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My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

imdanielkendall.com

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Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#101

Post by lifeisgood99 »

gmueckl wrote: post #99
odysseus wrote: post #87

Kia just did this with their EV9 update - it broke CarPlay with a blank screen a few minutes into driving, which then reverted itself a minute later. Another OTA mostly resolved it. Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.

Let me be a devil's advocate here: you have essentially two options. 1. You write release notes thet contain technical details. Less than 1% of your customers understand them. More than 90% probably won't even care, let alone understand the document. And then there are the folks who get confused or scared and reach out to customer support with weird questions. This generates extra workload. 2. You explain nothing. Th…

It would be very simple to write out details but make them harder to access. Motivated users will find them.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#102

Post by sitkack »

gmueckl wrote: post #99
odysseus wrote: post #87

Kia just did this with their EV9 update - it broke CarPlay with a blank screen a few minutes into driving, which then reverted itself a minute later. Another OTA mostly resolved it. Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.

Let me be a devil's advocate here: you have essentially two options. 1. You write release notes thet contain technical details. Less than 1% of your customers understand them. More than 90% probably won't even care, let alone understand the document. And then there are the folks who get confused or scared and reach out to customer support with weird questions. This generates extra workload. 2. You explain nothing. Th…

i remember when the TV station would shut down in the middle of the night.

Or businesses would close to do inventory.

We made do.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#103

Post by OptionOfT »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #49
ninju wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time

> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…

As a licensed driver also living in the Sonoran Desert, I absolutely love my heated steering wheel. I live just South of Anthem, and we get a couple of hard freezes per year, and it gets cold enough that people wear gloves certain parts of the year.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#104

Post by gmueckl »

Telaneo wrote: post #57
ButlerianJihad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…

When it's minus -20°C outside, you'll be very happy for that heated steering wheel! For someone living in the desert, I wish there were cooled steering wheels, on the same level as heated/cooled seats, but maybe that's asking a but much.

It's probably a complexity and cost thing: heating the wheel just requires heating wires in the wheel connected to a switch. Cooling requires a some cooling medium getting pumped into the wheel and back out into a heat exchanger or vented outside. You need pipes of some sort inside the wheel and wheel hub.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#105

Post by hahn-kev »

michaelje wrote: post #12

Once upon a time, physically shipping faulty software had real costs borne by the organization - production, redistribution and transportation of a physical disc. Today there’s no disc, no recall - that cost to shipping broken software is gone. We the users pay the price.

You act like there's no benefit to the user either, plenty of software gets better because of updates shipped after the fact.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#106

Post by sgarland »

> Everything you create should be an artistic endeavour aiming for perfection.

Amen. If you go to a bakery, you expect them to care. If you hire a photographer, you expect them to care. Software isn’t (usually) a factory line; CRUD may be similar concepts throughout, but everyone is making it themselves.

Give a shit about what you make.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#107

Post by denkmoon »

lifeisgood99 wrote: post #101
gmueckl wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be a devil's advocate here: you have essentially two options. 1. You write release notes thet contain technical details. Less than 1% of your customers understand them. More than 90% probably won't even care, let alone understand the document. And then there are the folks who get confused or scared and reach out to customer support with weird questions. This generates extra workload. 2. You explain nothing. Th…

It would be very simple to write out details but make them harder to access. Motivated users will find them.

To what end? Pleasing a few nerds? Nerds that are just as likely to have ripped out the OTA modem or not be using a car like that.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#108

Post by mathstuf »

odysseus wrote: post #87

Kia just did this with their EV9 update - it broke CarPlay with a blank screen a few minutes into driving, which then reverted itself a minute later. Another OTA mostly resolved it. Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.

> Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.

"Bug fixes and performance improvements "

Even worse than the "reformat" commit message that your bisect landed on.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#109

Post by denkmoon »

sitkack wrote: post #102
gmueckl wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be a devil's advocate here: you have essentially two options. 1. You write release notes thet contain technical details. Less than 1% of your customers understand them. More than 90% probably won't even care, let alone understand the document. And then there are the folks who get confused or scared and reach out to customer support with weird questions. This generates extra workload. 2. You explain nothing. Th…

i remember when the TV station would shut down in the middle of the night. Or businesses would close to do inventory. We made do.

Those are reasonable. A business must take account of its stock - a useful thing is happening. A TV station shuts down in the evening as paying for electricity to broadcast and humans to schedule programming that goes unwatched is unproductive. It is not reasonable that a piece of working software in a product I paid a substantial sum of money for, which has no good reason to not work, should not work randomly.

Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto

#110

Post by JauntyHatAngle »

sitkack wrote: post #102
gmueckl wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be a devil's advocate here: you have essentially two options. 1. You write release notes thet contain technical details. Less than 1% of your customers understand them. More than 90% probably won't even care, let alone understand the document. And then there are the folks who get confused or scared and reach out to customer support with weird questions. This generates extra workload. 2. You explain nothing. Th…

i remember when the TV station would shut down in the middle of the night. Or businesses would close to do inventory. We made do.

That is an external service needing to do maintenance.

Not my own device on my own machine.

I don't remember a time my CD player on my car would stop working due to an update.

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