Allow Outside Coders to Contribute Code
Description
Allow outside coders to contribute to the code base to add new features.
Competitive/Pricing/Notes
It seems there are a lot of relatively trivial features missing in the software (resume last song from USB, view/manage Sentry files, safe remove of USB, etc.) and I suspect that this is simply down to priorities.
If Tesla managed the MCU code is a similar way to Linux, which allows contributions, then I’m certain they would get a lot of these issues fixed very quickly. Note that I do NOT mean a free-for-all where cars could end up with different versions of hacked code – the contributions would still have to be approved and merged with the original code by Tesla. It just means Tesla could focus on the big stuff and volunteers could help with the small but important details.
Moderator: I like the idea, but suspect it would take more resources and engineers away from ongoing projects to manage outside access and carefully review the submitted code. It would also require opening up Tesla’s source code, which I doubt they are willing to do.
Status
Unknown.
Tags:
5 Comments
Allowing contributors to high-level parts would only be positive. All contributions to be filtered and accepted by Tesla, of course.
Expecting Tesla to open source their software is pretty ridiculous
Well given that it is linux based, it is far from ridiculous, in fact they are obliged to release parts of it and has already happened: https://www.zdnet.com/article/tesla-starts-to-release-its-cars-open-source-linux-software-code/
I specifically mentioned the MCU (infotainment), not core software - there is no way in hell I want anyone messing with the battery and motor controls!
Yes, one possibility would be an "app store" approach with a strict API to connect to the car INFOTAINMENT hardware (USB, audio, limited screen regions) and driving stats as available via the unofficial REST API. I think this could be very positive for both drivers and Tesla.
However, it could be done in a limited way by allowing a sandboxed app system so that developers could build their own apps for the UI.
Expecting Tesla to open source their software is pretty ridiculous, and expecting them to allow development of core features by third party developers even more so. But I can see the potential for an app ecosystem similar to Android or (more likely, with strict controls) Apple.
