On a slightly less sarcastic note - engine control software is pretty common now. Many also have proprietary GPS and entertainment systems built in, and some cars now even have stuff that interacts with android, allowing it to talk to some of the cars systems and function as an external display.
Plus, I reckon there's probably a whole bunch of code in a Tesla.
I think the downvoters are missing my point. By definition, firmware is read-only software, so I was asking sure what (potentially modifiable) software the EFF is referring to.
I'm not saying it's not, I haven't even looked up a definition, but I do know I've written firmware update code before... I think the way the term gets used is probably a little blurry...
My car, for instance, is a bit old. It has some sort of ARM device in it running a proprietary GPS system. There is an update mechanism that can be triggered when you put a new DVD full of map data into the drive in the trunk. This updates the stuff that runs the ICE as well as the GPS. I would be very concerned if it had anything to do with engine-control I suppose.
Maybe I'm being myopic as far as the definition of firmware. I've never heard of a firmware update for a car, but if it's not happening already, it'll probably be part of the regularly scheduled maintenance in the future.
The term "firmware" originally referred to code that ran from nonvolatile memory, such as EPROMs. Originally these devices weren't electrically reprogrammable; you had to pull them off of the board, erase them with UV light, and burn your new code and data onto the chip with specialized equipment. Firmware was also commonly shipped on mask-programmed ROM chips that were cheaper than EPROMs but that couldn't be reprogrammed at all.
Essentially nothing like that is used anymore. Almost every programmable part is reprogrammable in-system unless someone takes extraordinary measures to prevent it from happening. That means that there is no longer any real distinction between "firmware" and "software," and there is no such thing as "read-only software," as you put it earlier. There is only "software" and "locked software."
This thread is all about who should own the keys to the lock.
