Ford Tests DIY Firmware Updates 164
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
wiredmikey writes "This month, Ford is borrowing something from the software industry: updates. With a fleet of new cars using the sophisticated infotainment system they developed with Microsoft called SYNC, Ford has the need to update those vehicles — for both features and security reasons. But how do you update the software in thousands of cars? Traditionally, the automotive industry has resorted to automotive recalls. But now, Ford will be releasing thirty thousand USB sticks to Ford owners with the new SYNC infotainment system, although the update will also be available for online download. In preparing to update your car, Ford encourages users to have a unique USB for each Ford they own, and to have the USB drive empty and not password protected. In the future, updating our gadgets, large and small, will become routine. But for now, it's going to be really cumbersome and a little weird. Play this forward a bit. Image taking Patch Tuesday to a logical extreme, where you walk around your house or office to apply patches to many of the offline gadgets you own."
Re:*digs out cell* (Score:2, Informative)
You joke, but the Ford Fusion at least has a "limp home mode" that recently required a visit to the stealership. The diagnosis: throttle body for $900. Had them just clear the code and the car has gone thousands of miles since. The actual cause? A dead battery. A dead battery is a common failure mode and should not throw spurious diagnostic codes that disable the vehicle until reset by the dealership.
Horrible Summary is Horrible (Score:5, Informative)
In summary:
User firmware upgrades !new
User firmware upgrades !experimental
Mass USB mailings !SYNC
The only thing experimental is the mass mailing of USB sticks.
Re:But wait: How to drop from 5th to 23rd place... (Score:3, Informative)
Holy crap. I made a joke in my head about rebooting a car, but MS has again found a way to make truth stranger than fiction (from the wiki):
"For new car owners whose MyFord Touch systems crash, both Ford dealerships and Ford-sponsored websites have been recommending that owners disconnect the black (negative) lead to the battery for several minutes, reconnect, then run the car for at least five minutes to reboot the MyFord Touch system. Owners have complained that this is extremely inconvenient, even dangerous in many situations, and should not be required of owners who have paid tens-of-thousands of dollars for their new cars."
As mentioned in many other places, the User Interface software (Which is the crappy part) was written in Flash by a company called BSQUARED, and is pretty much unrelated to the Windows CE underpinning supplied by Microsoft, or the rest of the car designed by Ford...
But hey, when has the truth ever stopped any Microsoft bashing around here?
Re:But wait: How to drop from 5th to 23rd place... (Score:4, Informative)