Even if this just a small step and essentially nothing, when compared to software giants like google, I consider it a good sign that such traditional manufacturers do their first humble steps into a good direction.
Slightly OT, but Porsche has recently sold itself to me as a great carmaker when they released a new infotainment system for their 20 years old Cayenne.<p>Compare it to another Stuttgart carmaker like Mercedes Benz...where half of the stuff released doesn't work anymore few years later, it's a night and day difference.
I like the basic idea, but unless Porsche moves away from manufacturer lock-in for all of the software on board of the vehicles, including the inability to inspect and/or repair the underlying hardware not much of use will come of efforts like this. It's like so many other brands that claim to love Open Source Software for marketing purposes but that continue to refuse to open up the key components of the software that they ship.<p>Porsche could make some <i>real</i> headlines by opening up their ECU code and the code that drives their infotainment systems, would be nice if it was accompanied by schematics and the tools required to read-out and re-program the hardware.<p>Fat chance that will ever happen because 'safety', 'environment' and a bunch of other fig-leaf excuses.
All mentioned projects look to be web focused? I would assume most of Porsche’s software value-add is in embedded systems. Can open source make a dent in the car components themselves?
Does Porsche even know how to software?<p>When the Taycan was new, it had horrible software and the system would crash on the freeway. A Googler dug in a bit with the dealer and found it was running docker / docker compose and a bunch of the containers would just die sometimes. He banded some other Google Taycan owners (there’s probably a group ..) and they got their own NHSTA recall. Here’s an example of one of the many recalls: <a href="https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/wnj8-wnk1-ana6-software-updates-recall-details.12386/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/wnj8-wnk1-ana6-sof...</a>
It’s a shame they don’t open-source their infotainment system. Not that I want to modify my 911, but there’s privacy settings in there that I find concerning, so it’d be good to look at the source.<p>And, just from a curiosity PoV, I’d like to see the car management code.<p>I think it’s important that individuals can’t change the code running their cars; that’s just got ‘massive car accident’ written all over it. But being able to see and possibly contribute to the software would be great.
> porsche-design-system/porsche-design-system<p>Why do companies open-source their design systems? Other people aren't allowed to create a website that looks like Porsche.com because of copyright and trademark laws anyway.<p>I always assumed it's because properly securing it is too much work for little gain (because of the reasons above), but maybe there's more to it?
Meanwhile, Mazda is sending cease and desist letters to open-source contributors.<p>Previous discussion: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37874220">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37874220</a>
Blog post announcing it from (2021). How's it been going since?<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28627902">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28627902</a>
What is this? Just some stuff for designers so that their webpages and brochures match or what?<p>I was really excited and expecting some info on their CAN bus and OS. Sigh...
Potentially vaguely related, the Eclipse foundation project GM is backing to establish an open source protocol for vehicle app / service communication: <a href="https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/automotive.uprotocol" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/automotive.uprotocol</a>
They're using Android?<p>I think they'd be much better off using something like Automotive Grade Linux.
Google's car ambitions have been pretty disastrous, including the newer Volvos. Reviews of the Volvo Android Automotive infotainment are just awful. And I don't trust Google to not abandon it.