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Worth noting a year ago VW AG CEO Herbert Diess was let go: https://dailykanban.com/2022/07/24/volkswagens-hallwayradio-on-the-diessmissal/ https://dailykanban.

Worth noting a year ago VW AG CEO Herbert Diess was let go: https://dailykanban.com/2022/07/24/volkswagens-hallwayradio-on-the-diessmissal/ https://dailykanban.com/2022/07/24/volkswagens-hallwayradio-... Some further opinions from last year: https://twitter.com/BertelSchmitt/status/1550859623670095879 https://twitter.com/BertelSchmitt/status/1550859623670095879 And another tweet I remember about cariad and rumors around it: https://twitter.com/itskyleconner/status/1549432590553288706 https://twitter.com/itskyleconner/status/1549432590553288706

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
IMHO, as someone who worked in the German auto and semi industry, from my outside perspective, the main reason VW spun off Cariad to give it more independence form the crusty old mothership hoping this would lead to more innovations not possible within an org as big and as old as VW, and then they fucked it all up by putting the same crusty execs from the auto industry in charge at Cariad SW and it lead to the same dumpster fire as if it were part of VW group anyway, and then everyone was shocked things didn't work out the way they hoped. It's a mistake I keep seeing repeated in many big German SW companies: put in charge some old geezer from traditional industry who has a PhD from a well known German uni, who hasn't wrote any code in over 20 years, and has a top-down approach to SW dev like his team was designing car engines in the '80's. Then realize things aren't working out, give him a golden parachute and hire another overpaid crusty guy just like him but from another big company to shake up the org and ultimately achieve the same "results". Rinse and repeat. The problem is with German corporate leadership mentality which is highly traditional and therefore strictly top-down and nobody at the top is up to date on the shit-show the SW devs are dealing with in the trenches, nor do they care to address this. It's a tragedy of the commons.
- raverbashing 3y ago
  This sounds like a very solid bet to me as well
- imtringued 3y ago
  This reminds me of how practically all BaFin license requirements have this personnel requirement i.e. management must have three years of academic experience and three years practical experience. In other words, the only people who get to start a new payment service provider (PSP) must have already worked in management at an existing PSP, essentially pulling up the ladder.
- yc-kraln 3y ago
  This, but SAFe
- esel2k 3y ago
  As someone working in German big companies this is EXACTLY how things are being done, and 10 years later we are still doing things the same and fighting the same old problems (like having 17 different versions of the same software on customers installation).
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
"5. Rockstar coders want to work at Google" Ehhhh, I think they want to be PAID and PAMPERED like they work at Google. That's certainly not typical of Europe, automotive, or embedded hardware. Hey, anyone know how Tesla pays its software devs (outside of self-driving)? I love how this is buried as the fifth point (and actually, isn't even the fifth point). You want good software and software devs? Yeah, uh, hire and pay good people. Time number one billion that some failed enterprise is discussed at the leadership level and everyone pretends that paying good people wouldn't have helped. Instead, it's "management issues", aka the money you paid to execs that's the problem, not the people you know ACTUALLY MAKING YOUR FUCKING SOFTWARE. IF you are a company with a CRITICAL software deficit, then I hate to tell you this, you probably need to spend money on good developers. Experienced, good developers. Spinning off a new company under different management? That's deck chair rearranging. Actually, spinning off the software, which the parent company views as an annoying expense / cost and not a feature of quality or something that will close sales or build customer loyalty (which is HUGE in automotive) was a terrible idea, unless there was a fully top leadership endorsed billion dollar blank check to get it off the ground. Which of course, even without knowing, I know there wasn't buy-in. Old car companies don't respect software. Name me one, just one, that provides software visibility of OBD-2 codes without having to buy some stupid OBD port that communicates with a smartphone? That provides techie metrics dashboards for fuel use, rpms, etc? I mean, the DATA IS ON THE CAR'S INTERNAL NETWORK. That's why the OBD reader can read it. Hate on Tesla and Elon all you want, but he fostered a company that had at least decent value in software. And I'm not even saying Tesla had GOOD software. It just has "OK" software, which is WAY better than any other company by a wide wide wide margin.
- rad_gruchalski 3y ago
  > IF you are a company with a CRITICAL software deficit, then I hate to tell you this, you probably need to spend money on good developers. Experienced, good developers. I can assure you that VW has great developers. But developers only develop, there’s a whole layer of people who decide what and how it is developed.

ChuckNorris89 3y ago

IMHO, as someone who worked in the German auto and semi industry, from my outside perspective, the main reason VW spun off Cariad to give it more independence form the crusty old mothership hoping this would lead to more innovations not possible within an org as big and as old as VW, and then they fucked it all up by putting the same crusty execs from the auto industry in charge at Cariad SW and it lead to the same dumpster fire as if it were part of VW group anyway, and then everyone was shocked things didn't work out the way they hoped. It's a mistake I keep seeing repeated in many big German SW companies: put in charge some old geezer from traditional industry who has a PhD from a well known German uni, who hasn't wrote any code in over 20 years, and has a top-down approach to SW dev like his team was designing car engines in the '80's. Then realize things aren't working out, give him a golden parachute and hire another overpaid crusty guy just like him but from another big company to shake up the org and ultimately achieve the same "results". Rinse and repeat. The problem is with German corporate leadership mentality which is highly traditional and therefore strictly top-down and nobody at the top is up to date on the shit-show the SW devs are dealing with in the trenches, nor do they care to address this. It's a tragedy of the commons.

raverbashing 3y ago
This sounds like a very solid bet to me as well
imtringued 3y ago
This reminds me of how practically all BaFin license requirements have this personnel requirement i.e. management must have three years of academic experience and three years practical experience. In other words, the only people who get to start a new payment service provider (PSP) must have already worked in management at an existing PSP, essentially pulling up the ladder.
yc-kraln 3y ago
This, but SAFe
esel2k 3y ago
As someone working in German big companies this is EXACTLY how things are being done, and 10 years later we are still doing things the same and fighting the same old problems (like having 17 different versions of the same software on customers installation).

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

"5. Rockstar coders want to work at Google" Ehhhh, I think they want to be PAID and PAMPERED like they work at Google. That's certainly not typical of Europe, automotive, or embedded hardware. Hey, anyone know how Tesla pays its software devs (outside of self-driving)? I love how this is buried as the fifth point (and actually, isn't even the fifth point). You want good software and software devs? Yeah, uh, hire and pay good people. Time number one billion that some failed enterprise is discussed at the leadership level and everyone pretends that paying good people wouldn't have helped. Instead, it's "management issues", aka the money you paid to execs that's the problem, not the people you know ACTUALLY MAKING YOUR FUCKING SOFTWARE. IF you are a company with a CRITICAL software deficit, then I hate to tell you this, you probably need to spend money on good developers. Experienced, good developers. Spinning off a new company under different management? That's deck chair rearranging. Actually, spinning off the software, which the parent company views as an annoying expense / cost and not a feature of quality or something that will close sales or build customer loyalty (which is HUGE in automotive) was a terrible idea, unless there was a fully top leadership endorsed billion dollar blank check to get it off the ground. Which of course, even without knowing, I know there wasn't buy-in. Old car companies don't respect software. Name me one, just one, that provides software visibility of OBD-2 codes without having to buy some stupid OBD port that communicates with a smartphone? That provides techie metrics dashboards for fuel use, rpms, etc? I mean, the DATA IS ON THE CAR'S INTERNAL NETWORK. That's why the OBD reader can read it. Hate on Tesla and Elon all you want, but he fostered a company that had at least decent value in software. And I'm not even saying Tesla had GOOD software. It just has "OK" software, which is WAY better than any other company by a wide wide wide margin.

rad_gruchalski 3y ago
> IF you are a company with a CRITICAL software deficit, then I hate to tell you this, you probably need to spend money on good developers. Experienced, good developers. I can assure you that VW has great developers. But developers only develop, there’s a whole layer of people who decide what and how it is developed.