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That's a very narrow definition of tech companies. I wouldn't be surprised if VW, BMW and Daimler together employ more software engineers than Google or Apple.
by ascar 8y ago
That's a very narrow definition of tech companies. I wouldn't be surprised if VW, BMW and Daimler together employ more software engineers than Google or Apple. Don't forget that modern cars use over a hundred micro-controllers.
- zmb_ 8y agoThat's true, but only indirectly. Since these companies mainly assemble cars from components designed and built by suppliers, the software engineers are working for suppliers like Bosch. If you talk to the tech people from, e.g., BMW, their roles are managing budgets and projects implemented by external partners. This is also why they want self driving to be just another standard function that they can buy from a supplier, while letting the suppliers compete away their margins.
- Matthias247 8y agoThey don’t, and the parent is right that they are no software companies. Cars carry an enormous amount of software, but most of it is contracted and built by tier1 suppliers like Bosch. I worked at one of the mentioned companies and was the only person in my department (of >500 engineers) who had production software run software running inside cars. In the meantime they realized they need to get more into software, but it takes a lot of time to change course for tankers.
- simfoo 8y agoVW (in this case AUDI) founded AID (http://aid-driving.eu/ http://aid-driving.eu/) as a software centric powerhouse to work on autonomous driving for all of VW. They employ lots of software engineers directly (I work there)