Live data from Hacker News

Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

bloomberg.com

221–230 of 592 posts

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#221
post #57

Interestingly, there were no consequences for the execs that made this 'mistake'. There seems to be almost unlimited cover for execs cargo culting on using AI as a pretext for layoffs. If it doesn't implode almost immediately, they get massive bonuses, if it blows up in their face, oh well they had the courage to 'take a bold strategic decision' In other words, they don't really have a plan, but they are happy playin…

I don't know about you, but if I was fired to be replaced by AI and then my employer came crawling, back tail between their legs, I'm pretty sure I'd start negotiations at an extra zero at the end of my salary.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea is everywhere right now, that AI is some magic black box that will solve all your business problems. The sentiment is spreading through the exec team where I work now too. It's like a disease. C-suites completely disconnected from reality and assuming we've already achieved ASI/AGI, and marketing teams & business journals are only furthering that narrative. It's so weird. I don't know what it is about AI th…

"Line must go up, forever." These guys have squeezed out every cost and slack from their system. They've found the exact revenue-maximizing prices and segmentation for their products. They've cut quality to the point where customers will just barely not reject their product. They have used every legal and accounting trick at their disposal to keep that line going up. But, next quarter, line must still go up! The fina…

> Line must go up! This is how they'll do it for a few more quarters. This is why the messaging is so unified across the industry, across every C-suite out there. They all need to believe.

The real danger for the economy is when the runway finally runs out. And I believe we are at a perfect-storm scenario... AI is obviously a giant wash-trading bubble that alone would be sufficient to trigger a repeat of the 2007ff crisis. But on top of that, we got the issue you mentioned, i.e. everyone running out of kool-aid and noticing it too late, with no easy way of turning around, and we got the war risk and supply chain shocks thanks to Iran and Russia, and and and.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consequences for American car executives, are you crazy? Have you seen Stellantis cars recently? Large parts of the US (and European most likely) car industry is driving straight into irrelevance

On the topic of Stellantis, I rented one recently (through no fault of my own) and when I returned it the guy asked me how it was. I told him I wouldn't drive one of those things again if they paid me, and the guy said "yeah we get that a lot, let me get you the discount". It sounded like they had a "Stellantis discount" for people who said something. Nice guy, actually.

As far as I can see on Wikipedia page or homepage for Stellantis, they do not make cars under their own name. So, which brand did you rent actually?

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#224
post #57

Interestingly, there were no consequences for the execs that made this 'mistake'. There seems to be almost unlimited cover for execs cargo culting on using AI as a pretext for layoffs. If it doesn't implode almost immediately, they get massive bonuses, if it blows up in their face, oh well they had the courage to 'take a bold strategic decision' In other words, they don't really have a plan, but they are happy playin…

There never are. Those are going to be viewed as two discreet successful interventions.

One for lay-offs, because it was the best move at the time with the knowledge they had.

Second for quick correction, ability to pivot and execute quickly.

It's been always like that

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#225
post #20

> Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product. Clearly a lot of careful thought went into their strategy of using AI and firing engineers.

This idea is everywhere right now, that AI is some magic black box that will solve all your business problems. The sentiment is spreading through the exec team where I work now too. It's like a disease. C-suites completely disconnected from reality and assuming we've already achieved ASI/AGI, and marketing teams & business journals are only furthering that narrative. It's so weird. I don't know what it is about AI th…

> It's so weird. I don't know what it is about AI that causes people to throw all thought and caution to the wind and charge forward blind.

My favorite theory about this is that we're all used to "speech == intelligence" and now that we have something that can produce coherent speech, it seems like it must be intelligent to people who don't know how it works. Even people who know how it works still anthropomorphize it to a weird degree. So a business person sees this thing that's both intelligent (to them) and superhumanly fast and it seems like the ultimate silver bullet.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#226

> The return of the veteran engineers at Ford cuts against the prevailing wisdom — and fear — that AI will replace all kinds of knowledge workers. But Ford found the machines couldn’t replace experience. I'm not sure this story is illustrative of that, when you have a VP of engineering saying “Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers tha…

Obviously. It was the goal of automation since its inception: reduce human involvement.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a Focus in the 2000's that was the most reliable car I ever owned. Rust got it eventually but it still started instantly at any temperature and ran like a new car.

It was also designed by European engineers, not in Michigan. Not saying that's the reason the Focus is more reliable than a Taurus but they didn't follow the "typical" Ford design process at the time for that vehicle. For what it is worth I owned a 1992 Taurus and it left me stranded more times than I can count. Just some of the issues I had were a water pump that exploded and a seized A/C compressor.

Pretty much everything Ford brings to the US that was designed in Europe is loathed by anyone who has to own it out of warranty.

Turns out that when you have a building full of engineers in Germany or England their domestic engineering culture results in work output not all that different from the sort of stuff people chastise BMW and Land Rover for.

That said, the Escort, and to a lesser extent the Focus, are generally considered very good vehicles.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#229
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sentiment feels like a relic of a previous age. Yes _maybe_ but it's also equally likely that the best they laid off was on the ropes for months trying to battle ghost job spam and AI filters. It's almost shaming anyone who isn't hired someone immediately as deficient and "not the best". Honestly the conversation should be focused on how the execs can he made responsible.

Im not calling for any action, but that kid doing something about Healthcare CEO - that did help.

How did it help?

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh poor babies they got sad their human sacrifices didn't work, that's surely as much punishment as losing your livelihood because a pack of morons act randomly based on feels.

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees. It’s a hard phase of realization to go through but life’s surprises are easier to get past once you do.

So give up?

By complaining together, we can create changes that make life more fair.

Post reply on HN