Yearly Archives: 2014


The security of electronics in cars is an important issue, let's not desensitize…

The security of electronics in cars is an important issue, let's not desensitize people by overblowing trivial stuff

Over at +Jalopnik, +Jason Torchinsky does an excellent job of debunking an overwrought post from Cult of Mac. Charlie Miller does a lot of important research and automakers should be encouraging this so they can find and fix the wholes in their systems. But what Miller accomplished on this vehicle is more of an annoyance than a real problem. Let's keep a watchful eye on this worry when we really need to.?

More Car-Hacking Alarmism: Mac Hacker Didn’t Really ‘Brick’ His Jeep
There’s an article out now about how Apple security expert and intrepid car-hacking experimenter managed to ‘brick’ his new Jeep Cherokee. Fascinating story, right? Guy destroys his own car with a laptop? Too bad it’s not true. Well, I guess good for the Jeep owner/experimenter.

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Yesterday in Dearborn, Ford CTO Raj Nair announced the Ford Performance brand

Yesterday in Dearborn, Ford CTO Raj Nair announced the Ford Performance brand

Ford Performance will encompass SVT-developed vehicles like the GT350 Mustang and Team RS-developed vehicles like the upcoming Focus RS. Best of all, Nair announced that henceforth Dave Pericak will be the global director of Ford Performance. I can't think of a better choice within Ford to lead all of the company's performance vehicle efforts. Since 2008, Dave has been chief engineer for the Mustang and led the development of the all-new model that just launched. With a team that includes Jamal Hameedi and Kerry Baldori at SVT, Ford Performance should produce some exciting stuff in the coming years. 

During my time at Ford, I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Pericak and I got to write a profile last year when the new Mustang was revealed. 
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/asset.download.document.pdf.html/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2013/12/05/DPericak.pdf?


Ford Reboots Infotainment With Reveal of All-New SYNC 3

FordSYNC3_05_HR

TI may have given up on phone and tablet sector but it’s still mobile with the OMAP5 and QNX-powered SYNC 3 from Ford

Ford led the auto industry with the 2007 introduction of SYNC, a quick and easy way to connect mobile devices and control them with voice commands. The system was relatively reliable and easy to use but when the time came for a followup in 2010, the automaker stumbled badly with MyFord Touch. Ford will attempt a reboot in 2015 with a completely new system dubbed SYNC 3.

Ford unveiled SYNC 3 and demonstrated it today at its Dearborn Product Development Center and it looks extremely promising so far. Like MyFord Touch which was known internally as SYNC 2, the new system is based around a touch screen display. Unfortunately the earlier system had a dark and cluttered user interface that was prone to frequent crashes and lockups and even after two major software updates was still slow. MyFord Touch also never incorporated AppLink to enable the control of smartphone apps, a feature that was available on the entry-level SYNC system.

As soon as SYNC 3 launches, the changes are immediately apparent. The bright new interface is dramatically simplified and easier to use. The look and feel seems to have taken inspiration from the work that Google has done one recent versions of Android although iPhone users won’t feel left out either.

When sampling the system on some demonstration bucks, the performance improvement was immediately apparent. Where a button press on the MFT screen would be met with a pause before any response would occur, SYNC 3 seems to respond almost immediately. The capacitive screen supports multi-touch and gestures like swipe and pinch-to-zoom. The Microsoft Auto Windows Embedded Platform that powered earlier versions of SYNC has been replaced with the same QNX system used by many other automakers. The whole thing is now running on a more modern Texas Instruments OMAP5 processor based on ARM Cortex A15 cores used in many smartphone chips.

FordSYNC3_03_HR

The smartphone style keyboard includes predictive typing and the ability to learn from driver’s usage patterns

The SYNC 3 system also includes a built-in WiFi receiver that you can pair with your home network. Every few weeks, when the car is parked, it will automatically ping the Ford servers and look for updates, just like modern phones do. When updates are available, they will downloaded and installed automatically with no user intervention needed. No more mailing out hundreds of thousands of USB drives for Ford or visits to the dealer to re-flash the radio.

Ford CTO Raj Nair announced that SYNC 3 will support Apple’s SIRI Eyes-free out of the box. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support will eventually be added as well although no time frame was given.

It’s way too early to tell how well this is all going to work when it arrives in new Ford vehicles beginning in 2015, but at this point it certainly looks promising and it can’t really be any worse than MyFord Touch can it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

While I've long felt that the share price of +Tesla Motors is the result of irrational exuberance, that doesn't mean the company is in any imminent danger. There is clearly a market for the products the company is offering although it is unlikely to approach the volume of Toyota or Volkswagen anytime in the foreseeable future. 

That said, Tesla should know as well as any company that in the absence of hard data, the internet will speculate and Tesla is a company that was built on the power of the internet "news" machine. I've said previously that the estimation of 3,000 unsold Model S in inventory is probably not a big deal. At the company's sales rate, that's about 5-6 weeks of inventory and for other automakers, 8 weeks (60 days) supply is considered optimal.  

Those vehicles are in-transit to stores, showroom demos and stock for customers that want a car now. What may pose a bigger long-term problem for Tesla is the low price of oil especially as the brand tries to move down-market. In all likelihood, Tesla could probably find itself a sustainable niche at the $100,000+ end of the market and potentially even get truly profitable some day.  Trying do the same in the $35-40K region will be a lot harder.

As Damon says in his +Jalopnik story, if Tesla wants to kill the speculation of trouble, they should just come clean about what's really going on. ?

There’s been a collective freak-out about Tesla’s sales figures for the year. Specifically, there’s a discrepancy between the cars Tesla claims to have delivered and the number of Model S sedans actually registered. Why? Because Tesla refuses to publish sales data like everyone else.


If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks…

If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

While I've long felt that the share price of +Tesla Motors is the result of irrational exuberance, that doesn't mean the company is in any imminent danger. There is clearly a market for the products the company is offering although it is unlikely to approach the volume of Toyota or Volkswagen anytime in the foreseeable future. 

That said, Tesla should know as well as any company that in the absence of hard data, the internet will speculate and Tesla is a company that was built on the power of the internet "news" machine. I've said previously that the estimation of 3,000 unsold Model S in inventory is probably not a big deal. At the company's sales rate, that's about 5-6 weeks of inventory and for other automakers, 8 weeks (60 days) supply is considered optimal.  

Those vehicles are in-transit to stores, showroom demos and stock for customers that want a car now. What may pose a bigger long-term problem for Tesla is the low price of oil especially as the brand tries to move down-market. In all likelihood, Tesla could probably find itself a sustainable niche at the $100,000+ end of the market and potentially even get truly profitable some day.  Trying do the same in the $35-40K region will be a lot harder.

As Damon says in his +Jalopnik story, if Tesla wants to kill the speculation of trouble, they should just come clean about what's really going on. ?

Tesla Only Has Tesla To Blame For Confusion Until It Publishes Data
There’s been a collective freak-out about Tesla’s sales figures for the year. Specifically, there’s a discrepancy between the cars Tesla claims to have delivered and the number of Model S sedans actually registered. Why? Because Tesla refuses to publish sales data like everyone else.

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I'm so glad that we gave up on the Newsroom after the second episode of season 1

I'm so glad that we gave up on the Newsroom after the second episode of season 1

I've never liked Aaron Sorkin's work and this show was a particularly egregious example. I'm not sorry to have missed this episode.?

The HBO series The Newsroom began in 2012 as a story about one man’s mission to civilize — starting with the lowest-common-denominator churn of cable news. Like Mad Men, it is a workplace period…