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Yes. The infotainment code is rewritten every time. By different devs. Because that is how automotive industry works. This time BMW wants infotainment and a thi

Yes. The infotainment code is rewritten every time. By different devs. Because that is how automotive industry works. This time BMW wants infotainment and a third party wins the contract (because it's the cheapest usually). For the next BMW car another company wins the contract. Everything is rebuilt from scratch. The components that make up the infotainment a lot of times are actually developed by different companies. So navigation is one company, media player another etc. Also, the deadlines usually make no sense and there is zero time for any optimization work. It's not the devs, it's the way the automotive industry works outsourcing every little button on the dash to another (cheapest) company. They just don't understand that that mentality doesn't work with software. Most of them are mechanical engineers not software people.

AlotOfReading 3y ago
I'm currently going through a quote cycle and one of my requirements for the component is a sub 8min boot, which the tier 1/2s are pushing back on as unreasonable. The insanity is real.
- carlmr 3y ago
  8 minutes? What component takes 8 minutes to start?
  - AlotOfReading 3y ago
    That can include booting after an update and self tests, but yes, nothing about the component should take that anywhere near that long. We just needed a number to design the manufacturing workflow and assumed it was a reasonable ceiling. They simply don't want to do the (potential) optimization work as part of their initial contract if they somehow manage to exceed it.
mschuster91 3y ago
For what it's worth, at least in German auto companies it's becoming the norm to demand source code and build tooling, precisely to avoid lock-in and constant reinventing of the wheel.
concordDance 3y ago
> It's not the devs, it's the way the automotive industry works outsourcing every little button on the dash to another (cheapest) company. One thing Tesla did well was inhousing a lot of this.
kgwgk 3y ago
> Because that is how automotive industry works. This time BMW wants infotainment and a third party wins the contract (because it's the cheapest usually). For the next BMW car another company wins the contract. Everything is rebuilt from scratch. Yeah, that's how the automotive industry works. For each car BMW will change the third parties manufacturing each piece and every model is completely rebuilt from scratch. They literally reinvent the wheels all the time. You shoudn't read too much into the fact that you have a dozen or two of models listed under each version in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_iDrive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_iDrive because it's just a concidence that starting each time from scratch they arrived at the same thing.
- the_overseer 3y ago
  I've never understood why that is happening. Are they trying to make sure there is no knowledge accumulation at a single tier 1 supplier? Kind of make sure nobody can create a competing product and just sell it to different OEMs?
  - hyperhopper 3y ago
    The poster you replied to was being sarcastic
    - the_overseer 3y ago
      I actually know for a fact that a new iDrive version was reimplemented from scratch even though it was just an upgrade from the previous version and there would have been enough code to reuse. Maybe he was sarcastic but this actually happens a lot.
      - kgwgk 3y ago
        Do you also know for a fact that each version of iDrive has been reimplemented from scratch twenty or thirty times - once for each car model?
itsoktocry 3y ago
>Most of them are mechanical engineers not software people Ah yes, the trillion dollar industry (that's been writing software in many forms for decades) just doesn't have people that understand software. Meanwhile, you have the "software" people at, say, Tesla, who has the worst driving interface of all and the iPads were melting out of the dash in the summer time. But at least the latency was low!
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Of those two, I would far prefer to use a Tesla UI than any of the other 'infotainment' systems... Slightly yellowing screen I can deal with. Lag on every button press, and random crashes I cannot.

AlotOfReading 3y ago

I'm currently going through a quote cycle and one of my requirements for the component is a sub 8min boot, which the tier 1/2s are pushing back on as unreasonable. The insanity is real.

carlmr 3y ago
8 minutes? What component takes 8 minutes to start?
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  That can include booting after an update and self tests, but yes, nothing about the component should take that anywhere near that long. We just needed a number to design the manufacturing workflow and assumed it was a reasonable ceiling. They simply don't want to do the (potential) optimization work as part of their initial contract if they somehow manage to exceed it.

mschuster91 3y ago

For what it's worth, at least in German auto companies it's becoming the norm to demand source code and build tooling, precisely to avoid lock-in and constant reinventing of the wheel.

concordDance 3y ago

> It's not the devs, it's the way the automotive industry works outsourcing every little button on the dash to another (cheapest) company. One thing Tesla did well was inhousing a lot of this.

kgwgk 3y ago

> Because that is how automotive industry works. This time BMW wants infotainment and a third party wins the contract (because it's the cheapest usually). For the next BMW car another company wins the contract. Everything is rebuilt from scratch. Yeah, that's how the automotive industry works. For each car BMW will change the third parties manufacturing each piece and every model is completely rebuilt from scratch. They literally reinvent the wheels all the time. You shoudn't read too much into the fact that you have a dozen or two of models listed under each version in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_iDrive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_iDrive because it's just a concidence that starting each time from scratch they arrived at the same thing.

the_overseer 3y ago
I've never understood why that is happening. Are they trying to make sure there is no knowledge accumulation at a single tier 1 supplier? Kind of make sure nobody can create a competing product and just sell it to different OEMs?
- hyperhopper 3y ago
  The poster you replied to was being sarcastic
  - the_overseer 3y ago
    I actually know for a fact that a new iDrive version was reimplemented from scratch even though it was just an upgrade from the previous version and there would have been enough code to reuse. Maybe he was sarcastic but this actually happens a lot.
    - kgwgk 3y ago
      Do you also know for a fact that each version of iDrive has been reimplemented from scratch twenty or thirty times - once for each car model?

itsoktocry 3y ago

>Most of them are mechanical engineers not software people Ah yes, the trillion dollar industry (that's been writing software in many forms for decades) just doesn't have people that understand software. Meanwhile, you have the "software" people at, say, Tesla, who has the worst driving interface of all and the iPads were melting out of the dash in the summer time. But at least the latency was low!

londons_explore 3y ago
Of those two, I would far prefer to use a Tesla UI than any of the other 'infotainment' systems... Slightly yellowing screen I can deal with. Lag on every button press, and random crashes I cannot.