Ford and Bug Labs Shipping OpenXC Beta Kits 58
MojoKid writes "OpenXC is an open source connectivity platform developed in tandem by Ford and open source hardware maker Bug Labs. Announced this fall, the platform is designed to allow developers the ability to use Android- and Arduino-based modules to interact with a vehicle's in-car tech, such as vehicle sensors and GPS units. The OpenXC website succinctly describes the platform as 'an API to your car.' Ford announced that OpenXC beta test kits are now shipping to developers worldwide, including U.S. institutions such as MIT and Standford as well as India's HCL Technologies."
While it's moving? (Score:2)
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The new Jaguars have solved this problem with a screen that shows different stuff depending if you're the driver or passenger - so the driver sees a satnav screen, the passenger gets to watch TV (or whatever). I doubt it works if the screen is a touchscreen, but it's one idea to stop stupid crashing the weapon he's driving.
Mind you, there is some stuff that's good to see while moving (after all we have satnavs), like SMS messages popping up in a big font - which would stop stupid from pulling out his phone
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If I inadvertently kill anyone I'd prefer to have to WATCH it, I owe them that much and I would deserve the immediate terror and the lasting emotional pain.
I do not like the every changing blinking lights while driving whether inside the car or outside. I accept traffic lights. I will take analog displays even if driven digitally. I want a clock. I want simple buttons to select at most 10 channels on my radio. I'll accept the bizarre voice of any GPS rather than a screen I have to look at. I despise getting
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and pretty girls too !
http://www.youclaim.co.uk/car/car-accident-claim-and-underwear-adverts.htm [youclaim.co.uk]
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Don't sCare thE horSes or their riders! ;)
Yea that filter works so well.
It's all find and good (Score:5, Funny)
until my car is infected with a worm that takes over GPS navigation and directs me to a pr0n store.
and it's the wrong one
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People are already stealing them with onstar hacks. Great news, your insurance doesnt cover this if they find it was compromised via onstar.
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Perhaps your spouse is trying to tell you something.
Re:It's all find and good (Score:4, Informative)
Not really. Right now it's a one-way data comm device - the OpenXC box sits on the vehicle CAN bus, picks out some info (gear, engine speed, vehicle speed, windshield wipers, etc...) and forwards it over USB bulk transfers formatted as JSON. Writes don't do anything that I know. The available API requires an android phone with USB-host support.
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If you don't like forced induction then you, sir, are no gearhead.
I'll take a turbo four over a NA six, as well as a turbo six over a NA eight any day. Today's turbo systems give nice fat torque curves and decent fuel economy. Turbo systems from the '80s really did suck, they were poorly integrated and lagged badly. I love my turbo 2.4l 240sx that I put together. It has 270hp/300tq at the wheels, gets 30+mpg highway and runs 13.5 at the drag strip while passing stock emissions testing. It has been my d
Don't replace cylinders with air, it's worse. (Score:2)
My position on such devices:
Forced induction as a supplement to an already high-powered/displacement engine == good.
Forced induction as a replacement to cylinder count due to overzealous environmental regulations == unholy.
I'll take a well-powered 6 over a turbo'd 4, a well-powered 8 over turbo'd 6, and look at a turbocharger if I really wanted to improve a well-powered 8. Forced induction might please the folks doing emissions testing, but all it does is cut corners for modern-day cars. These aren't the
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My position on such devices:
Forced induction as a supplement to an already high-powered/displacement engine == good.
Forced induction as a replacement to cylinder count due to overzealous environmental regulations == unholy.
I'll take a well-powered 6 over a turbo'd 4, a well-powered 8 over turbo'd 6, and look at a turbocharger if I really wanted to improve a well-powered 8. Forced induction might please the folks doing emissions testing, but all it does is cut corners for modern-day cars. These aren't the days of the turbocharged Grand National, where forced induction was applied properly, but where it is used to replace cylinders in a not-so-effective way.
Ugh. Buick Grand National handled like a cow. I had a 1986 T-Bird Turbo, which had 273K on it when I towed it off to the scrap yard (engine still ran and had original turbo, which regularly delivered plenty of HP and torq for California mountain driving) alas, it was done in by Michigan Road Salt, which kills all cars eventually.
With today's petrol prices I'll take my little 175HP 5cyl 6 speed dub, which delivers 30+ MPH and sticks to the road like glue in those winding, twisting mazes of mountain roads -
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Really? What's magical about 8 cylinders?? Wouldn't you also prefer a well powered 10 over a turbo'd 8, and a well powered 12 over a turbo'd 10, and a well powered 16 over a turbo'd 12??
But for some reason you would look at turbo if you wanted to improve your well powered NA 8 cylinder.
And how do you define performance? in general I would think HP/Ton is a good indicator. Well, look at the Lotus Exige; 2000 pounds and 240 horses (in the supercharged version). There might be 1 or 2 American cars that ca
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Given that Ford's newer platforms look more like the Eurotrash seen elsewhere in the world - as opposed to US sized and powered platforms such as Panther/Exxx vans - it is a distraction. What they bring to the table looks like something you'd see used as a part of a carbomb.
How about 6 & 8 cylinder vehicles that don't require tuning or exotics, at affordable price points? Yes, that means bringing back behemoths like the Crown Vic while ripping the turbochargers out of every single car and truck outside of the high end. It doesn't matter that the interface is open when it is connected to a shitty 4-banger that makes the thing look like a golfcart with satnav.
How about you yanks start driving cars with less impact on the environment and oil consumption?
It doesn't stop the few. (Score:1)
Environmentalism only stops the many from getting the car they truly want.
What's with all those high-powered cars that are sitting in UK/European garages that rot, because their owner wasn't rich enough for their power?
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It is funny that Ford was the first to start with what you call Eurotrash, and they were the only one who didn't go crying for a bailout. Maybe your opinion of what we should have for transportation is just that, your own. Yeah it is great for you but you've obviously never tried to park at my work. I have a Ford Focus and it is a tight fit.
Re:So they were the first to hate Americans. (Score:4, Insightful)
Compensating for something, are we?
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Wow, I really thought people like you were merely a parody.
I really can't tell if you're trolling or genuinely really, really stupid, selfish, misinformed and obnoxious.
Well played sir.
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Not going to fret about the car issues, me, I only like their exterior colors, but I hate the interiors. Since it is really easy to paint the exterior compared to stripping out the insides, they lose out.
Compared to GM, they look quite spartan for an equivalent tier of car. Chrysler has a bit of the same issue, but at least they give you a V6 under the hood for less money than their competitors. That, and the European influence stays in the Fiat brand unlike GM or Ford.
If things get bad enough with GM, I'll end up going with Chrysler. Less global exposure is an asset when you make cars for the US market.
Putting in OpenXC just looks like windowdressing. All you get is a box that sits on the CANBUS networ
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Why limit your sense of entitlement? I want a gold-plated maserati with a blowjob dispenser, for what I have in my pocket right now....looks like about 70 cents. I can compromise on the gold plating as long as the blowjob dispenser is turbocharged. And someone oughta repeal the Clean Air act too! It's my right as a consumer to do whatever I want! If that means those spotted owls get a coating of tar to go with their feathers, well then they shoulda been a consumer instead.
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I'm actually trying to be reasonable with what Detroit has produced for the masses. You on the other hand, are not.
Confusing that with entitlement to a poorly made European luxury car is not even close to what I'm talking about here.
Re:How about getting rid of the Eurotrash first? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Not to mention the build quality (as in the design of the car, not a reflection of the labour force building it).
Ford was one of the first to realise that they couldn't just phone in the overall design any more when selling in European markets, so they put work into better transmission, suspension, engines, ride quality, the basic interior features etc and it really paid off for them - they have several class-leading, great value vehicles available in Europe and have for many years.
They also joined up with
So you get cars fit only to be 3rd world carbombs? (Score:2)
Haven't driven a 4-cylinder lawnmower engine of a car in my entire life, and intend to keep it that way.
They also joined up with other manufacturers to collaborate on major developments (mainly in high efficiency, gasoline-a-like diesel engines).
In short, they found manufacturers that would make golfcart bits.
So yes, there are going to be low-IQ morons like the OP who feel emasculated while driving a 4 cylinder vehicle with better performance, efficiency, emissions, weight and quality compared to the "patriotic American" 6 and 8 cylinder dinosaur lumps that make him feel like a real man - maybe that's why it took Ford so long to move their winning formula back to the USA after finding it worked so well in Europe, but it seems they're finally doing it.
Then Ford should do themselves a favor by replacing their American spokesman with some uppity German. Then hand over the designs to all their large/powerful cars(including the Mustang) over to Chrysler, who still seems to give a care about making cars as Detroit intended - affordable power first, environmentalism last. If they're going to
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By going to that VW GTI, you gave up a lot of room and two cylinders. If you get rid of the environmental regulations, that gas would be a lot cheaper.
I'd have no problem if it meant that I could have my US-sized behemoth and you have your turbocharged golfcart.
MS sync + ford? (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought ford was all about Microsoft. They used to run ads all the time about MS Sync. Many parts of syncmyride.com crash in chrome with .NET errors.
What about fault diagnostics ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Will they make the engine/... diagnostics available through this API ? Currently they charge the repair garages a lot to have the software to be able to see why that fault light is lighting up on the dashboard. The effect is driving small repair shops & one man bands out of business -- good for Ford since it keeps their expensive dealerships in business.
I expect not, they would not do anything genuinely useful if it damaged profits.
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Is that not already available through OBD2?
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I think ABS and airbag aren't in the base OBDII code set. I understand they did that on purpose, but wouldn't call those non-critical.
Very annoying if one of those lights comes on.
I hope they gave some to folks in the US. (Score:1)
Part of the brilliance of the OpenXC strategy is that not only is Ford effectively getting free R&D from the open source community, by letting developers in locales far-flung from Detroit have a go with the system, Ford will learn what consumers want and need in a variety of geographic regions.
Ford would be doing a great disservice by disregarding the desires of those in the US market. Oh, wait, they already are given their un-American car lineup.
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Part of the reason is they're finally selling vehicles that they sell in Europe, like the Fiesta and the Transit
Which are part of the problem when they canned the American-sized cars, they're golfcarts compared to their properly sized predecessors. Let me know when I can get a RWD V8 without going to the luxury tier, instead of these golfcarts. Even a large RWD V6 under the same terms would be OK.
FWD/AWD == harder to maintain due to the transmission being in a very unholy spot - the side of a car.
The problem could be better solved by reinstating the platforms they killed (Panther, E* vans) and simply allowed peopl
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Increasing my Ford's resale value.. (Score:2)
Does this mean I have some hope of replacing the utter garbage currently installed in my wife's Ford (Microsoft Sync, I'm looking at you). The car itself is pretty good, but the phone/music/voice control system is like some sort of retarded throwback to the '90s, and I'm actually genuinely worried it'll reduce the resale value of the car in a few years.
Can I finally implement the de-smellerator? (Score:2)
My first app would switch to recirculating air whenever I go near one of the local sewage treatment plants or enter a tunnel. (Or any rectangle I can define via a pair of GPS coordinates, and of course the smell map will be a downloadable crowd-sourced database.) Upon exiting the smelly zone the vent mode returns to whatever it was set to prior. Right now I have a subroutine running on base-brain to handle this task which works well for the frequently travelled areas. But if I forget when driving near t
It doesn't do all that much. (Score:2)
It's just a thing that plugs into the OBD-II connector and translates some of the CAN bus signals to JSON over USB. It's read-only (probably a good thing). All you currently get is vehicle speed, powertrain torque, odometer, ignition status, door status, steering wheel position, fuel level, fuel consuption, and latitude/longitude (if available). You don't get any internal engine information, diagnostic codes, or maintenance info.
Compare the Scantool which plugs into the OBD-II connector and gives you f
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Since we're already talking about cars, I'll have to resort to a phone analogy.
The smartphone equivalent is that "all" this does is provide an API for smartphone apps to access GPS location, tilt sensor data, and battery SOC and drain rate. But really that's pretty huge in itself, it's enough to enable search based on location (be that Yelp, Opentable, or just Bing). It's enough to create crowd-sourced traffic maps, and it might even be enough to do Slashdot style moderation of nearby drivers.
But yeah I'd
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