Companies generally don't want you in the software for safety reasons. While true there is intellectual property around the guidance and swath generating algorithms, companies hate lawsuits. Lawsuits tie up resources, can cause stop shipments, generally lost profits, and tarnish the brand. Look at the Chrysler Jeep news...
You hack or change software on a vehicle and cause the auto-guidance to run over and kill someone or you circumvent a safety check in software unbeknownst to you due to your software changes and a spinny sharp thing that should have stopped doesn't and hurts or mames you or calibration changes cause engine to to over-heat and burn up and generally the company is held responsible for it.
As much time is spent testing software as is writing software. All our testing is there to make sure the software works as expected. Millions are spent on test equipment and millions of hours and man hours are spent making sure software works as expected.
I happen to work for a major agricultural company and I'm a lead software architect for their guidance + autonomous vehicles + precision farming embedded devices. We are one of John Deere's major competitors.
You hack or change software on a vehicle and cause the auto-guidance to run over and kill someone or you circumvent a safety check in software unbeknownst to you due to your software changes and a spinny sharp thing that should have stopped doesn't and hurts or mames you or calibration changes cause engine to to over-heat and burn up and generally the company is held responsible for it.
As much time is spent testing software as is writing software. All our testing is there to make sure the software works as expected. Millions are spent on test equipment and millions of hours and man hours are spent making sure software works as expected.
I happen to work for a major agricultural company and I'm a lead software architect for their guidance + autonomous vehicles + precision farming embedded devices. We are one of John Deere's major competitors.