I wouldn't. Why buy a quasi-race car when you can buy a real race car?

I'm about 99% certain that this wasn't implemented via "OBD-II", as there isn't a requirement for SAE J1979/J2012 on bikes. This was probably implemented by "stubbing" into the CAN backbone, and spending some time with a bus traffic monitor to determine via inspection how the signals were encoded into the messages.…

Automotive fiction that I (don't really) wish were real? That software was easy and free. It's not.

I did a little amateur motorcycle racing when I left the Navy, and I received a left occipital basal skull fracture (among other, less debilitating injuries) in a big high-side. I had a great job, with what I thought was great insurance. That turned out to be inaccurate, as I had to fight for two years to get my…

The "80's ability to communicate a code" was, more often than not, ASCII characters over Motorola (pre-Freescale) SCI (a very basic serial UART port): you sent a one-byte diagnostic request, and an n-byte response was returned. The response was compared to a look-up table, and the result was rasterized. It was, as you…

Makes sense, and thanks...

Having to have the key off and the engine not running is not primarily bandwidth issue: it's what's referred to as a "session restriction". The basic idea is that certain operations, even seemingly innocuous things like reading certain DTCs, are done for safety reasons or, in some cases, just to simplify the ECU's…

Holy crap...that's their tow rig?! I don't know a lot about NASCAR, but don't most teams have semis? This is like a sportsman rig...

Yes they are. The MY2015 Mustang IC has enough processing power and memory space to make this practical, and there was a business case for developing this. Same with several of my personal cars...

You can still get "blinky OBD codes" from many cars, but that isn't what several posters wanted: real-time, plain-language fault information, from more than just the PCM. EPA-legislated diagnostics - what everyone calls "OBD-II", is a tiny subset of the overall diagnostic landscape of a modern car (or truck). What has…

I can only go into so much without violating confidentiality agreements, but OEMs only broadcast telltale indicator (e.g. the infamous MIL) periodically on whatever network they're using, and only transmit diagnostic data when a specific request is made to a specific ECU. This means that the display device must work…

"Require"? Correct. Make economic sense? That's another matter. Lay people always think this is cheap and easy, when the reality is that ever line of code cost development time and takes micro resources (memory and clock cycles) to execute. This is a "big deal" when the fraction of penny cost between two micros can…

This has been discussed a number of times in SAE committees, but the DOT has objections to it based on drivers confusing this with safety-vehicle warning illumination. I'll try to find a citation for this but, believe me, this has been discussed a lot...

The technology is actually present...it's just a matter of economics. High-end cars with premium HMI systems (instrument clusters/driver information centers/telematic center-stacks) have these capabilities right now. The issue is the high-end HMI requires expensive display elements, more powerful micros and more…

This in the works:

Fun conversation...

I completely understand your position, and how you arrived at it. You're an educated and rational consumer, arriving at conclusions based on you the data that you have at hand. I respect that...

I'm an executive for an automotive software supplier, and you can't just hand-wave this issue into the OEM's lap. They try to test them as best they can, and they author very stringent specifications, but they have make do with the devices that customers bring into their cars and they simply can't compel companies…

I agree...the current system actually leverages waste heat, whereas electric heaters create an increased energy demand. Electric heating isn't, when used in a ground vehicle, efficient with energy conversion efficiency typically in the 20-30% range...

Why immediately assume it's the OEMs fault? They don't make their own telematic systems; they buy them from Panasonic, Harman, Continental, etc. But the Tier 1s aren't the problem either, as they generally try to stick as close to the standards as possible for these reasons.