As a web/game developer, one thing I never understood is the alleged complexity of these control systems. There is no image/voice recognition, no graphics engine, no rocket science. What are they even doing? Or is it all a big lie?
Lines of code, from the internet[1]:
Pacemaker: 100k
Boeing 787: 5M
Chevy Volt: 10M
Modern car: 100M
Yep, exactly right. The hardware is capable, but the software hasn't been created. Just like the original link - the hardware will (probably) provide enough input data to allow software to do all these cool things, but it's not been done yet and production code is a very long way from what is outlined.
The regulators are actually quite sophisticated and have many undocumented registers that set how things like the communications with the processor work, nonlinear control algorithms, etc.
Can confirm they do. I worked at a company that was producing control systems for electric engines. Great environment and fun job but the code was beyond redemption. 15k line files with 2k+ lines #ifdef statements that ran different code for different customers, some variable names were just curses against pushy clients, not a single abstraction in sight.
Not only they exist, they power massive machines that could crush a person in the blink of an eye.
I doubt, and rightfully so anyway. It's a full system, you need to operate it, not to dissect and build upon. Same like your car on-board computer, you don't have access to its source code, you only need how to steer the car on your way to work and back.
The entire point of the article is that it's way harder to stop the proliferation of software than hardware. Once you're back in the hardware space traditional controls work just fine (or, at least, as well as they ever worked).
Lines of code, from the internet[1]: Pacemaker: 100k Boeing 787: 5M Chevy Volt: 10M Modern car: 100M
[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/millions-lines-of-code/
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