Thank you, Dave, for the kind reply! I'm really glad we can move past all this and I'll definitely drop you a note if I am on the other coast!
As far as the project itself for me personally it fits into a larger picture of what I like to think of as "life automation", probably a decade long hobby for me. A piece of software that one can subscribe to or host on their own that integrates the different services and devices which includes vehicles one might subscribe to or own. This software would first and foremost make it easier to make those things "talk" to each other and secondly provide a mechanism whereby the "owner" if you will have the proper knobs, levers and buttons to tune the automation to them specifically and provide feedback to the algorithms. Stay with me, I realize that's probably a way away, just a long-term overview if you will.
Let’s at look home automation as an example which is becoming increasingly more popular and increasingly more confusing for the average person. Fortunately for me I had a brother that worked at SmartHome about a decade ago that got me started in the home automation game. Fast forward two houses later and we're building our third as we speak I've automated every switch, light, hack, fan, thermostats, dampers, pool, irrigation system, motion, leak detection, TV, video sources, etc. You name it we can control I, not to be braggadocios just to add context.
The problem with that is it really isn't automation is the sense of doing something for you, unless you specifically either tell "it" to do something like start the pool pump at 9AM and stop at 5PM or turn on the ceiling fan if the thermostat in the room goes over x temperature and there's been motion in the room in the last x minutes. There is also "things" that are already "automatic" like a thermostat for instance so that really doesn't count either and you still have to set cool/heat set points manually.
Wouldn't it be nice instead if a piece of software that you found at your cloud provider of choice that was communicating with your utility company to understand electricity charges as well as your salt water system on your pool to understand the quality of the water to avoid over pumping. And maybe just maybe cross reference that with motion information of when you're actually using the pool so it can both clean and run the fountains in the most optimal time window without you ever having to tell "it" do that? It is possible today, it's just the average person feels like they need a PHD in computer science to make it work reliably and to do it "out of the box" it ties one to a specific brand or service generally.
The opportunities here from a geek perspective are really limitless and before I get too far out in the weeds; what does home automation and a Tesla have to do with each other? From a 15k foot view "car data" is newer to us and we're getting a chance to understand what functions can be performed, what initial opportunities there might be for automation and add vehicle automation, another piece to the life automation puzzle. More short term example is right now I'm playing with Alexa integration and the Cockpit. So maybe you're someone who doesn't want software actually performing automatic options on your behalf, you may want be able to tell Alexa to start the heater while you're getting ready in the morning though. Maybe on sunny days you want to be able to push a button on a keypad in our house that puts your car in "cruising" mode which opens pano roof to 50%, windows to 45% and starts your favorite cruising playlist as your walking out the door. am I right?
I would also like to add I wouldn't have invested so much time and energy into Tesla if it wasn't for how impressed I am with the Owner, Mr. Musk, the product and fellow owners who are by their very nature early adopters and ahead of the curve in the general sense in my humble opinion.
The good news on the evolving compute landscape in general is the cloud is becoming increasingly more user friendly, through email the general public is starting grasp the concept of the "cloud" and trust is being built. Moreover, pretty much any new "digital" device (Tuners, Speakers, Hue, Sonos, TV's, etc.) has some sort of API that can be accessed through the network to control and ascertain information from the device. In the very near future we will start seeing "2nd generation" devices come online like refrigerators, washer and dryers, microwaves, etc. and hopefully stick with the same open model the first generation is coalescing around SOAP/REST over HTTP and JSON for actual request and response payload.
So, what I'm asking besides you staying awake for my diatribe is to look past the ugly exterior, that will greatly improve over time and most likely have native version(s) targeted towards specific functionality and see if there is anything that we haven't thought of in terms of vehicle automation.
At some point, we'll get this thing to where we can put it out to the public and they can extend and configure the software and make it their own or even create lifestyle specific algorithms like "Jim's Alaskan Watering Algorithm" or "Martha Stewarts glamour party lighting algorithms" that are more custom tailored to individuals.
Can’t be done without a great community effort and it’s been awesome thus far.
Thanks again for looking past my outburst and I hope you and everyone reading this has a very Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Happy, save and loving Holidays to all!
