What is the car industry’s trouble with over-the-air software program updates?

General Motors has introduced plans to Wide Info  offer over-the-air (OTA) software updates “earlier than 2020.” The company’s CEO, Mary Barra, announced the plan on an analyst call on Tuesday. The functionality would require the deployment of a brand new electric automobile structure and a new infotainment gadget. OTA updates are high on the tech-savvy car purchaser’s wish list, but right here in the US, maximum new motors are locked out of receiving them thanks to a legal and contractual panorama among the OEMs and their dealer networks; this is pretty useful to the latter.

What is the car industry’s trouble with over-the-air software program updates? 13

It’s not technical trouble; organizations like Harman and others have the proper systems to push out OTA updates to cars; the OEMs just aren’t allowed to install them. Boiled all the way down to its essence, OEMs cannot offer existing clients new features for their vehicles without the automobile dealerships getting their cut. This is an assessment of Tesla, which has completed a lot to highlight the utility of OTA updates. Love it or hate it, you can not deny that Tesla has been respiration fresh air into the United States car market. By eschewing the traditional manner of selling automobiles within the US—a network of dealerships which the OEM components with new cars for a rate—it has additionally been unencumbered through the restrictive regulations that those sellers (and their foyer group NADA) have had written into law.

For Tesla, it is a case of swings and roundabouts. On the one hand, the corporation lacks the robust servicing infrastructure that maximum of its extra conventional competitors takes as a right; as a result, servicing your Model S or Model X can contain a lengthy delay. (And who knows how things will pan out while Tesla starts evolved, churning out Model 3s in quantity?)

However, Tesla isn’t always certain by legal guidelines that prevent it from rolling out new features to customers without having a dealership as a mandatory middle step. Tesla codes a new function and pushes it out to the vehicles—end of the story.

We at Ars suppose this should be the manner the automobile industry works. Conversations with representatives from various OEMs here inside the US have exposed frustration with the straitjackets that they locate themselves in. (Straitjackets intending to require a few efforts to extricate from; automobile dealers donate plenty of cash to politicians, so do not be amazed that the laws are written in their favor.)

While we view GM’s statement as an advantageous step—and further Ford’s news from the final year that it would use OTA updates to add Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to MY2016 Sync three-geared up cars—it’s turning into inexcusable that this remains a hassle in 2017, in particular since the enterprise is driving us headlong into the era of the linked automobile.

We all recognize simply how often safety flaws are discovered (and then exploited) in embedded gadgets and the Internet of Things; it’s nearly unthinkable that any roadblocks ought to stand within the manner of patching those flaws as speedy and adequately as possible.

Alternative Operating Systems for Mobile Devices

Undoubtedly, Android has more benefits than iOS in phrases of extending the capability of cellular devices. Android has several packages that upload greater features to what the cell phone of the tablet can do via default. Moreover, the set up of mobile apps provides 0.33-party companies clean get admission to customers while delivering their services. For example, feed apps provide daily updates in actual time to users who read the news and weather reports using their cell devices. However, Android and Apple’s proprietary running devices aren’t the handiest firmware available to users.

Ubuntu for Android Phones and Tablets

The default Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean working gadget in Android phones turned into developed from a Linux-based totally structure. Although they carry out properly consistent with the hardware’s specs, users who prefer a running device like the only they have their laptop computer systems or laptops can get Ubuntu for mobile use. Versions 12.X or higher of this Linux distro had been re-engineered to feature touch displays and run efficaciously on transportable digital gadgets

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Ubuntu for Android works successfully on multi-center excessive-end phones and tablets. Users can open more than one tabs in browsers and open several programs at an identical time. The tablet or cell phone can also manage workspaces together, just like with a computing device computer. Through over-the-air updates, the firmware receives upgrades with the trendy version and permits extra programs to work successfully on its device. The software comes with default programs, which includes the Ubuntu Music Player, Chromium Web browser, Google Calendar, Thunderbird E-mail consumer, Google Docs, VLC Player, Ubuntu Photo Gallery, PiTiVi, Gwibber and Android dialer.

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