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Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

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Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#521

Post by vachina »

whiteboardr wrote: post #472
garyfirestorm wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in one of the big three - the culture here is more waterfall and less agile. They decided at some point ‘we don’t need to be experts in building systems, we should only be good at spec’cing them and putting them together’ This leads to a mindset of relying on suppliers for changing even one line of code and at their mercy. Talent leaves because they didn’t get to do any of the fun stuff. And you’re left with b…

Get out if you can! Spent 7 years at the three pointed star within design and UX - one day, when i’m over all i had to witness and experience i’ll write a book about the downfall of the german automotive industry. It’s all politics and due to constant battles and changing ownership throughout departments they won’t ever have a solid foundation. And i dare to assume that this goes for most of the automotive industry.…

Yeah, and then those contractors (like Continental) has sub-contractors (like Akka) and they have sub-sub-contractors (some random Indian software company) working on the side mirror winding logic.

In German cities with automotive industry, you’ll find thousands of these satellite companies.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#522

Post by red_admiral »

1a527dd5 wrote: post #161

I would really rather that cars didn't run software, or at the least the minimal software to get the job done where there is no other option. My current car is a Kia; I love it. But the door locks are software controlled (you can tell from the lag). The issue is I like to lock my doors as soon as I'm in the car. The software can't cope with this; about 500ms later it unlocks the doors again and won't let me lock unti…

> But one time it got confused with over head sun

Didn't "confused with over head sun" once almost start a nuclear war?

I used to have a problem where a road made a bend right, but if you continued straight on (crossing the lane coming the other way) there was usually someone's car parked on the space in front of their house, beyond the road.

I was lucky my car only had the "beep at you loudly and flash the display red" collision detection rather than the "slam on the brakes" one because that road triggered a false positive something like half the time.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#523

Post by zelos »

mdavid626 wrote: post #518

Looking back at the last 10 years how my fellow developers write code, the last thing I want is software defined vehicles. No one is rewarded for writing good code or for handling all the edge cases. People are rewarded for getting things done. The problem is, that this approach works e.g. for non-critical web applications, but not for cars, which are dangerous, heavy object traveling at high speeds. Every car I've d…

Automated Emergency Braking has made driving significantly safer, according to the statistics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_emergency_braking_sy...

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#524

Post by HelloNurse »

Thorrez wrote: post #451
gerdesj wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excessive horning (made up word) is not just a Vietnamese thing. Italy is probably Europe's worst offender, with Greece a close contender. I'm not so familiar with Asia, but I get the impression that the entirety of Indian and most of Chinese drivers feel the need to lean on the horn with gay abandon (fnarr). In Britain the horn is generally reserved for "fuck that was close: I think you are a bit of a tosser" or "yo…

Huh, I drove in Italy for a week and a half and didn't notice excessive honking. I did notice tons and tons of tailgating.

Honking is a harmless replacement for solving disputes with handguns. You probably drove in low-stress environments.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#526

Post by HelloNurse »

iknowstuff wrote: post #449
latchkey wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting IG videos in my feed for a company that sells after market fixes because older Teslas have such poorly designed electronics, that they fail in common ways. The memory goes bad because they write useless logs to a chip, and it eventually fails. End users are beta testing... https://www.instagram.com/reel/DINADISyP0f/

You’re using a software fault which wore out the flash as evidence of poorly designed electronics?

it isn't a software fault, it's a whole defective system that was designed poorly end-to-end: the software does something inappropriate, which the hardware cannot bear, probably because of a high level mandate to write too many logs and to be too cheap.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#527

Post by vachina »

encrypted_bird wrote: post #268

My ideal car: - No Internet connection - No touchscreens - No LCD dashboard; I like dials. - 100% user-repairable; there should be no need to go to a dealer if one can easily fix a problem themselves or one wants to go to an independent mechanic (often cheaper!) - Buttons and (analog, not digital) dials for the media center - Media center with ONLY Bluetooth, CD player, and radio media center - Analog locks (not soft…

A Honda Civic 1999 fits you perfectly. No need to wait anymore.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#528

Post by ErigmolCt »

mdavid626 wrote: post #518

Looking back at the last 10 years how my fellow developers write code, the last thing I want is software defined vehicles. No one is rewarded for writing good code or for handling all the edge cases. People are rewarded for getting things done. The problem is, that this approach works e.g. for non-critical web applications, but not for cars, which are dangerous, heavy object traveling at high speeds. Every car I've d…

The direction is likely inevitable. Modern cars already are software-heavy, even without full autonomy or flashy features

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#529

Post by aloisdg »

jabl wrote: post #496
bluGill wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In india if you hit someone after sounding your horn you are not at fault as you gave warning and they didn't move. (It is far more complex than that but as always the real truth is too complex for a comment box - if you are trying to drive safe it is close enough, but this isn't a license to murder), As a result all drives will honk their own if there is any possibility someone might cross in front of them. India is…

Was something like 20 years since I was in India, but IIRC at least back then they didn't have a "priority to the right" traffic rule, but rather some kind of "the one who first honks has priority". Traveling in a taxi felt suicidal, drivers just honked when approaching an intersection and continued blithely. Based on a quick googling, this seems to no more be the case, and there is a 'priority to the right" rule.

I ride a bike for a few months in India. The honk system worked quite well. As a small vehicle, you learn your place on the road. Largest first, even if you honk. Honking at every turn in small town works ok, but it is loud. so loud.

Re: Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

#530

Post by ErigmolCt »

acheron9383 wrote: post #199

As someone who works professionally on embedded software devices that update over the internet, car companies are stuck not because they can't get software talent, but because they have no ability to actually build the electronics alongside the software, which is ultimately what constrains embedded software. Without the right hardware, the constraints are just insurmountable, you can not do X feature because board A…

You're right that legacy OEMs can't pivot overnight and start fabbing their own boards, but unless they move toward tighter integration of hardware and software (or lock down long-term partnerships that function like internal teams), they’re going to stay in this awkward middle ground.
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