The ever-increasing technological sophistication of cars is fast becoming a pet peeve of home mechanics and car tinkerers. But Linux Insider reports that the open-source operating system may just find a new home in automotive applications, improving the at-home tweakability of production vehicles. Open-source technology guru David Schlesinger: "The increasing value of [open-source software] will result in greater use of open-source software in automotive systems, largely in … communications, navigation and the like." This development could replace proprietary operating systems with a single open-source, Linux-based OS which could control everything from engine management to on-board navigation and computing. But we're not quite there yet. While Linux offers immediate options for on-board computing, it still needs to be optimized to handle real-time tasks like engine control. Still, the manufacturers' desire for broader management of services in cars and consumer's desire for greater tweakability may just add up to an open-source future for the industry.
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Anything that keeps MS out of my car is a good thing. This would be a much better place for Linux than the desk top, where they just can’t seem to get it up to standard.
Many years ago, like 1987, when Unix was no longer quite a fledgling OS, I remember reading statements like, “it still needs to be optimized to handle real-time tasks.”
Are we still waiting?
It doesn’t matter much to me if the OS is opensource, it’s not like I’ll be able to burn a new chip and replace it myself. What I want are clearly defined interfaces to that I can make my own custom piece and insert it between the sensors and ECU so that I can customize things. Right now all the codes and whatnot are trade secrets so you can’t ever learn them.
@KixStart – it’s not that Linux needs to be optimized for real-time tasks, it’s that it’s not written for that. There may be version of Linux that are real time, but there are better choices (I think QNX is the RTOS of choice today, but I haven’t done any RTOS work in a long time so I don’t know). Real Time operating systems don’t mean “fast” or “optimized”, it means responds in a predicable time. A RTOS will say something like it is guaranteed to reply to your request within a specified amount of time. RTOSes don’t lock up, they don’t get hung waiting for a calculation. They may actaually be slower than a standard OS (there’s more overhead in guaranteeing a response time) but you are guaranteed a minimum performance. That’s the important thing for an embedded device like an ECU. If you need to make sure the OS fires the injector every 720 degrees of crank revolution, you need to guarantee that the OS will be ready to send the fire command, so you get an RTOS that is guaranteed to work fast enough for you engine.
Autosar consortium web site, they have these automakers on board: BMW, Daimler, Ford, Opel, PSA, Toyota, VW.
Go Linux!!! Been a desktop user for 4 years now. Whatever rough edges people complain about in Linux I feel have been offset by the lack of Windows problems I had in the past (viruses, trojans, etc). And then there is the 10,000 pieces of free software available – some big and some really small.
I can’t imagine how much tweakability the average consumer could NEED or WANT. Most of the average consumers I know don’t even change their desktop pictures much. My mother for example hasn’t even set the memory buttons on her car stereo.
VW and Audi (and others) have had a long list of tweaks for a while now. Does anyone buy German cars so they can tweak the myriad of details like dome light delays and so on?
Maybe the switch to an OS like Linux as opposed to firmware that is almost untouchable will begin the next stage of auto gimmickery where the owners can add new sound effects for the horn and in the key-in-switch beeper, interior mood lighting, gimmicks with the tail lights like KITT lighting, etc etc etc. We’ll be able to download all of these gimmicks for $2.99. The next fad.
I feel like the EPA will restrict the easy tuning of the engines in an effort to control pollution.
http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=linux+screenshots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
For you curious folks who aren’t familiar with Linux.
Linux has been realtime capable since Kernel 2.6. It was required for – of all things – heavy-duty music work.
There are even distributions designed to make sure that not just the kernel, but ALL applications are RT-aware (not that the latter matters when you are writing custom car code, but it shows how mature the feature is at this point).
miked: It doesn’t matter much to me if the OS is opensource, it’s not like I’ll be able to burn a new chip and replace it myself. What I want are clearly defined interfaces to that I can make my own custom piece and insert it between the sensors and ECU so that I can customize things. Right now all the codes and whatnot are trade secrets so you can’t ever learn them.
The OS and “applications” would reside on reprogrammable memory, ie: solid-state hard drive. In theory, the ECU could be reprogrammed, so instead of putting a physical “custom piece” in the wiring harness, the inputs to the ECU could be massaged with code changes.
Linux would probably be a good fit for body electronics (GPS, bluetooth, wifi, etc) but I doubt it would be used for receiving crankshaft position sensor interrupts, firing individual injectors, etc. There would be a dedicated microcontroller or DSP for that (as there is now) which may appear as a “peripheral” to the linux system.
So you really think you’re going to homebrew some DIY engine controls, and they’ll meet our ever-more-stringent emissions regs? Maybe if you had a dyno and access to all the necessary gas monitoring equipment . . . though I wonder if with all that you could really do a better job. Maybe if you let your FE take a dive. Of course, you could just ignore both of these constraints (while you continue to complain about SUV drivers that are killing the environment).
Armchair quarterbacking is easy. I bet folks here actually know about as much about current engine calibration as they apparently do about running a multinational manufacturing company!
(not a whole lot . . .)
So what is the status of Megasquirt? I lost track of that project a few years ago. Anybody tinkering with it that can comment here?
Busbodger :
Does anyone buy German cars so they can tweak the myriad of details like dome light delays and so on?
People don’t buy German cars for iDrive, and the like? Intruiging…
I built and tested two of the 8-bit Megasquirt boards, but never got around to getting the rest of the pieces together to install one. B&G made an upgrade board with a 16-bit micro that would plug right into the socket for the 8-bit micro. They also integrated ignition control into the system.
Oh, we aren’t necessarily talking back yard DIY engine management. There will be a few guys who really know the stuff or who work with programmers that will knock out some stuff as good as you can get. In time as more people learn of it they can work together building on each others abilities. That is the magic of open source. So many can contribute whatever they have to offer. And the results are there for all to use.
Also anyone who hasn’t tried one of the better desktop Linux OS’s in the last couple years may not realize how far along it has come in usability. It lacks little that Windows has and offers a number of things on the desktop that Windows does not. I am using Linux to post this reply.
If open source engine management gets off the ground it would be a tremendous benefit to people owning cars. It likely would make for much more reliable systems in cars too.
iDrive: I’d like to see some stats on how many people really set all those details… griN!
Sort of like cell phones and other gadgets. Cool to have all those options for a little while but the tinkering gets old…