Tesla's world of horror... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 07:37:20 am
content: "A former Tesla employee, who worked on their IT infrastructure, is posting in a subforum of a subforum,a little-known place for funy computer forgotten by time. His NDA has expired.He has such sights to show us. Join me and I will be your silent guide into a world of horror."https://mobile.twitter.com/atomicthumbs/status/1032939617404645376?s=21

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 08:17:34 am
content: If you don't want this second-hand via Twitter, here's the actual forum thread, filtered for posts by that specific user:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3862643&userid=20544He might not be entirely impartial.But an interesting read anyway.

author: Vtile
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 08:22:36 am
content: Like all other fkn IoT shits.. Blob of shits glued to gether.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 11:34:20 am
content: Should have included this post in the OP :QuoteHe also thinks Musk is pretty much par for the course in Silicon Valley.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 04:12:37 pm
content: looks like typical corporate? What do you expect working for a company?no one ever wants to fuck with a cash flow that is working. I am surprised they don't have priests walking around blessing stuff there. The man for got his psychosis hat before work.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 04:40:29 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on August 26, 2018, 08:17:34 amMan, this is a golden mine of awesome stuffQuoteQuoteQuoteQuoteQuoteThe last one is just blows my mind. No juice for you buddy, if we decide so. So you may want to keep your bicycle.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 05:46:12 pm
content: I do electronics and software myself, and even I don't want a Tesla. They're locked-down surveillance machines, and apparently quite buggy too.If you want to drive something that you actually own, get into the hobby of classic cars. It's fun.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 04:45:29 am
content: It's funny that they are effectively DDOSing themselves every rush hour.QuoteWhy...

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:59:07 am
content: Quote from: Hypernova on August 27, 2018, 04:45:29 amMy guess: because batteries run out...I know, kinda funny in a battery-on-wheels-car.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 09:03:00 am
content: the assumption may be that until the main battery dies or it get disconnected for servicing, that part of the circuit will always be powered

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 09:56:34 am
content: Quote from: JPortici on August 27, 2018, 09:03:00 amRTC dying due to main battery being disconnected sounds semi-reasonable as that happens with normal cars too, but then:QuoteAre they not using a dedicated I2C RTC chip on their motherboard? Or did someone in a fit of insanity decided to add a line to their boot code to reset it on every SoC reset/wake.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 11:09:05 am
content: ah, yes i forgot about that line

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 11:27:05 am
content: Our own Free_Electron (head PCB designer at Tesla) is suspiciously quiet

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 06:54:00 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on August 27, 2018, 11:27:05 amHe might have been among the 5000 that got fired a few weeks ago.Jon

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 07:39:39 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on August 26, 2018, 05:46:12 pmI have wanted a first generation Honda Insight with the electronically controlled manual transmission, but then I read about all the problems they have. Namely in that it's infamous for the batteries failing, and although it's possible to retrofit in a pack based on Nissan Leaf cells, it's difficult to make effective use of it within the limitations of the Honda hybrid system. Toyota's hybrid system is a much better match for an upgraded battery pack.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:00:19 pm
content: do they have to sign a NDA to work there since there is so much automotive shit going on right now?if vincent got fired he might have to sit quiet about it for 3 years. they probably have a vicious lawyer squad

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:12:51 pm
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on August 27, 2018, 08:00:19 pmI wouldseriouslydoubt that, but in any case they can't stop him from acknowledging his employment status, but just about any other detail they could.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:26:17 pm
content: Quote from: dr.diesel on August 27, 2018, 08:12:51 pmI heard a NDA is like 6 months in a dead industry and 3 years in a booming competitive one right?

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:33:59 pm
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on August 27, 2018, 08:26:17 pmMost of my recent NDAs have been 3 years.

author: SparkyFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 08:36:34 pm
content: Pretty much snafu for infotainment in connected cars, if you ask me. The whole telemetry idea is to lay the foundation for shaving money off an already sold product, but it tears down the term ownership in a legal sense by converting functions to services.Then there are the paradigms of automation/mobile colliding with those of web technology.

author: janoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2018, 10:08:38 pm
content: I have read that thread and, frankly, apart from the known, done on purpose stuff (telemetry, remote access/disabling your car, the supercharger blocking), there are no real smoking guns or insanely crazy/unsafe things.Is it crap engineering in many places? Sure it is. However this is pretty much what you get in any company where software isn't the main focus. Fixing bugs and rewriting legacy stinkers isn't done because it costs money and takes time from getting the new stuff (that actually will hopefully bring money) out to the market.If you are horrified or laughing at the supposed incompetence then you have really not seen how most software is being developed, tested and deployed ... It is a wild west, despite boatloads of books being written on software engineering methodologies, new methodology du jour appearing every few years (it was extreme programming, then agile, then scrum, before we had SSADM and Prince ...). However, no matter which methodology and process you have, it always gets trumped by management decisions prioritizing other things because they don't see value in doing things properly (costs money, time, resources, nobody cares about that it will cost 10x as much money, time and resources to fix when it blows up 6 months down the road at the most inopportune moment).And especially automotive (and embedded firmware in general), where the code is often written by some intern or the lowest bidder sub-sub-subcontractor instead of someone who actually has a clue how to write software is likely one of the places where the worst crap gets written.This isn't new or somehow specific to Tesla - the guy explicitly named Bosch (Bosch was actually the supplier who delivered the cheating code in the original Dieselgate), but similar things were discovered elsewhere too. E.g. Toyota after the unintended acceleration fiasco:http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/toyota-unintended-acceleration-and-big-bowl-%E2%80%9Cspaghetti%E2%80%9D-codeConsidering that stuff is actually controlling safety critical functions and that there is a heavy pressure by car makers on the regulators to allow fully "drive-by-wire" (i.e. with no mechanical connections between the steering wheel and the wheels) and autonomous cars, it should give you a pause.There is a running joke that the IP protections, keeping everything proprietary and NDAed is not meant to protect the IP of a company but the brand in case the horrors the company products contain leak out ...

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2018, 07:15:26 pm
content: It shouldn't be too hard to hotwire on or even permanantly bypass the "screw you" cutoff in a supercharger (assuming you owned it of course).

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 29, 2018, 10:10:38 am
content: Quote from: Bud on August 26, 2018, 04:40:29 pmYes, I confirm if you want to sell e-cars there you need to do that.