BMW Is Switching Gears From Linux To Android Automotive Next Year (androidpolice.com) 54
This week, BMW confirmed that some of its future models would run on a next-gen version of its in-house operating system built on top of Android Automotive. Android Polic reports: It's a big change from previous Linux-based versions, though the company says some of its cars will stay on its legacy build. So far, the automaker has yet to confirm which of its models will get Automotive support, though work on supporting it won't begin until March of 2023.
Automotive's biggest selling point for car manufacturers is its flexibility and customization options. Outside of some built-in Google apps -- Assistant, Maps, the Play Store -- don't expect to notice these BMW cars running Android immediately. Instead, the company will almost certainly rely on a skin to make the experience feel more in line with previous vehicles, as well as that Linux-based OS the company plans to keep developing.
Automotive's biggest selling point for car manufacturers is its flexibility and customization options. Outside of some built-in Google apps -- Assistant, Maps, the Play Store -- don't expect to notice these BMW cars running Android immediately. Instead, the company will almost certainly rely on a skin to make the experience feel more in line with previous vehicles, as well as that Linux-based OS the company plans to keep developing.
Switching from Linux to Linux? (Score:2, Insightful)
Not surprising that they switch from Linux to Android (which runs the Linux kernel, but a different userland.) Android has a lot of nice things for dash design, and a lot of innate security.
Re:Switching from Linux to Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just changing distros, it would seem.
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Just changing distros, it would seem.
You say that as if it's nothing. But the systemd rage made it out like changing a distro would be the end of fucking civilisation as we know it. /s
Jokes aside the OS is not the kernel. No one using Android with the wonders of Google's locked in platform at the whim of the design choices of a single corporation ever confuses it with running Linux as an OS. Calling Android Linux is doing a huge disservice to Linux and the OSS community in general and that really needs to stop.
This is a pretty big change: Cha
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Calling Android Linux is doing a huge disservice to Linux and the OSS community in general and that really needs to stop.
That was already done by ommiting the GNU part in GNU/Linux. This was the main reason I actually opened this article.
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It's more than that, they are ditching their own shitty UI for the Android one. BMW's software is wretched and a pain to use.
Android Automotive also has some decent UI guidelines, like physical non-touch buttons for certain functions. Hopefully they stick to them.
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The current single user only makes having different configurations for different drivers a real PITA.
Re: Android is Linux (Score:2)
That's Colonel Linux Torvalds.
Plastic to Metal (Score:1)
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IMHO, pretty much any European make is like this. They are very nice to drive for the first few years of a lease, but once stuff starts wearing out, plastic gets brittle, and other stuff happens, it becomes very expensive to maintain older vehicles, especially once parts stop being made.
This is why I prefer US and Japanese makes. Japanese cars tend to be durable and designed for real world use. US vehicles tend to have a lot of parts available, both OEM or third parties, fairly inexpensively, especially
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Now, those shitty plastic parts do suck and should never be near a car, but people want their "luxury" cars cheap so this i
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Of course the reason these parts are still available and still sell is because BMW plastic is some of the most incredibly cheap, nasty, brittle, self-decomposing useless shit in the auto industry! It falls apart and must be replaced if you
Re: Plastic to Metal (Score:2)
PLASTIC?! Seriously.
It was bad enough when VCRs started off with mostly metal in the tape transport mechanism and by the 2000s switched to nearly all plastic,:while making the VCR weigh about as much as a VHS tape or two, they ended up being shit sometimes right out of the box.
What this is is bad for the environment and planned obsolescence taken to the upper level
And now for a couple insults against BMW:
Break More Wheels
Barely Moves Willingly
Broken Now Walk (yeah not the proper acronym but screw it
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The grip, the grip is polymer. The barrel, the slide, the contact point for the slide, the springs, the firing pin are all metal. The least important part is a polymer and people act like it's a plastic gun.
Re: Plastic to Metal (Score:2)
And it just does not compare with BMW using plastic for engine parts.
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Yeah, it's cheap. That allows designers to concentrate on what matters -- making cooler and more gimmicky crap so rich impractical people will buy all the things.
For its strength, plastic is heaver than metal, and has different expansion rates. It's totally inappropriate for use as engine parts. The only reason why they do it is because it's cheaper.
Re: Plastic to Metal (Score:2)
They used to show people who had ideas like this the door. Really they did, 5 minutes to box their personal items before security escorted that person off the premises.
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Yeah, it's cheap. That allows designers to concentrate on what matters -- making cooler and more gimmicky crap so rich impractical people will buy all the things.
For its strength, plastic is heaver than metal, and has different expansion rates. It's totally inappropriate for use as engine parts. The only reason why they do it is because it's cheaper.
As I mention a few posts above, I've got a BMW that has a plastic valve cover. When those turn brittle and start to fall apart and your car starts to resemble the Exxon Valdez, BMW will happily sell you another for a mere $500. (I said eff that and bought a slightly less brittle one from a junkyard for $50. We'll see how long it lasts.)
I love the way the car drives. I hate the way it's built.
Re: Plastic to Metal (Score:2)
I've got one of the earliest cars with a plastic valve cover... a 2000 Honda Insight.
I recently replaced the valve cover gasket because it was seeping and the car was due it's third valve adjustment (~300k miles). Valve cover is still in great shape. The crank pulley and intake are also plastic and original.
They made it plastic in that car for weight reduction.
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I've got one of the earliest cars with a plastic valve cover... a 2000 Honda Insight.
I recently replaced the valve cover gasket because it was seeping and the car was due it's third valve adjustment (~300k miles). Valve cover is still in great shape. The crank pulley and intake are also plastic and original.
They made it plastic in that car for weight reduction.
About the same vintage then (my BMW was built 10/99). Honda obviously used better polymers. Not that that's a high bar to clear
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The "nuvo riche" mob (rap stars, boy band members, one hit wonder girls, and so on) buy BMWs as showy status symbols.
It's a form of virtue signalling...like going out to a club with your posse to "make it rain" money, drinking Hennessey or magnums of champagne, and stuff like that.
Truly rich people who know & understand the value of money buy a more practical vehicle as a "daily driver" while having 1 or more 'fancy' cars for those times when they want to "be flashy & splashy".
Re: Plastic to Metal (Score:2)
I wish they made the engine compartment out of clear plastic so the douchebags in question would be forced to show off the crappy cheap plastic engine to all.
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I wish they made the engine compartment out of clear plastic so the douchebags in question would be forced to show off the crappy cheap plastic engine to all.
Yeah, so here is a teardown video of the engine in my car. https://www.motor1.com/news/36... [motor1.com] (this is a Supra but same B58 engine as in my BMW).
It has some plastic parts. It's also more technologically advanced than most of the engines people here whining about BMWs own. Anyone can talk shit. Few of them are clueful about it.
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Yeah but you don't know that until you take off all the plastic to get at the thing you need to fix. ;)
j/k parts be crazy $$$. It's a fashion statement, not sensible transportation.
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This man speaks the truth. Crap in the BMW engine is always cracking. Rich people buy them because Tesla's are unavailable and old BMW's are maintenance nightmares.
Don't take it from me, take it from the people who drive them.
https://www.bimmerfest.com/thr... [bimmerfest.com]
Fun to drive, less reliable as they age than other cars.
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..and old BMW's are maintenance nightmares.
(raises hand in affirmation). That's why you can buy a really nice older BMW that cost $60k new for $4k now. But if you do your own work it's manageable. If you have to pay someone you'll go bankrupt.
Windows ... (Score:2)
Didn't BMW use MS Windows some years ago?
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A number of places used Windows Embedded Automotive. However, being Windows CE based, it seemed to have died about a decade ago, after version 7. Ford went with QNX (an embedded, realtime UNIX), and other automakers went with other stuff.
If I had to design an entertainment console for a car, first thing I'd be doing is focusing on security (perhaps CAN level firewalling and segmenting), then looking at something like QNX, Android, or maybe something like Wind River for a Linux distribution... something th
Re:Windows ... (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.blackberry.com/us/... [blackberry.com]
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Why would entertainment system need real time? This does not control the engine or ABS. Maybe a "soft real time" so the music keeps playing while maps are updated...(so thread priorities would be enough).
AFAIU Android and WRS for Linux are not real time, not sure about QNX (it was marketed as realtime back in the days).
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addendum: as it seems, Windows CE was only used for the navigator system supplied by Siemens VDO Automotive AG, (see https://news.microsoft.com/200... [microsoft.com])
It maybe different from the defined "OS" I know (Score:1)
> in-house operating system built on top of Android Automotive
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All complex software is layered. Because humans.
Not sure where you got all the other stuff. The article said:
This week, BMW confirmed that some of its future models would run on a next-gen version of its in-house operating system built on top of Android Automotive
This probably just means they are using Android auto. which involves tweaking the Android OS some as is the case for every OEM. Calling it an "in-house operating system" is a bit of a stretch. It's just marketing.
Benefit (Score:2)
"Automotive's biggest selling point for car manufacturers is its flexibility and customization options. "
Sure. Customizations that include monitization on a continuing basis.
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I think a bigger selling point would be not having a desktop OS in the car at all. If I want comms features, just give me a dumb screen that I can cast my phone to; I don't need my car to get a copy of my address book or anything else.
I wish I had enough pull to get funding to pitch for "a simpler car company" that didn't have more than the bare minimum computerized crap in a car. Yeah you can have motor controllers and sensor diagnostics, and whatever is required by law (ABS, rearview camera, etc.), and
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I work in this exact space, but not for BMW. The company I work for is doing the exact same thing for the exact reason you specify. It's fucking pathetic that today's GUI programmers can't do anything but Android and IOS.
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I wish I had enough pull to get funding to pitch for "a simpler car company" that didn't have more than the bare minimum computerized crap in a car. Yeah you can have motor controllers and sensor diagnostics, and whatever is required by law (ABS, rearview camera, etc.), and probably in the radio, but that's it.
There are certainly cars like that, but you likely can't afford any of them.
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I wish I had enough pull to get funding to pitch for "a simpler car company" that didn't have more than the bare minimum computerized crap in a car.
All the funding in the world won't help you start up a company that is destined to fail from the onset. *You* may want a dumb car, but the overwhelming majority of consumers don't.
And no we shouldn't be pushing cars that promote even more stupid fuckwits fumbling with their fucking phones on the road.
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You don't need "overwhelming majority of consumers" to want your product to be successful; you just need enough to balance the business plan. You have to get out of the mindset of "must be biggest company ever, always growing exponentially."
I agree with fumbling with phones by the way, but people are going to do that, so give them the simplest way to do it possible. And that's not the nonsense infotainment systems we have today. My wife's car is always trying to sync her address book - why?! I can tell yo
Oh Great... (Score:2)
Another product for Google to cancel. Except this time your car stops working instead of your chats.
BMW software, especially mp3 player is total crap (Score:2)
Complained loudly and they just shrugged. The mp3 file format has redundant data. Both begin/end markers and frame counts. Most old encoders do not do a thorough job, Two pass encoders can declare frame count, but s
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"It has strange quirks like there is only one central lock/unlock to unlock all the doors. You can double click the key fob. But we dont have key fobs at hand, because they were transitioning to proximity sensing unlock. Passenger side, all doors unlock, driver side only driver door unlocks. Pain to reach in to unlock to let the passengers in."
I wonder if this is done for some safety reason or something. I have a Corrolla hybrid that does it that same exact way, and I too thought it was odd.
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How much did Google pay for access to (Score:2)
rich people's data?
Switching to coal too for local versions of BMW (Score:1, Funny)