161–170 of 307 posts
I've been following this debacle in the German press and I think there's a structural problem that they will struggle to dig their way out of. And by "they" I don't mean just VW, but much of European industry. Software is simply not valued in Europe, and not because there aren't amazing developers there -- there are many. But software isn't considered important Let's start with cars. Back before cars were just comput…
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It is well worth any Tesla driver's time to spend two minutes reading the list of voice commands. Once you have a grip on the vocabulary and structure you can just tell the car to do what you want for dozens of common tasks. (Hint: It's a "seat warmer", not a "butt heater".) That's the good news, the bad news is that I still haven't figure out how to turn off the stupid cowbell when I accidentally bonk the right leve…
The idea that instead of turning a tactile dial I need to look away from the road to adjust temperature or volume if music, or I need to speak, is unacceptable to me. I consider ut terrible in terms of safety and UI.
Speaking is terrible for safety now?
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> It's a "seat warmer", not a "butt heater". “Heat my ass” works fine for me.
Do Teslas seriously accept that? I guess that’s what being moved to Texas gets you.
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Oh you will still get a car with plenty of software, and the car will depend on it just as much as a Tesla. It's just that it's going to be badly made, buggy and not well integrated.
Perhaps then older German cars.
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> Microsoft is in the same boat. Virtually no users of their products are actually their customers. That's how you get away with producing very crappy software, even if you hire the top talent. Such a weird logic. You’re saying that Microsoft produces crappy software even though they hire too talent. And they get away with it because the people who buy it don’t use it (i.e. by extension don’t care if they’re spending…
Microsoft isn’t a top-payer like Google et al.
I've been following this debacle in the German press and I think there's a structural problem that they will struggle to dig their way out of. And by "they" I don't mean just VW, but much of European industry. Software is simply not valued in Europe, and not because there aren't amazing developers there -- there are many. But software isn't considered important Let's start with cars. Back before cars were just comput…
People should try to reconcile the facts that those outrageously high FAANG salaries occurs because of 1) Near monopoly in that sector 2) Excessive surveillance and tracking users 3) Increasing inequality between haves and have nots. And non-FAANG type IT worker are also paid relatively high at the cost of other workers living perilous lives. So unless Europeans really start cherishing these "values". They are not go…
“Oh, all of those people making way more must be immoral.”
If so, you're likely tired of the "German engineering" myth. Most often, you'll find overly complicated, failure-prone designs that are worse than their simpler domestic counterparts. This isn't just in such things as emission control, but even in what you thought were solved mechanical problems generations ago: hood releases and power windows.
I'm not shocked that their software sucks as well. Then again, other cars aren't exactly paragons of software engineering either. Nothing exemplifies that better than the shitshow that is built-in Bluetooth and "infotainment" systems.
Producing really good software is really hard. Here's a tip for all the backwards big companies in Europe: pay your software engineers a lot more. Whatever you're paying now, increase it by 2x-3x. If you want the best, you're going to have to pay for it, or you're going to suffer the predictably mediocre results indefinitely (to the benefit of Tesla & Co.; Tesla's sales are now up to $67 billion; that's closing in on…
Not just the software, so many cars don't even have a functional touchscreen while requiring use of it for many core features. Hyundai for example like to use really low quality touch screens that are even slower than my old Nokia's resistive display. What is the point of pan-and-zoom in a GPS maps app if the screen can barely keep up in real-time?
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Can you explain how paying software engineers higher salaries means other people need to live "perilous lives". You could just lower your EBIDTA a bit. Software engineers in the US aren't rich because of janitors being underpaid or something.
But computer programmers are over paid and janitors under paid. It is because if all the computer programmers went away the world would limp on. If all the janitors went away we would be swimming in shit.