New Zealand Developers Building Open Source Code For Electric Cars

MatthewVD writes "New Zealand electric racecar developer Greenstage is close to finishing an open source project called 'Tumanako,' which would allow owners of electric cars and motorcycles to tweak the code in their vehicles. Electric vehicle gearheads grouse about proprietary code that keeps current, torque and speed within very conservative limits. 'In racing, you need the system to push all those parameters to the limits. You only need the system to survive until just past the finish line,' says Bill Dube, the owner of the record-setting KillaCycle. Open source code could also be used to build any type of electric vehicle, from cars and submarines to motor-launched aerial gliders, from scratch. It's like Linux for your Chevy Volt."

Electric != Autonomous

[robwgibbons]

I had a weird mixed reaction to this, before I remembered what "electric car" actually means. Open-source electric cars are a great idea. However, if this were to be extended to autonomous cars I would begin to get worried. Allowing people the ability to modify the software controlling their autonomous vehicle seems to me an inherently bad idea.