The next Java frontier: your car.

October 16, 2000 4:12 PM

The next Java frontier: your car. Sun Microsystems announced Monday it would partner with General Motors' dashboard technology division, OnStar, in an effort to make Java the computing standard for the automotive industry.
posted by Zool (5 comments total)

Microsoft on Sunday unveilled Windows CE for the automotive industry and it's car.net platform, which it hopes will be the standard that is adopted, and now Sun are pushing Java as the computing standard for the automotive industry. Does anyone see a WAR brewing?
posted by Zool at 4:17 PM on October 16, 2000

They've been pushing this distributed Java stuff for years. I'll believe it when I see it. (and I've yet to meet anyone who uses WinCE (and is that abbreviation intentional or what?))
posted by sonofsamiam at 4:34 PM on October 16, 2000

I'm not sure which is worse personally. I would almost rather have the unpredictable errors of windows than the incredibly slow performance I've come to expect from Java.
posted by howa2396 at 4:57 PM on October 16, 2000

Java will only be available in Kias and SUVs, as their owners are used to slow performance. ::cough::

I think these technologies are really, really too immature to do anything right now. That AutoPC fiasco sums it up... the cars aren't quite there yet. Ten years, oh yeah, we'll have full-blown modern OSes in there. I'm sure you'll be able to sync up with your Palm XV, TiVo III, and your watch somehow.

But I don't think Java's the platform to do it on. I just don't have much faith in Java. Sorry.
posted by hijinx at 6:31 PM on October 16, 2000

I don't think Java or Windows are the way to go. Get yourself a small, reliable, real-time os (ie QNX or something like it) that's been proven time and again.

I used to work with automated banking machines (providing an extra layer of obfuscation to the system, allowing privately-owned machines access to Interac) and our servers were running QNX 2 or something insanely out of date (the company's since updated, or so the rumourmill would have me believe) but were very stable.
posted by cCranium at 6:53 AM on October 17, 2000