"VW's info page on the division says the unit employs roughly 6,000 people around the world, up from roughly 4,500 at the end of 2021. Despite that same page claiming Cariad is building "the leading tech stack for the automotive industry," the failed stacks brought down the division's first CEO in less than a year, then brought down VW Group CEO Diess two years later as problems continued."
Meh, product managers (when competent) are very useful and very much necessary in projects of such scale. That not some scrappy 10 people start-up operating in the web space.
The ID.3 EV car had some serious software issues at launch - instead of using subcontractors like Bosch (fuel injection) or Blaupunkt for Infotainment they wanted to do their own stack like Tesla.
As of 4 years ago, the VW Group strategy was to have multiple competing OSes (close to one per brand).
Around 2019, VW Group changed their strategy to unify software for all brands and platforms under the same car OS and bring more of the module/vendor code in-house. This is partially useful as the company-wide goal is to convert most of the fleet to electric, but also to change the revenue model somewhat (increase subscriptions and ICE pay features).
CARIAD is suffering from being born out of two forced merging strategies (Carmeq into CarSW into Cariad) while having two silent killers waiting for the perfect moment to snap (Audi, Porsche ousting Diess).
It's sad. Volkswagen should've just stuck with having a better in house dev team for it's Volkswagen brand while leaving Audi and Porsche do their own thing.
VW just tried to do too many things at once for too many parties. Obviously there's no "one thing" that they were struggling with, it's a company with 6000 employees trying to juggle several VW brands needs, sometimes against their wish.
They're paying good money tho (Germany money, not silicon valley money)
So you think internal politics among brands is what has caused most issues?
I can actually see that happening. But if that's the case some Audi and Prosche managers should also get the boot for not getting this collaboration to work
> But if that's the case some Audi and Prosche managers should also get the boot for not getting this collaboration to work
Seeing how they practically ousted the last CEO and installed the new CEO, I'm not sure how that's gonna roll. In the end, CARIAD didnt deliver at all and it's hard to argue in favour of them.
"this" being "the software" Carriad is working on and has to ship to VW companies. Why would Carriad give more details about the issues their are facing with their SW?
Maybe those issues aren't technical but are just masking an organizational shit show, which given my experience with large SW projects in Germany would be mi first guess, but either way, it's not like Carriad has any incentive to hang their dirty laundry in public so that everyone can see how much they suck at whatever their doing so I don't get why you're expecting them to when there's no positive benefits for them to do so but only negatives.
> ... Porsche said it's going to move ahead with Google Built-In as an interim solution
That's kinda weird as Porsche moved from QNX (say for a 2013 Porsche) to Apple CarPlay (starting from 2017 or something?). If you buy a brand new Porsche today I'm pretty sure it comes with Apple CarPlay.
Maybe this is about more than just the infotainment system?
Yes, from what I read, Cariad is working towards unifying software for many car modules, building a common software platform for EVs / battery management under the VW Group, and creating a platform for DLC / subscriptions capability. It’s more than just Apple CarPlay.
I think you are confusing Android Auto (projection) to Android Automotive OS, which is the infotainment OS of future Porsches.
It doesn't mean it won't be compatible with CarPlay. New Renault cars are using Android Automotive OS and still have wireless Android Auto and CarPlay.
Also Cariad is using Android Automotive OS now (AOSP version), just without Google Automotive Services (Play Store, Google Maps, Assistant).
Good luck firing that many employees when such strong labour laws are intact, and it’s such a large company. Imagine if that doesn’t get through. They’ll be weighed down by tons of (currently perceived as such) dead weight. It’ll be a huge challenge finding useful work and restructuring around all that.
"VW's info page on the division says the unit employs roughly 6,000 people around the world, up from roughly 4,500 at the end of 2021. Despite that same page claiming Cariad is building "the leading tech stack for the automotive industry," the failed stacks brought down the division's first CEO in less than a year, then brought down VW Group CEO Diess two years later as problems continued."