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Software Is Eating the Auto Industry (strategyanalytics.com)
Roger Lanctot, writing for research firm Strategy Analytics: There are many more opportunities in cars today for things to go wrong as software takes over an ever-expanding array of functionality from the car stereo to enhanced safety systems and the vehicle powertrain. There are software bugs, updates, conflicts and, lately, cybersecurity vulnerabilities to worry about so it is perhaps no surprise that software is figuring in vehicle recalls. In the latest update of software-based recalls from CX3 Marketing, software-based recalls crept up higher again in 2016, surpassing 6M vehicles. It's a small portion of the overall total but it is growing -- especially as a proportion of the total. This expanding crisis in vehicle recalls is both good news and bad news for the automotive industry. The good news is that software recalls can often be corrected with over-the-air software updates. The bad news is that auto makers are in the very earliest stages of deploying software updating technology and, particularly in the U.S., they have yet to sort out conflicts with state-level dealer franchise laws that require warranty service work such as software updates be handled by dealers. The expanding role of software and the growing number of software-related recalls reflects an emerging battleground in the industry. The creation of software is expensive and labor intensive and also poses an ownership question. Starting approximately 10 years ago with BMW and Intel's mutual effort to bring Linux into cars on a larger scale via the GenIVI Alliance, auto makers have been seeking to segregated hardware from software in such a manner that hardware could conceivably be relegated to sourcing from contract manufacturers (like Flextronics) and software development costs could be reduced by sharing code. At the same time, car makers have sought to take ownership of the code written for their vehicles. Car enthusiasts have taken issue with the ownership question, asserting their right to modify vehicle software as they see fit. That particular struggle is yet to be resolved but has gained new life as more tinkerers experiment with home-grown self-driving car technology.
Soon. It's time. Nobody needs obnoxious vendors who didn't even read their own fucking prospectus.
What we need is some showrooms and then we buy directly at the manufacturer's site online.
After all that's what the dealers are doing, besides those brands who have thousands of unsold cars laying around they the have to pay customers thousands to take off their hands.
Nope. No OTA updates for me. I don't trust companies to have access to my car (or computer, for that matter) any time they want. If I can't disable the communications channel, I'm not buying the car.
I travel for work, and rent a lot of brand-spanking-new cars.
Car software is shit. It doesn't matter what brand of car, it's shit.
I get in the car, factory reset the radio, reboot the car, connect Bluetooth, sync contacts, and go. Most recently I did this in a Buick Endeavor. Enabling Android Auto locked up the car entertainment system and I had to reboot the car. Apple car play worked, but bluetooth phone calls only worked 25% of the time when the phone rang while Pandora was open.
That's not an isolated incident. I've locked up the infotainment system on a dozen other rentals. That's extremely frustrating. The best was a Ford Focus that wouldn't reset with a power-off/power-on reset. The system didn't recover until I left it off for an hour.
It's not just new cars, either. I own a Chevy Equinox that won't Bluetooth pair with an iPhone 6. At least it doesn't lock up.