[brian]

I figured it was a good idea to start a new thread for this since there's going to be a lot of this as everyone gets their cars.

My question for the day is this:

Has anyone figured out how to change the volume of the voice of the Nav Lady? She appears to be tied to the stereo volume, but if you're listening to the radio at normal volume then the Nav lady volume is just a whisper. In order to hear her at all you have to crank the radio volume way, way up. Then, when she needs to say something, the radio goes silent and you hear her at an acceptable volume. Then the radio returns to the ear-bleeding volume it was at. Surely there is a way to set the Nav lady's volume? Anyone found it?

-Brian

 

[Dutch]

Might the answer to that question be software version 6.11? Or does your car already have that update?

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Brian,

On my MB COMAND system you adjust the nav lady's volume using the same controls as the stereo volume, but you can only adjust it while she's actually speaking. That way you can configure her volume indepenent of the stereo volume. No idea if it works that way on the Fisker, but you might experiment with *when* you fiddle with the knobs.

I assume this isn't covered in the Touch Screen User's Manual?

BTW, I'm sure you're read everything through by now. Any interesting discoveries in any of the documentation outside of the Owner's Manual?

 

[brian]

The owners manuals are leaflets brochures at best. They don't have any details on anything. I guess they're waiting on a more detailed manual for when the software gets out of beta. The Nav System manual for my Lexus is 2x as thick as all of the manuals for the Fisker combined.

Another question: There's a setting on the interior lighting screen called "Parade", but the docs saying nothing about what that is. The only other options are to select the interior lighting brightness 1 thru 10. Touching the Parade button appears to do nothing that I can tell. Any ideas?

-Brian[hr]

On my MB COMAND system you adjust the nav lady's volume using the same controls as the stereo volume, but you can only adjust it while she's actually speaking. That way you can configure her volume indepenent of the stereo volume. No idea if it works that way on the Fisker, but you might experiment with *when* you fiddle with the knobs.

I just tried your suggestion of changing the volume when she's talking... no luck. It just changes the global stereo volume so the music blasts me when she's done talking.

-Brian

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Another question: There's a setting on the interior lighting screen called "Parade", but the docs saying nothing about what that is. The only other options are to select the interior lighting brightness 1 thru 10. Touching the Parade button appears to do nothing that I can tell. Any ideas?

Per the power of Google (regarding a different vehicle):
Parade Mode allows you to turn on your headlights or parking lights while keeping your radio display, overhead console display, and vehicle information display fully lit (unlike when your headlights are on at night)

Sorry the nav lady volume method didn't work. One of the (few) things I like about the MB COMAND nav system is the ability to adjust her volume or mute her until I want to hear from her again. (I know how to get out of my own neighborhood, thank you...)

 

[Fabulist]

It is not Windows, and it is Open Source

Many of us assumed that Fisker's infotainment system is running on Windows based on this error message Brian posted.

Turns out that we were wrong. Visteon makes the infotainment for Fisker and they claim that the system is based on the "Visteon's advanced infotainment platform" This platform, according to Visteon is developed "using open architecture and open source software to GENIVI standards." GENIVI claims to be "a non-profit industry alliance committed to driving the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open-source development platform." According to GENIVI's FAQ, "The GENIVI open-source platform consists of Linux-based core services, middleware and open application layer interfaces."

Yes, I know that Visteon is providing the user applications such as NAV, but at least the system core is Linux-based and the APIs are open so if someone wanted to develop their own custom Apps, they can interface to the system.

So we can't beat up on Fisker for using Windows, just for releasing buggy and unreliable Linux-based software.

-- Fab.

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Thanks Fab.

I was going to comment that it wasn't Windows, but a Linux-core OS using a Windows-like presentation layer, but I was too lazy to explain what all that meant or how I could tell Your answer is perfect.

The subtle but important aspect is that since there is or could be an exposed API, it's theoretically possible for third party developers to alter the current behavior or introduce new functionality.

Brent

 

[ct-fiskerbuzz]

RE: It is not Windows, and it is Open Source

... This platform, according to Visteon is developed "using open architecture and open source software to GENIVI standards." GENIVI claims to be "a non-profit industry alliance committed to driving the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open-source development platform."

Oh, good! GENIVI is just a "base", so this would be Visteon's own system (or perhaps whatever they have bought from someone else), but at least it's not WinCE.

 

[kabalah70]

If my experience with the military is applicable, having people design middleware always leads to bugs. It is better, IMHO, to have one company design the entire interface. Perhaps, the fact that it is open-source will make this less of a problem as I believe much of the issue with the military is that the middleware designers have to work interfaces between proprietary applications.

 

[brian]

Something interesting that I've observed is that when the battery level meter indicates 1/4 full the electric range readout says it's about empty (1-3 miles left) which in reality it should have around 13 miles remaining. Is this because the battery always maintains a 25% charge, and the IC kicks in around 25% then to maintain it? It's a little confusing because when I see that battery meter I assume I've got plenty of charge left, but then realize I'm about to kick into gas mode.

-Brian

 

[Fabulist]

I thought the reserve battery charge was more like 15%, not 25% (can't find a reference one way or another, so I may be remembering it incorrectly). Either way, it does not make a whole lot of sense for the SOC display to include the reserve amount you cannot use. It would make more sense for the SOC to show whatever amount you actually can use as 100%. After all, gas gauges show "E" when all the usable fuel is gone, even if there is still a couple of gallons of unusable fuel left in the bottom of the tank.

-- Fab.

 

[brian]

Agreed. Another interesting thing I've noticed every morning is that the car starts saying it has 50 miles of range. By the time I get out of my neighborhood (about 1 mile) it's down to 45 miles. After that it seems to drop as you'd expect. I wonder if the cold battery drains faster for the first 5 minutes until it warms up. Most lithium ion batteries drain much quicker when they're cold, but my garage is still in the 50's, so it's not freezing in there or anything.

When I picked the car up at the dealership the car was charging inside where it's warm and I didn't see this immediate drop in range when I drove off. I guess I won't know until summer when it warms back up around here.

-Brian

 

[Fabulist]

Agreed. Another interesting thing I've noticed every morning is that the car starts saying it has 50 miles of range. By the time I get out of my neighborhood (about 1 mile) it's down to 45 miles.

Probably has nothing to do with the fact that you drive out of your neighborhood at 90 MPH.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4WrUwOP6aY[/video]


-- Fab.

 

[kabalah70]

I am sure it use so sort of algorithm as well rather than being a simple numeric representation of the SOC. as for the Battery indiciator showing the full SOC, that may be for future updates, that would allow you to tap the full battery charge in a limp home mode, which would then see the battery meter reach zero, potentially.

 

[Deep Ocean]

Fab - tell us you had the video on fast forward! That was smokin fast. Neighborhood looks like ours, with a big dirt lot at the end of the road. I'm just glad you didn't pile into that outhouse at the end of the road.

 

[brian]

So, the latest crash occurred just a short while ago as I was driving home. This time I had my iPhone plugged in and playing music, and the Command Center was on the Power Flow screen. All of a sudden the music stopped. I looked down and noticed that the Command Center was totally frozen and completely non-responsive.

When I got to a stoplight I put the car in park and turned it off and back on. This had no effect as the Command Center did not reboot. However, it did have the undesirable effect of changing the AC to the heater - it got quite hot in there!

Then at the next stoplight I tried to restart it again, but same effect. No reboot, but this time it changed the heater back to the AC (phew!). When I got home I let it sit for 10 minutes and then I came back and it rebooted ok.

Good times!

-Brian

 

[Fabulist]

So, the latest crash occurred just a short while ago as I was driving home. This time I had my iPhone plugged in and playing music, and the Command Center was on the Power Flow screen. All of a sudden the music stopped. I looked down and noticed that the Command Center was totally frozen and completely non-responsive.

We need to find out if there is a "safe mode" boot option (foot on brake, left turn signal on and honking the horn while you start the car, for example), or they could just fix the software.

-- Fab.

 

[brian]

I'm just flabbergasted at how unstable this software is. I mean I've been a software developer for almost 30 years, and I've never seen anything released (even Windows 95) that's this buggy. And this is not rocket science - this kind of UI software stuff is as simple as it gets. There is no other form of functional software that's more basic, so it doesn't take a much of a programmer to get it right. I say this in all sincerity: I could have written that whole thing (minus the Nav system) in about 4 weeks, and it would have been rock-solid stable and looked amazing. It would not take 6 seconds for each screen to load, and the interface would be consistent and logical. I would have charged around $20k for the whole thing - art, code, and audio assets included (minus the Nav system again). I have no idea what the guys who developed this thing have been doing for the last 3 years. Incomprehensible.

-Brian

 

[Fabulist]

@Brian: As former software developer I agree. What's worse is that these types of errors are caused mainly by sloppy programming technique (failing to properly initialize variables, failing to do proper bounds checking when writing to memory, mismatched function arguments, etc.) rather then actual errors in designing and implementing specific features. It has all the hallmarks of rushed development. The good news is, that given enough time and crash reports, they will all get fixed but in the meantime, we have to be Fisker's beta testers. Fortunately, there does not seem to be any serious bugs in the software controlling the functionality of the car itself ... yet.

-- Fab.

 

[dennis]

I managed large software development organizations for 25+ years. The other obvious issue is a lack of thorough testing and quality assurance.