
Germany's car industry faces a perfect storm - lawrenceyan
https://www.handelsblatt.com/today/companies/automotive-crisis-germanys-car-industry-faces-a-perfect-storm/24026414.html
======
edem
About time. I had the "luck" of working for multiple German companies
(including Volkswagen) and I'm surprised how these behemoths still function.

As a grunt programmer, it was painful to see how the upper management made
decisions based on politics which made no technological sense whatsoever. In
my years of working for German companies I saw multiple project reboots,
millions of $s thrown out of the window on failed projects and the worst thing
is that there is literally _no_ flow of information from bottom to top. No
matter how smart you are if someone is above you in the hierarchy you are
nothing, no one.

I hope they will fail spectacularly and learn this hard lesson finally.

~~~
iagovar
They won't learn. I work for another euro behemoth and it's exactly the
situation you describe. As long as they pay me and support my lifestyle I have
no problem, but Im already tired of trying to fight the nonsense.

Sadly Im not a programmer so finding other companies with the same conditions
is hard.

~~~
lnsru
Exact my situation. Working for a company with roots in Siemens. The culture
is terrible, must fight the nonsense to get some meaningful task. Getting
insane money for doing nothing, loosing skills every month, mental health
suffers, but family depends on my income. Finding other companies in Germany
with similar conditions is hard, looking now in Switzerland.

~~~
kayoone
What are you doing exactly? Come to Berlin :)

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l4u532
As a German, I am quite happy about this. What you must know is that German
organisations are extremely hierarchical, with little information flowing from
frontline management to to top management. Hence, change only happens top down
and only if the top managers in their ivory towers deem it necessary. But it’s
incredibly important that our automakers reinvent themselves. And here we have
the necessary angst to drive this long-needed transformation of our automotive
sector.

~~~
ahartmetz
Not all German organizations are like that. The car industry is especially
dysfunctional. I've been watching them fail at software for years now.

The problem, as far as I can tell, is as follows: top management is able and
motivated to increase the size of the money bag. Developers just want to do a
good job for a good salary. Middle management can't change the size of the
money bag too much, so it just wants to grab as much as possible for itself.
How does a middle manager expand their empire? Certainly not by leading a
small, effective organization. The head count needs to grow, so the middle
manager wants ineffective developers. It only works because no one above knows
enough about software to fairly evaluate the work of these petty empire-
builders.

One time I wanted to gauge how far the car industry has come from realizing
the problem to implementing a solution, so I typed something like "automotive
software crisis" into Google. Among the first few hits a presentation of a
German CS professor stating that there is a crisis... and that the solution is
model-driven development. It's the exact shit that they are already doing that
is not working.

If good software is produced in Germany, it's despite subpar academic CS and
dysfunctional large companies. Much of Germany's economy is medium-sized
companies - fortunately, I guess.

I do expect the German car industry to fix its software but only when it's
really suffering financially. Car industry outsiders will be heavily involved
in the solution.

~~~
dirtylowprofile
I wonder what’s the majority of the source code in German like? Is it mostly
in English or German?

~~~
kitten_mittens_
European English for code. It's sufficiently different from American that it's
sort of got its own rules at this point. It's difficult to understand
sometimes.

Most docs at my >200 dev shop including contractors are in German though.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-02/the-
en...](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-02/the-english-
language-no-longer-belongs-to-britain-and-america)

------
clouddrover
Perfect storms aside, I think Volkswagen will be the biggest producer of EVs
within 3 years. They're targeting the high end with the Porsche Taycan, the
Porsche Macan EV, and the future Audi e-tron GT which will be based on the
Taycan's platform:

[https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-double-taycan-
ev-...](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-double-taycan-ev-
production-demand/)

[https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-macan-electric-
on...](https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-macan-electric-only-
official/)

Volkswagen's MEB platform targets mid-range vehicles and will be used for
models across the VW, Audi, Skoda, and SEAT brands:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MEB_platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MEB_platform)

[https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-engineering-behind-
vws-...](https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-engineering-behind-vws-electric-
car-pla-1829257860)

And Volkswagen is looking to license the MEB platform to other manufacturers:

[https://jalopnik.com/volkswagen-wants-other-automakers-to-
us...](https://jalopnik.com/volkswagen-wants-other-automakers-to-use-its-meb-
electr-1832269531)

Ford will probably license the MEB platform for their EVs.

~~~
FullyFunctional
All these Tesla competitors ... they are not really competitors unless they
offer access to the Super Charger Network or provide something similar. More
than anything the Super Charger is a game changer. Even though I very very
rarely uses it, it enables the occasional long distance trip, making it
practical to own just an EV and not need a 2nd car (or rent one)

~~~
Bouncingsoul1
well they do, just with another brandname
[https://ionity.eu/en/about.html](https://ionity.eu/en/about.html),
BMW,Daimler,VW,Ford sharing resources on this just makes sense

~~~
FullyFunctional
Do you pay to charge?

------
andreagrandi
"The German industry was hit by slump in sales in the third and fourth
quarters of last year"

Oh really? I asked the shipping time for a Polo (2017 model) and I've been
told 160-180 days. I'm not surprised if they don't sell many cars.

~~~
Tade0
My friend got "up to 270 days" on a Skoda Superb.

The wait for a very specifically optioned Prius in my country, in which barely
several hundred of these vehicles are moved annually, is at most four months
from commission to getting the keys.

------
sonnyblarney
VW is trying to reconstitutes their entire fleet onto a 'single platform' or
at least something resembling that. This is a core part of their long term
strategy that's oft not talked about [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MLB_platform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MLB_platform)

------
bookofjoe
I was surprised to find OP didn't cite what I believe to be an even more
existential threat: the rise of Tesla's bit-based cabin vs. the atom-based
tradition of legacy makers. Compare the Model S with its elegant, minimalist,
understandable layout vs. the latest Mercedes-Benz S-Class cabin, which
resembles a miniaturized version of the space shuttle: countless dials,
screens, buttons, switches, levers, and lights above, in front of, below, and
to the sides of the driver.

~~~
ff10
You imply that traditional dashboards are too complicated. However, Tesla is
merely hiding that complexity behind one or a few screens an a few buttons. I
like the approach to minimalism, but in my opinion there has to be a balance
between pragmatism and beauty. The learning curve and ease of access is just
lower in German (or traditional) dashboards in general. I am not sure if Tesla
found that particular balance. I hear a lot of hate towards the giant screen
and no love, but that is just anecdotal. I assume Tesla went so radical in the
Model 3 to save costs, rather than to stay minimalistic.

~~~
dustindiamond
I agree with the parent. The UX of the Tesla Model S seems like a cohesive
design from a coordinated team. The 2018 Audi S4, lacks the cohesiveness and
the UX is a bit overwhelming.

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Haga
A company can not invent away from theire main field - in this case combustion
engines. Every time the weather changes some of those in Old power will
backstab the internal upstarts.

~~~
_the_inflator
It is about mobility. Why limit yourself to cars? Why not offer e scooters,
bikes? The whole concept of owning a car is wrong. With German cities becoming
more and more like megacities, it is important to focus on mobility and not on
selling cars.

~~~
Haga
It's the linear mindset that's the main problem. None of these guys would even
dare the gaben bezos dream of becoming the market. There is no open appstore
in any of these cars.

------
Phenomenit
Is it even possible for the these behemoths to exist when the demand for cars
is decreasing and alternatives are exploding with the advent of batteries and
electric motors powering every mode of transportation from bicycle(I love my
Ebike) to skateboards? And is it possible for the suppliers to survive when
you have so many fever moving parts compared to ICE cars? For me the car feels
like the horse a hundred years ago. Dirty smelly heavy noisy and soon
obsolete.

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superkuh
This website attempts to tell me that javascript is required but it's not.
They just want users to execute arbitrary third party code. Turning off CSS
allows access to the full article text.

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RickJWagner
I don't like how the subtitle reads "American tariffs, a Chinese slowdown..."
but the article text says "possible US tariffs".

It seems misleading to lead with 'tariffs' when they are only 'possible
tariffs'.

Makes it seem click-baity.

~~~
matt4077
When you're "facing" a storm, it is one visible on the horizon. The term
implies forward-looking (and therefore uncertain) predictions.

Subheads also work rather bad as click-bait, considering you only get to read
them _after_ clicking the link.

