Software issues cost Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess his job
- Reference: 1658844107
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/26/from_beetles_to_bugs_vw/
- Source link:
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Herbert Diess (left) driving a 1928 Bugatti (with navigator Jon Drechsler on the right) in the 2019 Mille Miglia in Florence, Italy. Pic by: Bob Cullinan / Shutterstock
The exec is to leave on 1 September, three years before the end of his contract.
Diess had a tough start at the automotive maker, facing charges connected to the 2015 VW emissions-cheating scandal before they were settled by the company for €9 million (c $10 million at the time) – with no admission of liability. Diess and his fellow execs always denied all charges, with his lawyers noting [2]he could not have foreseen the impact of the emissions-cheating allegations on the market as he had only joined the company in July of the year the scandal broke .
Once he did join the automaker, one of his most important tasks was considered to be turning around Cariad, VW's software unit, which the group considered vital to the development of electric vehicles across its broad group of marques. EU lawmakers recently voted [3]to ban sales of combustion engine cars from 2035 , making the unit particularly key.
But delays shipping software from Cariad to other units has put back several launches including models of Porsches, Audis and Bentleys. Software bugs were also behind the initial launch of VW's ID models, which the manufacturer hopes will challenge leaders in the electric vehicle market.
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Industry insiders have commented that failure to get Cariad back on track is a major contributor to Diess's departure.
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It was not for lack of recognition of the importance of software development to the auto-industry's future, though.
In May, [7]Diess said on Twitter that the "development of [our] own software expertise is the biggest switch that the automotive industry has to make – much bigger than the transition to e-mobility."
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Upon his appointment, Diess seemed to recognize the need for change. He said that VW "needs a software culture."
This, he said, should be "different to the typical culture at VW, AUDI, Porsche: long term, brand, complex. Cariad has to be much faster to deploy basically on a weekly basis and to be attractive for software talent. I am concerned to get Cariad far enough away from Group, OEM processes and culture. Copy & paste will definitely not work," he [9]posted on LinkedIn .
But three months ago, Diess seemed to be aware of the tension between Cariad and the rest of the VW Group, alluding to complaints in [10]another LinkedIn post .
[11]EU lawmakers vote to ban sales of combustion engine cars from 2035
[12]Volkswagen: Expect chip supply problems until 2024
[13]Volkswagen to stop making its best-selling product for Wolfsburg workers: VW-branded sausages
[14]Tech's Volkswagen moment? Trend Micro accused of cheating Microsoft driver QA by detecting test suite
[15]Volkswagen hooks up with AWS to float German carmaker's Industrial Cloud
[16]VW finds $15b under the couch to pay off US regulators
"…Cariad is getting faster, and to be clear: it's the most ambitious project of our entire industry to tap into the most relevant profit pools of the future – it will need two lifecycles to get realized, so I would like to say to the critics within the Group: it is better to work together on progress than just to complain," he said.
How well that went down with execs and managers throughout the VW Group remains to be seen, but in the latest twist the board seemed to agree the best way to make progress was without Diess.
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VW is now turning to Porsche boss Oliver Blume to take the reins at the Group and change the culture Diess seemingly struggled to shift.
The post of chairman of the supervisory board at Cariad – previously held by Diess himself – remains vacant for the time being, but Blume is also expected to focus in on solving problems at the software subsidiary as a matter of urgency.
[18]Speaking to Bloomberg , auto-industry analyst Matthias Schmidt said the unit needed new blood and doubted whether German automotive managers could address the issues on their own.
"They should have headhunted the best people from Silicon Valley," Schmidt said. "You can't lead on software with automotive people."
One person agreeing with the diagnosis is rival electric carmaker Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Tweeting his reason for Diess' departure, [19]Musk said : "Software is the key to the future."
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/07/26/shutterstock_1400734715.jpg
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-trial-diess-idUSKBN1W918N
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/european_union_votes_to_ban_gasoline_cars/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YuAPnivBOkh8NL83lzVtfwAAABU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YuAPnivBOkh8NL83lzVtfwAAABU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YuAPnivBOkh8NL83lzVtfwAAABU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://twitter.com/VWGroup/status/1521056550063906817
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YuAPnivBOkh8NL83lzVtfwAAABU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/herbertdiess_to-be-successful-cariad-needs-a-software-activity-6876444247160090624-63Gi/
[10] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/herbertdiess_trinity-software-activity-6927180774458671104-H_UB/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/european_union_votes_to_ban_gasoline_cars/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/volkswagen_expect_chip_supply_problems/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/01/vw_sausages_wolfsburg/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/20/trend_accused_microsoft_cheating/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/27/volkswagen_aws/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2016/06/29/vw_finds_us15_beeelion_under_the_couch_to_pay_off_us_regulators/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YuAPnivBOkh8NL83lzVtfwAAABU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-25/porsches-postponed-by-buggy-software-cost-vw-s-ceo-his-job?srnd=technology-vp#xj4y7vzkg
[19] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1551068102753800192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"Cariad has to be much faster to deploy basically on a weekly basis"
As opposed to when it's ready, fully tested and good to go?
How about concentrating on the basics what makes it go and what makes it stop without all the fiddly bits that should be the driver's concern but end up as distractions?
I sat here thinking "Weekly, huh, that will be agile...."
And then realised how much of a muppet I'd been: Agile would be, quite possibly, the very worst methodology for development for this use case
Not just software
Industry insiders have commented that failure to get Cariad back on track is a major contributor to Diess's departure.
Partly, though that was after years of all the German car companies sticking their heads in the sand safe in the knowledge that the German government would keep them safe from any nasty legislation and let them keep making high margin SUVs. This also meant they could reduce spending on R&D not only on EVs but also on alternatives fuel cells.
But the main cause for the departure was the usual one with VW: failure to get agreement with the works council on cost cutting and job losses.
Stand by for subscription services like the ones BMW recently announced.
Reading between the lines I wonder if VW is also eyeing up revenue opportunities - because when you sell software, you can charge subscription revenues, can't you?
Jury is still out, but be warned...
Re: Stand by for subscription services like the ones BMW recently announced.
Already exists. A friend of mine has an Audi and she would have to enable subscription to get updated maps for the sat nav. Audi's are the worst because they come with their own software so you can't even use Android Auto.
SWMBO's Skoda Fabia came with outdated maps last year and the satnav that insisted in giving instructions in English even though everything else was in German. Strangely disoriertating hearing the local place names mangled in a way and English person probably wouldn't! That fortunately got fixed when the car went in for a service. But if you want new maps you need a special SD card that costs € 300 from a dealer, though you can at least update the maps once you've bought it. € 40 for one from Lithuania does the job just as well and at least we know that Android Auto now supports Here.
Automotive software development and deployment does have a deservedly terrible reputation but when I look at the software industry in general I don't see much "failure is not an option".
Expert in Burning Platform
Maybe Stephen Elop is the right guy for the job. He create a lot of customer and sharehoulders value...
Usual mistake
"They should have headhunted the best people from Silicon Valley," Schmidt said. "You can't lead on software with automotive people."
I've seen so many organizations do the same mistake: turn an automotive engineer, or a physicist or a mathematician into software devs, usually without the relevant long training, or coaching.
It usually turns out the people, with no software dev, versioning etc ... background, most of the time, make for terrible devs.
Code quality and readability is key in industrial dev, you really can't afford someone checking out the wrong version and reverting many commits from version N, and work on version N+1.
Nor can you afford dev security or reliability issues.
I'd assume this is the mistake VW did ...
Re: Usual mistake
They should be poaching from Siemens: If there's one company who knows how to do robust, industrial code, it's them
The Germans were never great at software
Take SAP for example.
Re: The Germans were never great at software
Fair enough but then look at how many companies did. Then look at the competition, if you can find it before they've bought it up.
Agile, no?
Move fast and break things, right?
Oh wait. Maybe not...
Really?
"You can't lead on software with automotive people."
Imagine the firm-ware of your anti-skid braking system to be as error-free (I am joking here) as your typical produce of the Silicon Valley.
I don't mind Windows falling over itself (in fact I do, but on a different level),
however, I would mind vital cruise control software (e.g. lane keeping) falling over.
But, I am merely a risk-averse old-Continental, who isn't fully sold on the idea of becoming a casualty in someone else's beta test.