Body of a car, brains of a PC

(continued from previous page)

"Honestly, we consider it to be the leading tech challenge the industry is facing. The millions of lines of code that go with it are far exceeding the complexity of any industry out there," Ford's Milligan said.

Several governments and companies have been developing systems to allow cars to communicate with each other and the roadway about traffic and road conditions.

"Different applications require different levels of robustness and quality control. That's an area IBM has some expertise in," ABI's Alexander said. "Especially as the auto industry opens up, and you get more tier 1 suppliers involved in making software for the whole (market)."

Telelogic offers software that lets developers define very complex systems and simulate them. The program can analyze an individual driving system, such as one controlling a car's brakes, or the entire car. Telelogic's tools can also help find where software can be reused instead of written from scratch for every new component or car model.

"This not only costs money, but the more different products you develop for the same purpose, the (higher the) chance of something going wrong," Telelogic's Chandra said. "A lot of them are trying to standardize on a single architecture."

Traffic jam ahead
Of course, Telelogic is not the only player in town, and IBM is not the only behemoth interested.

Ford uses products from The MathWorks, which makes software for modeling and simulating complex dynamic systems and data, to translate its requirements into mathematical models that can be more easily managed. It's also evaluating Teamcenter, a systems engineering tool made by the software company UGS. UGS was acquired by manufacturing tools giant Siemens A&D for $3.5 billion in May.

Other tech giants, namely Microsoft, are becoming more involved in the auto industry. The software giant has so far concentrated on in-car entertainment and navigation systems, but it likely has larger ambitions.

IBM, too, is driving toward larger goals, according to ABI's Alexander.

Several governments and companies have been developing systems to allow cars to communicate with each other and the roadway about traffic and road conditions. A simple form of vehicle telematics is already used for collecting road tolls and tracking commercial trucks.

A comprehensive telematics infrastructure in the U.S. could allow all cars, regardless of manufacturer, to communicate where they are in a lane, and warn others when they've hit a patch of ice and where they've gotten into an accident.

Automotive telematics is currently estimated to be a $9 billion industry and is expected to grow to about $40 billion during the next 10 years," according to a December 2006 report (PDF: Vehicle Technology Trends in Electronics for the North American Market; Opportunities for the Taiwanese Automotive Industry) from the Center for Automotive Research.

Software will provide the means to avoid traffic and accidents, once a Dedicated Short-Range Communications wireless protocol for cars and roadways is implemented, according to Alexander.

"What you need at the back end of all this is the infrastructure that has to be linked together," he said. "That's an area that IBM may have its eyes on. It's a multibillion-dollar project to equip all of the major cities in America with this stuff."

[KTMCDO]

not quite there yet

the car companies are taking baby steps in the right direction
maybe one day there will be a car like KITT
(KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO THOUSAND) on the market

[Llib Setag]

IBM Big Blue in your car...

Yet C|NET graphics show MS Vista huge MAC OSX "Widgets"...errr...MS " Gadgets" graphics in their lead in...?

90% of article was about IBM with one sentence about Microsoft, yet, Vista gets a free plug from C|NET.

We know who butters your bread C|NET.

MS Vista Tech in your car?
Big Blue screen of death right before you crash!

[Jim Hubbard]

Literal Blue Screens of Death?

Wow... This'll certainly give new meanings to "Blue Screen of Death" and your computer "crashing".

[spothannah]

Blue Scree of Death

Ditto: and how about "Fatal Error"?

[Mgood]

The IT budget is not associated with the Development budget

This article begins describing the importance of software as it is delivered in the product then, in a detour of logic, it includes a paragraph about the IT budget and 3rd party software. The IT budget is spent on software to operate the company and is not directly associated with product development. The number that should have been included is software development as a percentage of the R&D budget and the R&D budget as a precentage of the operating budget.

[eightwings]

Safety must be the biggest concern

The most pressing problem facing car makers when it comes to adding automation to vehicles is realiability and safety. A single software error might be catastrophic, not only in terms of injuries and lawsuits but in terms of the cost of massive recalls. There is a way to make software programs 100% reliable and that is to use an operating system based on a non-algorithmic, signal-based, synchronous software model. I hope, for their sake and ours, that the auto makers choose that route from the start. Otherwise they're asking for big trouble down the road. Consumers are not going to tolerate unsafe vehicles.

[Tiskie]

In the end, we still have to drive...

All these handy dandy gadgets make driving much more comfortable, and features like collision warnings and such will make it safer but in the end you're still driving the car yourself. Discussions about safety issues should include the responsibility of people as drivers. Look at your computer experiences so far, how watertight has it been? That is how much you can trust software to drive a car for you. As long as I am still familiar with blue screens, and strange occurances, no way I will ever put software to the test that is supposed to drive my car for me. It's nice if it comes to the rescue when I can't help myself, but still no way I will rely on that to happen.....

[OpenSources2]

i need a new computer, if you like gates or interested in Antitrust issues

It's not getting a lot of press quite yet, but Microsoft's latest court battle--a class action civil case in which the software maker is painted as a "corporate bully" that uses illegal tactics to harm competition--is one of the few remaining in the wake of the company's epic US antitrust battle. The Iowa case is expected to be one of the longest-running legal battles in Iowa history.

Filed in 2000, the Iowa case alleges that Microsoft used anticompetitive practices to drive up prices and, ultimately, harm Iowa consumers, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. The plaintiffs collected more than 25 million pages of evidence over the past 6 years. "It's all about the evidence," plaintiff lawyer Roxanne Conlin said in an interview with the "Des Moines Register." "Microsoft did not come into Iowa and slap higher price tags on computers. Microsoft did anticompetitive things to people who were offering choices to consumers, and by doing that, it destroyed competition in this market." Iowa is seeking approximately $330 million in damages in the case.

The court case had ended and this was part of the evidence that the jury had to review.

If you want a journalist distribution set of Gates's unflattering 17-hour videotaped deposition from the US antitrust case please contact me. You can get real lucky ideas and a very unbiased view of the Chairman of Microsoft answering hundreds of questions.

I am poor, but I got a perfect 11 dvd set of Bill Gates answering hundreds of questions in 1998 on a camcorder for his trial.... you'll get real lucky ideas and deep insights into him. I need about a basic machine with at least 3 Ghz and 1GB ram, but if you got something nicer and can be generous that would be awesome as i need this for a project. Please contact me at [e-mail] if you can be helpful. If you can prove you are trustworthy (we can talk on the phone and/or you can email me from a business)..... I will ship to you without you advancing the machine.... but please don't rip me off!!! I need this to work! Please contact me if you have the resources to do this, and I will be happy to further answer any questions.

[WJeansonne]

Is that a sneak peek at the next Vette?

Just curious.

[angelfast]

Cool Update...

Anyway,let me share some helpful tips on car buying...
Here are some tips on how you can buy and have a quality used car, so as you would not be replacing unnecessary parts along the way...Hope, this might help...
Tips & Warning
? As a final precaution, take the car to a mechanic, who should charge a reasonable fee to check over a used car. The seller should agree to this, but may require that you leave a deposit. If the seller won't let you take the car, offer to meet him or her at a mutually convenient garage.
? If you give the seller a deposit in order to take the car to have it checked, make sure to write out an agreement stating that the deposit will be returned immediately if you decide not to buy the car.
If the vehicle's mileage appears unusually low, have a mechanic determine whether someone has tampered with the odometer. If so, the seller must refund any money you have paid and may be liable for punitive damages under federal and state odometer laws?
This is how I acquire my car; I inspected all its auto parts from exterior and interior aspect down to its neuspeed springs and other accessories. By doing so, you could be sure of the quality of vehicle you are getting?=)

[se.rev]

IBM driver assistant

its like they expect everyone to have a speed zone and 40k time zone adjusting cruise control programmed to every onboard navigation device....I want one.. if i can also switch it to stanby.

[se.rev]

microsoft

the earth world eats more chips

[Alonsx]

<a href="http://news.cnet.com/2100-11389_3-6201752.html">Car Brains</a> Thanks a lot!