List of Open Source Licences in Mercedes Cars [pdf]

http://www4.mercedes-benz.com/manual-cars/ba/foss/content/en/assets/FOSS_licences.pdf

by Xylakant • 13 years ago

82 59 13 years ago

www4.mercedes-benz.com

patrickg2• 13 years ago

Meta-question: what does [scribd] mean in the title?

homeomorphic2• 13 years ago

It's a link to a scribd version of the PDF. Try clicking.

patrickg2• 13 years ago

Duh! Thanks.

Xylakant5• 13 years ago

It's auto-added for pdfs by HN and links to the scribd mirror of the same document.

apostlion• 13 years ago

Just to clarify – there are 108 distinct licenses used. So apart from Apache, BSD, GPL v2, GPL v3, LGPL, there are 103 _different_ license terms used.

IP law, as currently used, is something really overcomplicated.

Xylakant5• 13 years ago

The other interesting takeaway is that obviously open source is widely used in embedded systems such as cars. 108 distinct licenses means that they're using at least as many libraries/projects, likely many many more that fall under the big ones.

teh• 13 years ago

I would be interested to see how many contracts and licences they have for their other technology. OS Software licences are just particularly visible.

the_mitsuhiko• 13 years ago

GPL v3

There is no [AL]?GPLv3 in those cars, it would be impossible to comply with the license terms.

leoedin• 13 years ago

Surely the device could contain GPLv3 software which isn't statically linked, or which is simply running on the computer. A lot of these devices use Linux, and may include GPLv3 utilities.

belorn4• 13 years ago

Why would it be impossible to comply with GPLv3, and allow people to change or replace one program with a new one?

US car manufacturers are legally forced to provide documentation so car owners can repair their car and replace parts. If a car owner want to change or replace the car's breaks, they are legally allowed to do so. Why should it matter that the software that then controls the break is made of 1 and 0 and not of steel and plastic?

Do we really need a Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair software Act? Do we need one more law that says "we got that one previous act, lets copy paste that one and add the word "software" to it".

davidw• 13 years ago

There are really only a few broad categories of OS licenses, so in this case it's the fault of the programmers for the proliferation of licenses.

stickydink• 13 years ago

Has anyone driven an S-Class? It has almost every one on that list. What's it got in there that the others don't?

Xylakant5• 13 years ago

Most interesting: Why libpcap, strace and netcat? Also: gcc in a car?

dagw• 13 years ago

libpcap can sniff Bluetooth and the S-class has Bluetooth?

Otherwise I'm guessing it's probably all just part of their standard tool chain and someone said "give me a list of all open source software you used while developing the software for the S-class".

homeomorphic2• 13 years ago

Someone else suggested that they're probably used by diagnostic tools.

train_robber• 13 years ago

All that would be used for on-board diagnostics for the different electronic control units.

czr80• 13 years ago

The S-class is famously the test bed for new technologies - they start at the high end and then slowly migrate downrange.

chiph• 13 years ago

S-class owners are also known as "beta testers" ;)

tobyjsullivan• 13 years ago

I notice there's a license in there for Android which is only used on the S-Class. I'm guessing most of those licenses on this model are a derivative of it's use.

LeonM• 13 years ago

Although optional, the S-class features tablet-like computers (with a browser and internet connection) for the rear-seated passengers. They also feature google maps navigation in the front and back.

The 2014 model has even more of these options, see: http://www.slashgear.com/2014-mercedes-s-class-revealed-and-...

pyalot2• 13 years ago

Weirdly this is simultaneously pretty cool (yay, open source makes an impact, take that Ballmer) and quite horrible (license jungle anyone?).

sjwright2• 13 years ago

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, and probably not worthy of promotion on Hacker News. Consider the counterfactual: if Merc hadn't used these open source libraries, they would have had to roll their own implementations of PNG, ZIP, an XML parser... now that would be a story!

Similar hilariously long lists can be found on many web-connected devices, from BMWs to iPhones.

(Pages 3 to 6 are the interesting ones though -- it shows that a majority of these libraries/codebases apply to the brand new S-Class. And the most noteworthy inclusion is AOSP, i.e. Android.)

Xylakant5• 13 years ago

I'm not surprised they use OS. Some of the libraries come as a surprise to me:

* gcc * libpcap * strace * netcat

I also found it slightly amusing that liboil is used in a car (and is completely unrelated to "oil")

sjwright2• 13 years ago

My guess is it's a lot easier to add a bunch of licenses into the documentation than it is to exclude diagnostic tools from production builds.

tobithiel2• 13 years ago

These are mostly used for diagnosing/debugging the newer head units. They rely on BT and standard networking. GCC is pretty standard for any embedded device, I would say.

adrianb• 13 years ago

Entertainment and navigation systems in cars use Android lately. They normally use the base operating system and APIs while the UI is always heavily customized, so you might not recognize it, but it's of course very convenient instead of developing a full OS for your cars.

__alexs2• 13 years ago

Are drivers of the S-Class bound by the terms of the JSON license and so better be careful not to do anything Evil lest they anger Crockford?

snippyhollow• 13 years ago

Only if the car was built after august of this year (page 5). We'll see a lot of good being done soon! ;-)

yitchelle• 13 years ago

A snippet from the SQLite license...I wonder how the driver will comply to this one....

May you do good and not evil.

May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.

May you share freely, never taking more than you give

lucian1900• 13 years ago

SQLite is public domain, that snippet is just a README.

rajeemcariazo• 13 years ago

This line has caught my attention "If you are affiliated in any way with Microsoft Network, get a life" under Netcat License

plaes• 13 years ago

So, do they also provide downloads of source code and the modifications?

merijnv• 13 years ago

I don't think they provide downloads, but the document includes an offer to obtain the source:

Components of the software used in the vehicle may be free and open source software licensed under the terms of license of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 (GPLv2), GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 2.1 (LGPLv2.1) or GNU Library General Public License, Version 2 (LGPLv2). Upon request, we will supply the source code of the components licensed under the GPLv2, LGPL v2.1 and LGPLv2 on a data-medium (please specify the designation of your vehicle). Please direct your request to the following address within three years after vehicle delivery:

Daimler AG, HPC: CAC, Customer Service, D-70546 Stuttgart

The copyright holders usually do not provide any warranty and assume no liability whatsoever for the free and open source software components. Note that any modificati- on to the vehicle of any kind can void any warranty claim.

blumentopf• 13 years ago

Further ways to contact the Customer Assistance Center (not in the PDF):

phone: 00800 1 777 7777

e-mail: cs.deutschland@cac.mercedes-benz.com

femto• 13 years ago

A cursory search of the net returns the license pdf, but no source code, list of source code used or offer of source. Is this the sort of thing that comes with the actual car?

Edit: My bad. The offer is in the pdf. Anyone actually looked at the provided disk? What's on it?

robmcm• 13 years ago

Interesting to see GTween in there, HTML animation lib simular to the AS3 API used in the S-Class. So I guess the dash must have some browser in it. Seems inefficient for something I imagine has a finite scope, such as open a car door animation, or tween the temperate bar etc.

olalonde• 13 years ago

NetFront (not China) NF Browser (only China)

Anyone has a clue what is the difference between those and what it has to do with China? The license terms are exactly the same except for the name of the software. Also, NF Browser redirects to NetFront on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NF_Browser&redire...).

binarymax• 13 years ago

How long before cars are zero-day susceptible to remote wireless hacks that can endanger lives of the passengers?

I have seen conspiracy theories about acceleration and brakes being tampered with, but those allude to the tampering while the car was stationary.

When a vehicle has so much code in it, control systems are fly-by-wire, and there is bluetooth and wifi access, it is not a stretch to imagine a malicious entity driving on the highway and taking over nearby vehicles.

adisbladis• 13 years ago

I would guess the control systems and entertainment/navigation systems are separated for that very reason.

dominicgs2• 13 years ago

They probably are completely separate, but the use of wireless protocols is not necessarily confined to the entertainment system. For example, wireless tyre pressure/temperature sensors are installed in many cars and can be read with SDR hardware[1]. It's not too much of a leap to assume that false readings could be injected.

[1] http://sandiego.toorcon.net/2013/10/07/dude-wheres-my-car-re...

mcculley• 13 years ago

They are not that separated. Some modern cars have the entertainment system take note of the speed of the engine and adjust the volume accordingly. Some flip the infotainment display to a backup camera when the transmission is indicated to be in reverse.

This is in addition to some cars adjusting the side mirrors when in reverse. I remember reading of an exploit that took advantage of the fact that the security system was on the same network in a particular car and thieves were able to crack off a side mirror and inject an "unlock" command. Does anybody have a reference for that?

__alexs2• 13 years ago

Minus many days? http://grahamcluley.com/2013/07/car-hacking-video/

scott_karana• 13 years ago

Yeah, when I saw OpenSSH in the list, that was my first impression too.

I wonder how many backdoor authorized keys they have installed? :(

meshko• 13 years ago

I got a little worried when I saw msdos_fsck in the list but then I remembered that I don't own a Mercedes and calmed down.

microcolonel• 13 years ago

That's for FAT filesystems... i.e. SD cards and the like.

powertower• 13 years ago

The crypto stuff is handled by these guys - http://www.bouncycastle.org/

I was originally looking at their library to help me programmatically generate self-signed certificates via C# (that are Apache / openssl / mod_ssl compatible), but ended up trying to use some native interop code and Windows crypto-api, and could only get it 80% of the way, so I gave up and moved on.

List of Open Source Licences in Mercedes Cars [pdf]

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