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>German companies don't seem to understand the growing importance of software VWAG is now on attempt number two of fixing their Software problems. They tried

>German companies don't seem to understand the growing importance of software VWAG is now on attempt number two of fixing their Software problems. They tried Cariad, the result was your experience. The next attempt is giving billions to Rivian. If you believe that these companies do not understand how important software is you are totally delusional. Literally Billions worth of money have they spent trying to fix that.

hn_acc1 1y ago
Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying when you want to adjust the temperature / fan speed. Yes, I get it - deleting 7 buttons gets you that $1M bonus - but it totally borks the system for the everyday driver, who then becomes less loyal. At this point, there are very, VERY few companies I'm loyal to, because almost none are loyal to me - they'll all give "new users" better deals, and take advantage of any loyalty I have to gouge me and charge me more than a competitor.
- constantcrying 1y ago
  >Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying when you want to adjust the temperature / fan speed. And because all critical people hate physical buttons VWAG all new models and even concept cars now come with physical buttons on the steering wheel and dedicated climate controls outside of the touchscreen? Very weird things going on, where the things which are developed are the exact opposite of what you say the critical decision makers want. Have you actually looked at new VWAG models or their new concept cars? Because this complaint seems to exist purely in your head.
  - ahartmetz 1y ago
    They are reverting to reason as we speak. All car manufacturers fell victim to touchscreen madness for a while, to varying degrees. A certain conservatism may have helped in the case of VW, as it does with overly aggressive styling trends.
  - hn_acc1 1y ago
    Agreed with the other response to you - this "reverting to buttons" is a response to the outcry after they all went towards a tesla-like "everything is controlled via the center console" dystopia. Yes, the VERY NEW VWAG models are thankfully reverting back. That doesn't mean they didn't go the other way first. It's COSTING them $$ to switch back - and they were losing a LOT of buyers over it. If you read any car magazines, people were constantly talking about this. Car makers are finally starting to listen - after several years of failure. Couple a "slow-to-respond" GUI with a "everything is done via the GUI" and it's horrible.
ahartmetz 1y ago
They understand the importance of software, but they do not understand software, and they don't understand and respect the different way of working that you need for software vs hardware. I've heard somebody describe it as "they are using methods that have been known not to work for 20 years".
- constantcrying 1y ago
  >They understand the importance of software, but they do not understand software But they know that. That was the idea behind Cariad. Having a new company, unburdened by what other parts of the company are doing, which is doing just software. Giving them the freedom to do things a different way has always been the intention. What you are describing is not an automotive problem, it is a Europe wide problem. Software Engineers in Europe, in general, are pretty bad, often cling to outdated methodologies and tend to create overly complex and overly useless systems. There are hundreds of examples for this, throughout European industries and governments. "German engineering" has not translated into software at all. Consider also the salaries of European Software Engineers, even in the most wealthy countries, like France and Germany, it averages around 50k to 60k, it is not the highly lucrative career it is (was?) in the US.
  - plqbfbv 1y ago
    > Software Engineers in Europe, in general, are pretty bad > "German engineering" has not translated into software at all. Anecdata: in my 10+ years experience, the worst UX, UI, code and SWEs I've seen, are all German. I'm not saying there's absolutely no good ones here and there, but in general it seems the love for a very complex written/spoken language (riddled with rules and exception) and bureaucracy has translated 100% into software. The interfaces, the code and coding style most of the times give me a 1980s vibe if I'm lucky, or just scare me off altogether in most cases. The code tends to be more complex, abstract, hard to read and comprehend, for no good reason.
    - constantcrying 1y ago
      Many of the things which work well for developing hardware or Mechatronics work terribly for Software. Hardware development is about rigorous processes, any change to a piece of hardware requires a very complex chain of people, as the impact often is hard to predict and will require changes to many other processes, e.g. manufacturing. I do not think this is the entire explanation though. The US Software industry has succeeded because it is very open to rapid changes, which the nature of software allows, given the right environment. >The code tends to be more complex, abstract, hard to read and comprehend, for no good reason. That is exactly the incompetence I am talking about. This gets extremely bad if governments are developing software solutions, where they outsource to a variety of contractors, who all are somewhat incompetent, but together manage to create a real mess. A mess so bad that every user feels the jank.

hn_acc1 1y ago

Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying when you want to adjust the temperature / fan speed. Yes, I get it - deleting 7 buttons gets you that $1M bonus - but it totally borks the system for the everyday driver, who then becomes less loyal. At this point, there are very, VERY few companies I'm loyal to, because almost none are loyal to me - they'll all give "new users" better deals, and take advantage of any loyalty I have to gouge me and charge me more than a competitor.

constantcrying 1y ago
>Sure - they get the trouble reports. But it's almost as if all the critical decision makers don't drive their own cars in real-life scenarios (drive more expensive cars? Have chaffeurs?) and don't understand how much BETTER it is to have a specific button/dial for "fan speed" and a separate one for temperature, instead of trying to control it via a touchscreen that has 100+ different screens it could be displaying when you want to adjust the temperature / fan speed. And because all critical people hate physical buttons VWAG all new models and even concept cars now come with physical buttons on the steering wheel and dedicated climate controls outside of the touchscreen? Very weird things going on, where the things which are developed are the exact opposite of what you say the critical decision makers want. Have you actually looked at new VWAG models or their new concept cars? Because this complaint seems to exist purely in your head.
- ahartmetz 1y ago
  They are reverting to reason as we speak. All car manufacturers fell victim to touchscreen madness for a while, to varying degrees. A certain conservatism may have helped in the case of VW, as it does with overly aggressive styling trends.
- hn_acc1 1y ago
  Agreed with the other response to you - this "reverting to buttons" is a response to the outcry after they all went towards a tesla-like "everything is controlled via the center console" dystopia. Yes, the VERY NEW VWAG models are thankfully reverting back. That doesn't mean they didn't go the other way first. It's COSTING them $$ to switch back - and they were losing a LOT of buyers over it. If you read any car magazines, people were constantly talking about this. Car makers are finally starting to listen - after several years of failure. Couple a "slow-to-respond" GUI with a "everything is done via the GUI" and it's horrible.

ahartmetz 1y ago

They understand the importance of software, but they do not understand software, and they don't understand and respect the different way of working that you need for software vs hardware. I've heard somebody describe it as "they are using methods that have been known not to work for 20 years".

constantcrying 1y ago
>They understand the importance of software, but they do not understand software But they know that. That was the idea behind Cariad. Having a new company, unburdened by what other parts of the company are doing, which is doing just software. Giving them the freedom to do things a different way has always been the intention. What you are describing is not an automotive problem, it is a Europe wide problem. Software Engineers in Europe, in general, are pretty bad, often cling to outdated methodologies and tend to create overly complex and overly useless systems. There are hundreds of examples for this, throughout European industries and governments. "German engineering" has not translated into software at all. Consider also the salaries of European Software Engineers, even in the most wealthy countries, like France and Germany, it averages around 50k to 60k, it is not the highly lucrative career it is (was?) in the US.
- plqbfbv 1y ago
  > Software Engineers in Europe, in general, are pretty bad > "German engineering" has not translated into software at all. Anecdata: in my 10+ years experience, the worst UX, UI, code and SWEs I've seen, are all German. I'm not saying there's absolutely no good ones here and there, but in general it seems the love for a very complex written/spoken language (riddled with rules and exception) and bureaucracy has translated 100% into software. The interfaces, the code and coding style most of the times give me a 1980s vibe if I'm lucky, or just scare me off altogether in most cases. The code tends to be more complex, abstract, hard to read and comprehend, for no good reason.
  - constantcrying 1y ago
    Many of the things which work well for developing hardware or Mechatronics work terribly for Software. Hardware development is about rigorous processes, any change to a piece of hardware requires a very complex chain of people, as the impact often is hard to predict and will require changes to many other processes, e.g. manufacturing. I do not think this is the entire explanation though. The US Software industry has succeeded because it is very open to rapid changes, which the nature of software allows, given the right environment. >The code tends to be more complex, abstract, hard to read and comprehend, for no good reason. That is exactly the incompetence I am talking about. This gets extremely bad if governments are developing software solutions, where they outsource to a variety of contractors, who all are somewhat incompetent, but together manage to create a real mess. A mess so bad that every user feels the jank.