this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2024
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Modern cars have MASSIVE digital displays, loads of computers systems monitoring every subsystem and internal diagnostics running to the OBDII ports.

Why the hell can't we get diagnostic feeds on our console or infotainment center?

I'm not aware of any car manufacturers selling their own diagnostic ASICs, so it's not an extra margin to squeeze afaik...

What gives? Any insight into this beyond the usual muh corporate profits conjecture?

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Who is going to look at that stuff apart from technicians? Most users have no clue how the functionality of their vehicle is achieved and they don't care.

For argument's sake, let's assume there is a userbase for this type of information. It would be possible to show diagnostic information like DTC or run DID routines from the dashboard but this is already possible from any cheap offboard tester, via a phone app or laptop.

The reality is that even if an OEM wanted to provide detailed diagnostic information, they don't know it either because the information isn't disclosed by their supply chain. Companies such as Bosch, who supply brake ECU, are extremely tight lipped about their intellectual property. When something goes wrong we use a special development version of the ECU to record the associated software variables during the fault and present that as evidence but we don't have access to the source code.

Modern products are not designed to be repaired. They want us to continually buy new shit. Basically anything with software in it is an absolute nightmare to maintain. It makes me depressed just thinking about what a clusterfuck this landscape is.

Source: control system engineer for a large OEM.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

I mean, I don't think they're taking about a full diagnostic. Just the code associated with a CEL.
It'd be nice if you could read the code from the dashboard or infotainment without digging out a code reader.
And it'd be even better if they had human readable descriptions for those codes, especially for OEM specific codes.

For most people, a CEL is all you really need. But sometimes and for some people, just telling them the problem would be super helpful.
For example, a loose gas cap is a CEL. Save people $100 at the mechanic if it was just like "check that your gas cap is tight"

[–] recreationalcatheter@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Who is going to look at that stuff apart from technicians?

Anyone who owns expensive equipment and is serious about true ownership including all possible maintenance and repairs. Hi, I'm the guy who would be looking at it if it was visible without shitty dongles or 5-figure ASICs.

Tell your employer they could have share prices doing numbers if they did the slightest bit of QOL improvements for anyone remotely like me.

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 1 points 3 hours ago

Hell cars have flash codes. I used to have a Holden commodore bridge out two pins in the obd connector and it would flash codes on the check engine light.

I'm sure cars can still achieve this easily enough.

But again useless information to the masses. I'm a crane technician and used to work for a large OEM and even we we pulled DTC codes down often they were little to no help