having worked with various embedded systems before im going to take it as my resposibility to further inform:P

firstly , in the end they concluded the problem with the bmw was due to another cause, i forget what it is…i'll try googling and if i find anything i'll post that link

secondly the firewall in this article is NOT your normal "firewall" for the good 'ole net.

a firewall is software that controls the permissions/communication between two devices/systems, in your pc's case, your computer and the internet. in this case, between the two systems. this is to enable both the control system, which is the more critical part, to still communicate with the information system , which is the fancy thing you are going to be looking at, while preventing any problem with the non essential information system from affecting the critical control system.

about stability, dont compare this version of windows (based on windows CE) to windows XP on your pc.

windows XP on your pc has to be written to cope wit hundreds of different drivers and devices. where else windows XP embedded or windows CE can be customised and fully tested by the system manufacturer to be stable with the hardware they are using in their system.

this tight control they have is similar to the control apple has over both hardware and software in their computers.

a lot of people dont realise how much of a miracle it is that today you can plug in virtually any printer, camera etc and windows will recognise it (plug and play) although if you want to use it properly you need to install the drivers provided.

majority of the time its a poorly written driver that crashes it. Are all of us aware that most ATM's actually run windows XP embedded???

do not make the mistake of thinking industrial systems are like personal systems.

Im very pleased by this announcement as it would be great to see two "open" automotive operating systems competing. Competition is the best way to improve quality!!! Evolution:survival of the fittest lol!

even if there are maps available for malaysia on gps i dont think the local market demand is that high, especially among mid range 60k-110k cars.

Oops… it took rescuers 10 mins to get him out… scary indeed! And according to BMW Thailand, it is an old BMW 5 Series. Hhmm…

The car will not be infected with virus because it's not connected to external sources like internet as currently PC do, at least at this moment. The infotainment system hang not going to lead u to death as the control system is separated at this moment.

It's nice to hear that Toyota may share its OS platform to other makers too. This helps to standardise and deploy faster in the car industry.

Firewalls and anti viruses are all well and good when you are talking about a general purpose computer with a bloated OS doing everyday things. The worse that could happen to a PC is a reformat and start over.

But in a car, a small glitch can mean that PEOPLE DIE. Period.

I'd rather the code that runs the car be written specifically for the car, by hand, be as simple as possible and cast in Iron.

Take for example the code that runs a Nuclear power plant. It's so simplified it can be printed out on a few sheets of paper, and the engineers who wrote it know EACTLY what each character is for, it's effect on the system, and the contingency for EVERY SINGLE THING that can remotely go wrong related to the code. I want something like that running a car. Not bloat.

Next you're going to tell me it's going to have an auto update feature that checks every week for patches to the carOS… and they'll have a public Beta Program.

and.. while driving i can nuke the other car that trying to overtake me.

cool!

but at least need to have a Anti-Virus software….in case it's online enabled..