BMWs hit the road with Microsoft

[Zombie9920]

Article from ZDNet Australia.

 

Cars in BMW's new line, the BMW 7 Series, are equipped with a special kind of Windows: the Microsoft kind.
 
 
 
 
Microsoft's Windows CE software will allow BMW drivers to navigate, make calls and control many of the cars' other features. The BMW 7 Series was launched in Germany last year and has just been released in the United States.

The new line of BMWs use a navigating system from Siemens, called the Siemens VDO Automotive AG, which includes Microsoft's operating system. Microsoft also recently announced the launch of Windows CE for Automotive v3.5, the newest version of its software for cars based on Windows CE.

Microsoft said last July, that over the next year and a half, nine automakers would ship cars with built-in devices that use the Windows CE operating system, which allows drivers to check their calendars or stock portfolios and use voice commands.

Microsoft has been working with consulting company Accenture to provide what it calls "telematic" services for cars, a combination of telecom and data technology.
 
 http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20263822,00.htm

[TB]

I can imagine it now......trying to turn the steering wheel and a polite voice says "An illegal operation has caused this program to shut down." Will BMW provide additional airbags for frustrated drivers to bang their heads against??? It would certainly be a wise precaution.

[voidmain]

Heh heh, and every 3 miles you'll have to pull over and reboot your engine...

[psyjax]

Who the fuck would want a car that crashes all the time, locks you out of it if you don't let it call home to make sure you own it.  Jeez.... I bet the radio only plays advertising specificaly tailord to you, because the car wont start les you put your wallet in the ignition and own a .NET key, so it can scan your recent purchaces and reserch your demographic.

Wors't part is it probably wont run on anything other than M$ gas and tires.

[dbl221]

Ha! let M$ try and take over.....Linux will trounce then in the embeded market.........CE has made little headway so far and I can't see this changing much.

[Tux]

all i can say is that after seeing how m$ trys to control my computer(and thoughts)i sure as hell wouldnt want it running my car...and remember to register with them our you'll go outside one moring only to find you've been locked out...

[Liquidog]

BMW's are awesome cars.  Why they went with Windows, seeing as how it's extremely unreliable - that is a mystery.  If they're going to bother to make the fancy car computer system, they should bother to do some more research into implementing a more reliable OS.  I've heard of Linux/Unix systems running for years at time, without problems.  A poll for everyone: what's the longest you've run a windows system without a marked decrease in performance?  A few days maybe?  What's the longest you've run windows without it crashing?  Using it every day?  Surely not much more than a week.  It's just funny because BMW's are tanks in the automotive world and windows is a go-kart in the OS world.

[badkarma]

windows 95/98 will allways crash after 49 days (in the unfortunate event of you keeping it running that long)

read this:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/eric.price/humour2/0379.htm

[Calum]

the longest i have run windows without it crashing is probably about 5 hours. definitely less than 9.

The time i can run windows without noticing a degredation in quality is moot, as it is relative to the state of the system at startup. On startup, my winME has already filled up the RAM with 128 MB of crap. if i use one of those RAM cleaner optimiser programs, it fills it back up within 5 minutes.
often it crashes before the full boot has even completed.

Maybe the whole windows/BMW thing is misreported? maybe they're working with M$ but are using a UNIX operating system?

Such as the famous WINSUX! that OS soon to be brought out by M$ with all the flaws you have come to expect from Microsoft but based on a UNIX environment! (i guarantee this is coming, it's only a matter of time before Microsoft steals this idea from Apple!)

[psyjax]

If M$ tried to do the MacOS thing and go with a UNIX core, they would quickly lose market to Linux, OS X, and other better made, more stable, OS's and GUI's. Because when M$ adopts a UNIX standard, then it becomes very easy for things to be ported to and from other UNIX environment. This is agains't M$'s MO. They wan't control over everything so they can milk everyone for cash.

[Gooseberry Clock]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
maybe they're working with M$ but are using a UNIX operating system?

Like http://www.mslinux.org/

Or more likely, Windows CE.

[kinky]

mslinux is old... but still funny... i remember fooling lotsa people with that heh

 

quote:Microsoft has hired lawyers to attack it's own product line in an attempt to confuse the DOJ. This stunning new tactic shows great promise according to several Harvard Law professors, although many expressed confusion when questioned about the long term effects of this campaign.

heh

[ March 25, 2002: Message edited by: kinky ]

[Calum]

go and look at this page here to see this week's funniest picture of the week!  

[Master of Reality]

The MS windows crash theory

is there any way to view this counter in windows?

and the guy had something a bit mixed up, 232 milliseconds isnt 49.7 days, it isnt even 1 second.

[Jonothan]

http://www.satirewire.com/briefs/bmw.shtml

...very funny  

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