[HN Gopher] OxidOS Automotive
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       OxidOS Automotive
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2024-03-17 13:01 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (oxidos.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (oxidos.io)
        
       | SlackingOff123 wrote:
       | Is this written in Rust by any chance?
        
         | f321x_ wrote:
         | Yes its very oxidised
        
         | ororoo wrote:
         | the site says "100 Times safer cars", so yes, as rust makes
         | everything automatically safer.
        
           | Lorin wrote:
           | I know quite a few people that would prefer not having rust
           | in their cars.
        
             | anjel wrote:
             | For what reasons?
        
               | UnitOfMeasure wrote:
               | WHOOOSH
        
               | olivierduval wrote:
               | Because they want their car without software... ;-)
               | 
               | It's nice to have a software for entertainment... but it
               | takes more trust to have some software controlled brakes
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | It is unsightly and structurally unsound.
        
             | bornelsewhere wrote:
             | After build you have bare metal, no rust remains.
        
       | runjake wrote:
       | As far as I can tell from their website, this isn't related to
       | Oxide Computer and I'd guess there's going to be a cease and
       | desist real soon now.
        
         | Kluggy wrote:
         | Based in Romania might make that hard to do
        
           | vineyardmike wrote:
           | Until they try to expand outside the Romanian car market...
        
         | steveklabnik wrote:
         | You're right that the names are similar, but we aren't
         | litigious like that. This is a different thing, even though it
         | has a similar name. This isn't the first time I'm hearing about
         | this OS :)
         | 
         | Heck, there's even Oxidize, a Rust conference for
         | embedded/industrial Rust users.
         | 
         | Nobody would reasonably confuse these products.
        
       | Kluggy wrote:
       | > 100 Times safer cars
       | 
       | I wish companies would back up numbers like this. Are they really
       | going to reduce the number of accidents on the road by a factor
       | of 100 due to a better os? I really struggle to believe that.
        
         | jadengeller wrote:
         | it may be about safety against cyberattacks
        
           | Kluggy wrote:
           | I can't think of a single case of cyberattacks against cars.
           | Do you know of any?
        
         | UnitOfMeasure wrote:
         | What is the unit of measure for "safeness," anyway? And how
         | will we know if they reach 101 "safety units?"
        
         | Veserv wrote:
         | If they had to back it up then they would not be able to say
         | it. Are you really trying to infringe on their rights to
         | endanger lives by fraudulently claiming suitability for safety-
         | critical applications without any evidence beyond their
         | imaginations?
         | 
         | If we demanded evidence from everybody then people would not be
         | able to sell their sub-standard and inadequate systems. Think
         | about how much less money they would make, or god forbid go out
         | of business, if we demanded evidence before risking human
         | lives. No, better to just let them make unqualified, extremely
         | strong claims with no supporting evidence or audit to protect
         | their business. I mean, it is what we let every other company
         | like Microsoft, Apple, and Google do, so why not?
        
       | CharlesW wrote:
       | The actual open source OS (OxidOS is proprietary):
       | https://tockos.org/
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | They're pretty open about that in fairness. Doesn't look like
         | there's any overlap between the TockOS developers and this
         | team.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | We can't know the intent, but I called it out because the
           | "Based on open source" on the front page and even the name
           | (since OxidOS is not the OS) seems designed to mislead.
        
             | IshKebab wrote:
             | I don't think that's fair. They explicitly name Tock in
             | literally the second sentence on their front page.
             | 
             | I'm not sure what you mean about OxidOS not being the OS?
             | It's still an OS even if it is heavily based on an existing
             | OS. Is Android not an OS? Fuchsia?
        
               | NoahKAndrews wrote:
               | Fuschia literally is a ground-up OS with its own kernel
               | (your point is well-made with regards to Android though)
        
           | danielwrosner wrote:
           | Hi! This is Daniel from OxidOS Automotive (stating this for
           | disclaimer purposes).
           | 
           | Yes, our OS is based on TockOS, and our CEO (Alexandru
           | Radovici) is #7 in the contributors list
           | (https://github.com/tock/tock/graphs/contributors), with
           | other colleagues contributing in the past years. Of course,
           | we also push anything that we fix / that is useful for the
           | general Tockos community upstream.
        
       | pxmpxm wrote:
       | The number one real world use case of Rust is making these sorts
       | of example real world use cases of Rust ...
       | 
       | https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Ascending_and...
        
       | TheCapeGreek wrote:
       | For a layperson, is this just for older style ECUs controlling
       | various car functions, instead of e.g. electronic dashboards?
       | 
       | Basically, will this be also usable for more modern vehicles (say
       | 2015+) that have been highly digitized, or is the project scope
       | much smaller?
       | 
       | My understanding is that beyond the rise of EVs, the longevity of
       | vehicles of the last decades is in question as they use more and
       | more computerised controls, and their parts becoming rarer on top
       | of the proprietary software controls. So beyond replacing just
       | the ECU, keeping modern cars alive as they age and even become
       | classics is a valuable task.
       | 
       | I believe the concerns of the digital era losing historicity due
       | to the ease of bitrot translate to vehicles as well.
        
         | RadVl wrote:
         | It won't be something you as a layperson can just take and run
         | in your car, like you would Linux on an old laptop. The HW is
         | pretty diverse and is tightly coupled with the car. It's more
         | like something car makers can use to build on top of in order
         | to quickly and safely bring up an ECU. People who worked with,
         | for example, AUTOSAR stacks on modern ECU's know how much of a
         | pain bringing up even just CAN communication can be.
         | 
         | I share your concern about bitrot and longevity in modern cars,
         | and this could help, but it would still not be something
         | someone could just do in their garage, you'd likely need more
         | resources than that.
        
         | danielwrosner wrote:
         | Yes, new cars are evolving in terms of ECU architecture, and we
         | are targeting small chips for two use cases:
         | 
         | First - as "edge components" get smarter - you still have small
         | microcontrollers all over the car (for example - you need a
         | local MCU and a complex PCB for running a headlight with dozens
         | of LEDs with minimum wiring to a central command unit);
         | 
         | Secondly - you now have multi-core, multi-arhitecture
         | controllers - and you need small OSs for some of these cores in
         | order to run embedded apps efficiently.
        
       | ThinkBeat wrote:
       | When it says "based on open source" does that mean that they used
       | open-source tools (in part) to build a close sourced proprietary
       | operating system?
        
       | ThinkBeat wrote:
       | I am always excited to hear about new operating systems because
       | we desperately need to move on from where we are stuck now.
       | 
       | Just the other day we had several stories about a new interesting
       | operating system DBOS that was closed source proprietary for
       | profit.
       | 
       | This also seems to be closed source proprietary for profit.
       | 
       | Nothing inherently wrong with it, but I wish i could play with
       | them at home. Opens sourced operating systems seem t obe losing
       | ground.
        
       | petabyt wrote:
       | They might be able to find a niche in industrial equipment. But
       | for regular cars it will be hard to compete with QNX.
        
         | RadVl wrote:
         | Disclaimer: I work at OxidOs.
         | 
         | Regular cars have a lot of OS'es in them that are not QNX. I'd
         | say OSEK derived OS'es are much more common than QNX. And I
         | believe there is quite a bit of space for alternatives.
        
           | foundry27 wrote:
           | You're right, they do have lots of OSes. But most of them are
           | for lower-ASIL elements where the functional safety and SOTIF
           | requirements are less strict. I'd be very surprised if there
           | was quite as much diversity at ASIL D.
           | 
           | Edit: Usually good form to point out your affiliation when
           | you're commenting on your own company's announcements. Unless
           | I'm very much mistaken, RadVl sounds a lot like a portmanteau
           | of Vlad Radulescu, FSM at OxidOS. It's a great looking
           | product, don't get me wrong!
        
             | RadVl wrote:
             | There are 2 ASIL-D OSEK implementations off the top of my
             | head, Tasking, the EB one ( I think they actually have _2_
             | variants here, the normal one and a microkernel) and I'm
             | sure there are others, these being just the ones I saw on
             | projects I worked on before Oxidos.
             | 
             | I'm sure Vector has one as well.
             | 
             | Edit: You are right, that was poor form, I added the
             | disclaimer.
        
       | sedatk wrote:
       | "Written in Rust" is quickly turning into the programming
       | equivalent of "This web site is secure" badge.
       | 
       | Yes, Rust can eliminate a significant portion of memory-safety
       | related bugs. But it doesn't eliminate all bugs, or all security
       | bugs, or all memory-safety related bugs for that matter.
       | 
       | We need better metrics for safety than "Manufactured in Sweden"
       | of programming in marketing copy. Perhaps certifications and
       | compliance programs similar to FCC, TUV. Maybe like PCI but with
       | an expanded scope.
       | 
       | It's only a matter of time a significant memory-safety related
       | vulnerability is found in a Rust program and everyone will start
       | saying "see? Rust has as many safety problems as C" and use it as
       | an excuse not to use it if we lean too much on "Rust = safety"
       | false equivalence.
        
         | Veserv wrote:
         | We already have that. It is the Common Criteria for Information
         | Technology Security Evaluation, ISO 15408. Most large software
         | developers already certify products against it such as Windows
         | [1], iOS [2], Android, Linux, etc. It is the primary
         | certification presented in "About Security" and "Certification"
         | pages by almost every company if they have any certifications
         | at all.
         | 
         | The thing is that they all certify at the lowest possible
         | levels which certify that the systems ensure no meaningful
         | security because they are unable to certify the presence of any
         | meaningful security in those products even after decades of
         | attempts. You do not establish any audited security until you
         | reach a level comparable to EAL5, and most companies opt for
         | EAL1 with all of the big names maxing out at EAL4 historically.
         | For some reason, people are happy using products that are
         | certified to be insecure and inadequate which is why we are in
         | this insecure hellscape.
         | 
         | [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
         | us/windows/security/security-...
         | 
         | [2] https://support.apple.com/en-
         | my/guide/certifications/apc3fa9...
        
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       (page generated 2024-03-17 23:01 UTC)