Can anyone tell me what kind of coding language or framework Chevrolet uses for their computer programing? A close friend of mine is a computer programmer and wants to try to figure some things out for me. He just needs to know a few things first. Anyone have an answer?

 

That's kind of like asking "how do you write music?". The way you've phrased it is way too broad.

There's between 20 and 30 different computers and 5 different data networks in this car, dependent on model and trim level. They were built by different suppliers, using different kinds of embedded hardware, and all of them do different things and interact in different ways.

You're going to need to be much more specific regarding what you're trying to do.

 

He wants to try to try to rewrite some settings like with the exhaust valves open and what you see on the dash in some areas. However, I don't know anything about this stuff.

 

That helps a little.

The dash is going to be a problem. The code updates for that are digitally signed. So right off the bat, you've got to figure out how to bypass an incredibly difficult security mechanism in order to write your own changes. I've never disassembled a C7 cluster, so I've got no idea what the main processor is. But I have inspected the software updates, and I've seen the digital signature data. Defeating that is very, very difficult. If not impossible altogether.

The exhaust thing is a little easier, but not much. That's controlled by two modules. The engine controller, and the chassis controller (not to be confused with the body controller). I'm pretty sure HPTuners can edit those values, but you need licenses for both modules. It's pretty expensive if that's the only thing you want to change. As far as writing your own code changes from scratch, you'd need to buy modules and open them up to see what processors they use. That's the easy part. The hard part is disassembling the software, figuring out where the values you want to change are located, and then figuring out how to successfully re-upload the new values to the module without breaking anything.

I've played with this stuff before on much older, simpler cars from the late 90s and early 00's. It was hard even back then. The C7 may as well be an alien artifact by comparison.

 

 

That's the infotainment system. It's got nothing to do with the cluster or anything in the powertrain.