Modern cars have fancy infotainment setups, big screens and all sorts of computers with networked functionality built-in. Part of that fanciness is increasingly often a curl install. curl is a part of the standard GenIVI and Tizen offers for cars and is used in lots of other independent software installs too.
This usually affects my every day very little. Sure I’m thrilled over hundreds of millions of more curl installations in the world but the companies that ship them don’t normally contact me and curl is a really stable product by now so not a lot of them speak up on the issue trackers or mailing lists either (or if they do, they don’t tell us where they come from or what they’re working on).
The main effect is that normal end users find my email address via the curl license text in products in cars to a higher degree. They usually find it in the about window or an open source license listing or similar. Often I suspect my email address is just about the only address listed.
This occasionally makes desperate users who have tried everything to eventually reach out to me. They can’t fix their problem but since my email exists in their car, surely I can!
Here are three of my favorite samples that I saved.
November 13, 2016
Hello sir
I have Avalon 2016
Regarding the audio player, why there delay between audio and video when connect throw Bluetooth and how to fix it.
November 5, 2015
Hello,I am using in a new Ford Mondeo the navigation system with SD Card FM5T-19H449-FC Europe F4.I can read the card but not write on it. I want to add to the card some POI´s. Can you help me to do it?
June 8, 2015
Hello
I have toyota corola with multimedya system that you have its copyright.
I need a advice to know how to use the gps .
Now i cant use or see maps.
And i want to know how to add hebrew leng.
How do I respond?
I’m sad to say that I rarely respond at all. I can’t help them and I’ve learned over the years that just trying to explain how I have nothing to do with the product they’re using is often just too time consuming and energy draining to be worth it. I hope these people found the answers to the problems via other means.
The hacker news discussions on this post took off. I just want to emphasize that this post is not a complaint. I’m not whining over this. I’m just showing some interesting side-effects of my email in the license text. I actually find these emails interesting, sometimes charming and they help me connect to the reality many people experience out there.