[ale] Android Tablets

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Fri, 2010-08-20 at 09:49 -0400, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> What if you bought a car and the manufacturer told you they retained
> ownership rights in all the embedded systems? 

They basically do.

For example, current cars provide data as required by law in OBD-II
format.  However, functions like reflashing the various programming
units are make- (and sometimes model-) specific.  For example, for my
car (a 1996 Saturn SL1), there are several versions of the binary
firmware that runs the PCM (essentially, the engine's control computer).
This computer mixes the fuel and takes measurements and tweaks the
operating conditions of the engine, and the OEM firmware also has a
governor on it so that the engine will never run at a speed greater than
4,000 RPM, which essentially caps the car's speed (without the aid of
gravity) to about 85 MPH or so.

I had to replace the computer recently.  It was shipped with a different
firmware that has significantly improved the car's performance.
However, ordering these things---even just taking them to get
programmed---is really expensive.  It's even more expensive to get a
hand-held programming tool and access to the firmware updates for these
cars (and that is how a lot of newer cars get their problems fixed, is
by FIRMWARE UPDATES).

It would be nice if there was a requirement such that all of the
electronics in the car had to be accessible to the educated consumer.
However, I don't think that would ever happen---after all, how many
people in Congress are educated consumers, or even give a shit about
representing them?  I'd bet zero.

Car manufacturers only publish specs for stuff that they're required to
do so, and the rest?  Fuck it, they don't care.  They get to make money
on the $4k scan tools and the $1.5k/year subscriptions to firmware
updates.  Shops then turn around and charge $100+ to provide you with
new firmware updates---a process that takes less than 10 minutes to
perform, of course.  Do that 15 times and your annual subscription is
paid for; do that 40 times and your programming tool is paid for.  There
is _no_ need to charge that much for it, but it's essentially a
monopoly, so that is why they can.

	--- Mike