Ford Dumping Windows For QNX In New Vehicles 314
innocent_white_lamb writes "Ford has announced that their in-vehicle technology called Sync will be based on Blackberry's QNX operating system and will no longer use Microsoft Windows. My own 2013 Ford Escape has the Windows-based Sync system. I wonder if they will issue an update to change it to QNX."
Anonymous sources inside Ford cited reliability problems with Windows and lower licensing costs for the switch to the classic realtime OS.
Having used both (Score:5, Interesting)
MSFT seems to work... (Score:5, Interesting)
I rented a Ford Fusion a few months back. The MSFT in-vehicle tech worked perfectly well.
I know it's anecdotal, and I'm all for competition, but I wonder if this was a good decision. When the car company cites licensing costs that can't be much per vehicle as a reason to change a technology, you begin to feel they're cutting corners.
F/OSS Platform Needed (Score:3, Interesting)
Android is defective by design, and Ubuntu's solution is right up there with it. QNX is where it's at, but we need a Mach based F/OSS alternative.
That'll fix half of the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
QNX is clearly a better choice for a system that should just work, all of the time. However, I doubt it's really all that unreliable, and the bigger problem with Sync is that the UI is horrible, among the worst I've ever seen. I've had a couple of rental cars with it, and the last time Hertz offered me a Ford, I told them I wanted a different car, it's that bad. And the UI isn't Microsoft's fault, I don't think.
Cheaper, really? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if it is really true. I'd assume that full fledged OS with all the stuff included would be better infotaintment system than QNX.
As I do not know which version of "Windows" they use, suppose they used Android. Now they would get, for free without any development costs or time, bluetooth, wifi, 3G, UI, development tools, etc. The system would work as a bluetooth handsfree[1]. The system would, with a SIM, work as a wifi-hotspot. You would get Google Maps, i.e. navigation. Games from Play store. Etc, for free (or the price of Android if they want maps&play).
With QNX, what do they get?
[1] I assume Android can work as a bluetooth "device", not only as a "host".
Sync was so bad.... (Score:5, Interesting)
But you are probably thinking no big deal opt out and you are fine. But nope after opting out, every time the stupid car started a woman's voice would blah blah about the emergency system not being activated. I looked in the manual and found no solution, so I went on the net and found no solution. So there is no way on earth that I would buy a Ford. Plus my sister had minor damage (but enough to partially disable the car) in a recent model fusion hybrid that took nearly 5 months to get the parts in. So she was out a near new car for 5 months; the whole point of buying a new car vs nursing a 10 year old car along is that the new car saves you the stress of breakdowns and any maintenance issues that cost anything or at least are hard.
But now Ford is leaving the abusive relationship they no doubt enjoyed with Microsoft and now they are getting into bed with the $2 whore that they found in a Ottawa brothel. I couldn't think of a technology company (after leaving microsoft) that I would rather partner with less than Blackberry. I fought with their stupid Playbook tablet and I have watched people fight with their stupid new QNX phones. I know people who are long term BB customers (often via work) who deeply resent the latest models. So why would you pick a company that is on the rocks and that people respect less than the aforementioned $2 whore?
But oddly enough the main reason that I think that QNX is a complete bowl of stupid is that I have known exactly one programmer who loved QNX and he was a useless tool. Actually worse than a useless tool; he was one of those developers that management thinks is a rocket surgeon but all he does is make things way worse. So if he tells you to cut the blue wire, not only should you not cut the blue wire but you should assume that cutting any wires is probably the exact wrong thing to do. So keep in mind that this tool probably thinks that QNX in a Ford is a cool idea.
Re:Cheaper, really? (Score:5, Interesting)
With QNX, what do they get?
All of those things and a superior OS?
Oh, sorry. That's not what you wanted to hear.
Windows? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Having used both (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux is an RTOS as long as you select the proper configuration.
No, it's not. They've done some very clever things to reduce Linux response latency, but it's not deterministic, and hence not (hard) real-time. I add the word "hard" only because some people have mistakenly conflated real-time with responsive, leading to the oxymoronic term "soft real-time". Also, even with the clever mods Linux's latency is much longer than many RTOS's.
I love embedded Linux, but if you need an RTOS, it's not the right tool.
BTW, why would Android even need to be an RTOS? What purpose would it serve?
And for entertainment based systems, you don't really need RTOS - just a reasonably fast system.
Yes. I only mentioned RTOS's to counter the common notion that there can be a universal OS for embedded work.
Re:Having used both (Score:4, Interesting)
That's really not the only reason for them to build in the US and not Japan. Yes, tariffs are higher if imported from Japan but so are costs. Manufacturing and shipping costs are higher in Japan. In terms of manufacturing, realize that Japan is a small island and that they import much of the raw material from other countries (like the US) to build the cars. Japan also imports much of their energy so energy costs are higher. Then after the vehicle is built, the cost to ship the assembled vehicle to the US are higher than within the US. For this reason the luxury Japanese cars are still built in Japan as they command higher prices to offset higher costs.
The main difference in the US I see is that the Japanese automakers built their factories in non-union states and do not have the same labor costs. Detroit had the same option as the Japanese companies but instead decided to go to Mexico to reduce labor costs further. For whatever you think of Michael Moore personally, his early documentary, Roger & Me cast a light on what was wrong with the American auto industry. Their pursuit of more profit has decimated Detroit as well as turned generations of loyal customers and workers against them.