Do You Want Your Scout To Have A Hands-Free Driving System?

[eddiet1212]

Do You Want Your Scout To Have A Hands-Free Driving System?

I do NOT want my Scout to drive itself.

Part of owning a hands-on vehicle would be the satisfaction of tactile power over your destiny while enjoying the ride.

If I wanted a robo-car then I could buy a future Rivian.

Reuters
Rivian to launch hands-free driving system in 2025, 'eyes-off' in 2026

Rivian to launch hands-free driving system in 2025, 'eyes-off' in 2026, CEO says

(Reuters) -Electric-vehicle maker Rivian plans to launch its advanced hands-free driver assistance systems in 2025 and its "eyes-off" systems in 2026, CEO RJ Scaringe said on Thursday. An advanced driver assistance system that enables drivers to take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the...

ca.finance.yahoo.com

 

[bsddrake]

I think with modern EV's being one big computer on wheels its likely that the central processing unit for the car will handle everything from self driving, to acceleration, to AC (I'm not sure of the topology of Rivians zonal architecture, so if someone knows more feel free to correct me) so my guess is disabling it entirely would be impossible. Obviously you could go through a disable the cameras but the ability for the computer to control everything is still there so I'm not sure if that would alleviate your concern.

What would be cool but unlikely/impractical/expensive would be to have a completely separate modular zone that could left out/removed/upgraded for those that want different capabilities. IE People like you could leave it out and people like me who want more capability than level II+ could have a more powerful module with enhanced capabilities.

Unfortunately, I think this is highly impractical at this stage. Where you would be better served (at least in this regard) by something like a Slate and I would be better served by something with Mercedes Drive Pilot or Rivians upcoming.

The 2nd gen Rivians apparently have Autonomy separated:

"For the second generation of vehicles, four categories get their own ECUs: infotainment, autonomy, vehicle access, drive units, and its battery management system. Every other vehicle function is controlled by just three ECUs Rivian refers to as West, East, and South."

(I did notice that they said 4 ECUs, then listed 5. Maybe they meant ECU 0 - 4...) Turning off that autonomy ECU without provisions from the manufacturer may be a really bad idea though.

Typically there will be single points of failure that will prevent hands free driving from functioning at the firmware level. For example, putting a hardware switch on the system that watches the driver to be sure they are paying attention may disable it on some vehicles. Depending on how early scout is in the development cycle, one could even have a discrete switch to an LED that disables handsfree driving in firmware. There are a lot of ways to do this are aren't just software. Admittedly, OTA DFU is likely possible, but that's going to be much harder for an attacker to pull off than something solely in software.