great.
If they had google maps/nav on android, they would be able to stay reasonably current with out lots of rewriting.
What makes you think android in a car is more vulnerable than the Tesla OS? And, do you think rotated tile maps are pretty?Android is the last thing I want to see on my car's dashboard, thank you. If the software vulnerabilities weren't enough, there is that whole "ugly" thing... Tesla's UI is much nicer than anything Android. Keep that crap off my car! lol
What makes you think android in a car is more vulnerable than the Tesla OS? And, do you think rotated tile maps are pretty?
As a developer, you can make it look anyway you want. But to be clear, without going to android for at least the map/nav system, we'll be stuck behind the curve on anything google. Tesla will have to do a lot of engineering to use the latest stuff (like vector maps). And right now, google maps/nav is as good as you can get and because of crowd sourced traffic info, one could argue it's better than anything else.
Well, I'm having trouble getting excited about the rotated maps thing, maybe personally because I like North is up better. I also don't think Tesla or any software team should base an entire platform OS decision on the possible features of one app. They have a small team, likely well versed in C/C++ that they want able to pitch in anywhere. Plus, there's no guarantee that even with Android they would have had access to all things Google maps: If they have to negotiate for access to vector maps now, how is that any less difficult than negotiating for either a complete google maps implementation for Android or vector maps on Android?
Since android was designed by Google, all android devices have access to Googles vector maps. (surprisingly enough, Google gave themselves access)
Ok, but that doesn't change my main point: basing an entire architecture decision around access to vector maps would be a moronic software development decision. Maybe there are other good reasons they should have gone Android (I don't think so), but that alone shouldn't do it.
Agreed, it would be interesting to talk to someone on the dev team to see if they considered a (obviously highly modified) android system before they chose to implement a linux based system. I wonder what the pros and cons were? Were there other options considered?
A potential downside of android is that people can get their hands on the code easily, there are a lot of people trying to find vulnerabilities in it. This isn't a bad thing, as it makes android more secure, but at the same time if someone finds a vulnerability in android (I realize most errors are found in implementation on specific phones) then it could easily be applied to a Model S.
Currently getting access to even test for vulnerabilities requires buying a car, then figuring out how to login to the car, and read the firmware. I know Security through obscurity isn't anything to count on. But I'd rather Tesla develop their own system than use Android.
I don't know how much more secure a modified Linux system is to a modified Andriod system (that already utilizes a linux kernal).
Ok, but that doesn't change my main point: basing an entire architecture decision around access to vector maps would be a moronic software development decision. Maybe there are other good reasons they should have gone Android (I don't think so), but that alone shouldn't do it.
Well, lets take this one step further. What exactly would you base the platform decision on? I think your position sounds logical until you think through the cost of reinventing the infrastructure for a critical application. You would skip a platform that allows you to use significantly fewer resources just because you "wouldn't base the decision on vector maps"? Though, you need to replace "vector maps" with "best of class mapping and navigation". So, no, I totally disagree with your "moronic" point. Having run a fair number of software projects in my career, I've found that picking a platform that forces you to do re-engineering on critical applications that you wouldn't have had to otherwise is a nightmare as you are always trying to catch up. So far, this is exactly the situation that T Maps/Nav is in right now.
Lot's of FUD here about Android and Open Source software.
I work with Android every day and know it pretty inside and out. In addition to my own assessment of Android's security features, one of my professors in college (a security expert) was very closely connected to the Android team and he and his grad students have spent a number of years combing the source code for security vulnerabilities. If he is happy with it (and he is) then so am I. It is plenty secure, plenty fast, and plenty feature rich for use in Model S. Also, they could have completely changed the UI if they wanted (many phone manufacturers do this today). I do not know why they decided not to use it, I'm sure there must have been a good reason, but it was not for security or performance or style.
As a shareholder it concerns me that in addition to all the other complexity they have to deal with, they are trying to build a mini software company inside Tesla as well to develop a proprietary OS and app ecosystem. I think the complexity of this task probably escapes a lot of people here that have never looked at the Linux and/or Android source code. Android is the culmination of likely millions of person hours by some of the best software engineers on the planet. It is a fantastic OS that is extremely flexible and FREE. Tesla cannot possibly hope to duplicate this effort with much success.
From a purely technical perspective It doesn't make much sense to me. The consequences of this decision can be seen in buggy cameras, far inferior mapping and navigation, a one year delay in turning the WiFi on, the missing 4G we were promised, deficiencies in bluetooth, poor voice command recognition. These are all things that they would have gotten essentially for free had they built on top of Android.
I just checked my phone to verify, and the Google Maps do rotate the labels when I turn around.