Porsches Postponed by Buggy Software Cost VW's CEO His Job (bloomberg.com) 40
It says a lot about the state of the auto industry and where it's going that software problems have cost the CEO of a carmaker his job. From a report: Volkswagen ousted Herbert Diess as chief executive officer after severe software-development delays set back the scheduled launch of new Porsches, Audis and Bentleys. This was untenable considering buggy software postponed the debut of VW's initial rollout of ID models, and customers are still having to drop off their cars at the dealer for updates the company has struggled to make over the air.
Sure, Diess also didn't do enough to make allies and became increasingly isolated due to his hard-nosed leadership style. In his push to transform the company into an electric-vehicle leader, he repeatedly clashed with labor leaders by warning VW was losing out to Tesla and needed to cut thousands of jobs. But failures at the carmaker's software unit Cariad ultimately eroded Diess's support from the powerful Porsche and Piech family that calls the shots. Back in December, VW overhauled its management board, stripping Diess of some responsibilities while tasking him to turn around Cariad. While there's been a lot of re-arranging since then, Diess didn't manage to make the issues go away.
Sure, Diess also didn't do enough to make allies and became increasingly isolated due to his hard-nosed leadership style. In his push to transform the company into an electric-vehicle leader, he repeatedly clashed with labor leaders by warning VW was losing out to Tesla and needed to cut thousands of jobs. But failures at the carmaker's software unit Cariad ultimately eroded Diess's support from the powerful Porsche and Piech family that calls the shots. Back in December, VW overhauled its management board, stripping Diess of some responsibilities while tasking him to turn around Cariad. While there's been a lot of re-arranging since then, Diess didn't manage to make the issues go away.
Cautionary tale (Score:3)
But failures at the carmaker's software unit Cariad ultimately eroded Diess's support from the powerful Porsche and Piech family that calls the shots.
So it was software that did him in was it. I'll keep that in mind the next time I read a sober analyst saying that Telsa's software lead probably doesn't exist and wouldn't matter if it did.
Re:Cautionary tale (Score:4, Interesting)
Eh. Not really. The software was just an excuse.
He basically needed to get kicked out, but to avoid a lot of issues, he just got 'sidesized' into a division they knew he wouldn't be able to handle.
And if by some huge upset he would have succeeded, all the better.
VW at this point seems to be a fairly dysfunctional company focuses on things they lack the expertise for. We'll see where they go from here.
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Wouldn't that be a pretty decent way to save money on golden parachutes? Why don't more companies do that, it would save a ton of money on worthless spongers.
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The only reason they were able to do this was because he lost the support of the 'shareholders'. That's not something that happens very often.
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IOW, he was a complete fuck up and probably should have never been in that position to begin with. Doesn't sound like he has leadership skills or qualities. Being a hard ass "drill sergeant" does not mean you are a good or effective leader.
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I worked with a lot of people (Managers up through executive VPs) who were handled this way. They decided they don't want/need you anymore and put you in a taskless position with a fancy title, and make it clear that you have a limited amount of time before they re-org your position out of existence.
It's generally not done with C-suite executives because their employment contracts preclude it. They are also a lot more expensive to
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Re: Cautionary tale (Score:3)
I heard a story from someone who retired from VW and was present in the meeting when Winterkorn told Piech he was wrong, maybe 10 or 12 years ago. Piech nodded and everyone in the room knew that was the end of Winterkorn and all his followers, including Diess.
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Re:Cautionary tale (Score:5, Informative)
So, it's pretty easy to see the difficulty and importance of software in implementing self-driving cars. Since nobody has achieved it yet, it goes beyond what is typically regarded as "quality" in the car industry.
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But failures at the carmaker's software unit Cariad ultimately eroded Diess's support from the powerful Porsche and Piech family that calls the shots.
So it was software that did him in was it. I'll keep that in mind the next time I read a sober analyst saying that [Tesla's [FTFY]] software lead probably doesn't exist and wouldn't matter if it did.
But my reaction to the "buggy" in the story title is:
Buy Amalgamated Buggy Whips. Can't go anyplace but up!
And my reaction to Elon Musk? You don't want to hear it. Of course unless you have mod points to troll. The ghost of Heinlein must be spinning in his grave? When did he write about the high-speed vacuum tunnel across America? In the '30s?
But VW has its own ghost in the closet...
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No it was his insistence that VW go all-electric but that won't be reported in these spaces.
Re: Cautionary tale (Score:2)
CEO (Score:4, Insightful)
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And why is he being replaced by the head of the Porsche division if there were problems with Porsches being postponed?
Re: CEO (Score:2)
Re:CEO (Score:4, Interesting)
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The CEO has one job: be responsible for everything the company does, to ensure maintaining or growing the value of the company. If you miss a product launch, that directly hurts revenue, meaning the CEO failed.
The CEO delivers on that responsibility by delegating his authority to his management team, who then in turn build the plan for their part of the delegation and sub-delegate down to lower level managers to execute in their teams. The CTO is one of those on the
Re:CEO (Score:4, Informative)
Software is increasingly becoming a competitive difference maker. For example, I cuss at my car's (crappy) navigation system more than any other feature. More will be managed by software over time.
Hardware people just don't know how to manage software. I've seen non-IT managers make the same mistakes as their non-IT predecessor over and over because they don't understand how to manage the trade-offs involved in software, and are too easily duped by slick salespeople and internal charlatans. And their ego often prevents them from listening to those with experience. They are used to being a know-it-all and kicking that habit is not easy.
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At least in Germany, when the company screws up the CEO is held responsible, unlike in the US, where he gets a big bonus and fires a bunch of subordinates, who had nothing to do with the problem.
As TFA points out, he lost the support of the Porsche and Piech families. Once that happened, he was a dead man walking.
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Re: CEO (Score:4, Insightful)
This wasnâ(TM)t the IT department. This was a major division developing a self driving car stack. Things that large often donâ(TM)t need managers who are deeply into the tech, because theyâ(TM)re so many layers removed from the actual engineering. At that level, theyâ(TM)re bean counters, with people to tell them what needs more or less beans.
Iâ(TM)ve been in plenty of meetings with managers at this level. Sure, they care about the end result, they care that it looks cool and that it has the right marketing story around it, but they donâ(TM)t care about any of the technical details at all (unless theyâ(TM)re one offs like Craig Federighi).
Car companies are in for a tough transition. They all took the piss out of Tesla because it was a software guy trying to get into car manufacturing, and they thought he wouldnâ(TM)t have the industry knowledge to pull it off. What they didnâ(TM)t get at the time was that the whole car industry is becoming the software industry. Yes, theres some hardware to build, but the vast majority of the important stuff is, and will be at ever greater scale, the software.
not buying one (Score:2)
Yes, theres some hardware to build, but the vast majority of the important stuff is, and will be at ever greater scale, the software.
This is why, to the best of my ability, I'm not buying any car/truck made after 2008. An ECU is all the electronics I need in one. Some sort of sound-only entertainment device may be nice, but that's my limit. I have no desire to deal with a bunch of crap that is unrepairable and guaranteed to fail, that requires any sort of update, and is spyware for the manufacturers.
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This is why, to the best of my ability, I'm not buying any car/truck made after 2008.
That feels like a delaying tactic at best. The best of your ability may not be very good in the years to come as older cars age out of circulation and repair parts availability becomes problematic. I could be wrong, but just judging by your user ID, you appear to be young enough to still be driving 30 years from now.
1978 is better than 2008 (was Re:not buying one) (Score:2)
This is why, to the best of my ability, I'm not buying any car/truck made after 2008. n ECU is all the electronics I need in one.
I suggest you look at vehicles made before 1979. In the olden times before there were ECUs.
ECUs are the Achilles heel of all current vehicles and when their components degrade you are completely F*d. Given that in many states, you can not use anything except the original manufacturer component. Newer vehicles now have multiple CPUs
Anything else is felony tampering with a pollution control device. So yes, you may be able to gobble together a replacement with something yourself, you just cannot legally drive
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What they didnâ(TM)t get at the time was that the whole car industry is becoming the software industry.
Which, ironically, isn't what the end users want at all.
Go ahead and ask a car salesman sometime. Tesla people are a different breed of hardcore geeks that want technology for the sake of technology... but "normal" people don't actually want all the gadgets and computerized nonsense. Forcing the issue isn't likely to help sales at all.
A CEO facing consequences for failure!?!? (Score:2)
Sure, Diess also didn't do enough to make allies and became increasingly isolated due to his hard-nosed leadership style.
Oh wait, it's actually just capitalist throne room drama, nothing new...
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Diess is a very interesting character and I think VW might be worse off without him. If one of the world's largest car manufacturers starts finding excuses to sl
Android Automotive OS (Score:2)
To all car manufacturers. Just use Android Automotive OS and be done with it... pretty please !
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Updates (Score:2)
for updates the company has struggled to make over the air
Not really the car company's fault. Not many people wealthy enough to buy a Porsche can be bothered to drive around looking for one bar of a 5G signal. If they based their maintenance or self driving capabilities on continuous wireless connectivity, they made a career-ending error.
Intentional joke headline? (Score:2)
VW Bug(gy)?
It's not a bug, it's a feature. (Score:2)
*cough* Dieselgate *cough*