Prospects for free software in cars

Posted Apr 13, 2018 1:35 UTC (Fri) by wookey (guest, #5501)
In reply to: Prospects for free software in cars by mjthayer
Parent article: Prospects for free software in cars

The freedom to replace the software on safety-critical components is certainly one thing. The freedom for other people to replace the software in safety-critical components of their own car which will be sharing the road with yours might be another. Even if there are laws to regulate it there will always be people with enough self-confidence (in several ways) to push the laws.

They can already do this with all the mechanical components. There is no reason to make things more restrictive just because some components are now software. People (especially regulators and manufacturers) get all restrictive and nervous as soon as something is made of software, but that's because they can understand a 3rd-party track-rod end, or even engine, but not changing software components. But we know better: software is a replaceable component (that needs to meet certain criteria to make it suitable for the job), just like hardware is. The volkswagen debacle demonstrates beautifully why this software should be inspectable and replaceable. Surprisingly the people most on our side in this are farmers, who have very expensive machinery that they used to be able to repair, but no longer can, because proprietary software. They want a 'right to repair/maintain', just like we do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JCh0owT4w