Spent 7 years at the three pointed star within design and UX - one day, when i’m over all i had to witness and experience i’ll write a book about the downfall of the german automotive industry.
It’s all politics and due to constant battles and changing ownership throughout departments they won’t ever have a solid foundation. And i dare to assume that this goes for most of the automotive industry.
It’s sad to see that a once driving force of innovation is stumbling over its own arrogance and ignorance.
A major factor contributing to this are cost saving measures from the early 2000s where most of them stopped in-house research and development giving most of the work to contractors - a very expensive cost saving measure long term.
We’re down to them using “technology” as a seasoning for consumption like a fancy restaurant - very little long term thinking.
Yeah, and then those contractors (like Continental) has sub-contractors (like Akka) and they have sub-sub-contractors (some random Indian software company) working on the side mirror winding logic.
In German cities with automotive industry, you’ll find thousands of these satellite companies.
I hear that kind of statements all the time but if you take like real important car things germans are (still) pretty good: their cars handle really well, powertraian usually works perfectly smooth (or sporty), ergonomics is good to perfect, it will not rust for decades, list goes on ...
The real things killing germans I think: cars are expensive and unreliable
The main topic is software and it is still treated like a part you can just outsource and plug in.
Since cars are primarily being bought by sculptural aesthetics of the exterior and above all their brand they continue being bought for those who feel the need of a status symbol.
At the core there is still a lack of a long term strategy and above all stability to build on - not saying it is an easy task.
In the end the customer has to suffer with abysmal usability, reliability and ever changing mental models. And don’t get me started about the touchscreens everywhere situation…
It isn’t just software though - VW moving development and above all production engineering and planning to china since they failed coming up with an efficient solution in Wolfsburg is basically saying it all. [1]
Given that the driving characteristics of most of the cars on the road don't match a BMW, what're the real "real important car things"? The revealed preference seems to be that the things you listed aren't actually that important. Long term cost is. Maintenance cost is. Not having to bring your car to the dealership for service is. Having the car have a long lifetime is. Handling well is nice; sporty drivetrain is nice; but that sort of stuff is clearly just a luxury, and the bottom dropped out of the luxury market recently (see: LVMH restructuring). If you're going to buy a sporty luxury car, why not get a Porsche or something with more cachet? Obviously there are reasons, but BMW's in an awkward position.
A good design from engineering standpoint. You feel it just instantly when you use the product. Interior is nice and will accommodate just about every possible driver comfortably with every control reachable. Suspension just works frkn great no matter how it was tuned (sporty or comfortable) and no matter how simple the design is. Same for drivetrain, you will acelerate/decelerate precisely how much you'd expect. And it's not a luxury it's a norm, even cheapest german or french cars have all this things sorted out. I'm speaking for the EU market though)
I’m suprised this is a surprise to many - shouldn’t this be equally likely as those black holes we can only see since they’re not done yet consuming everything in their reach?
Out of that shameful letter, five astronauts have direct business ties to Elon Musk or SpaceX. Three more, have indirect or advocacy ties to Musk. Also SpaceX and related Musk business have hired, several former NASA astronauts as advisors or consultants, so I guess for the rest we just have to follow the money.
Scott Kelly signed that letter, but not sure he would stand by it, when Musk associates start decimating NASA.
Oh, and since when did we start calling Space Tourists: Commercial Astronauts ? Dennis Tito spent 8 days at the ISS and nobody would call him Commercial Astronaut
Plus the above example of the culture of finger pointing, hence avoiding accountability for the lack of vision.
Getting into the game too late and wasting a ton of cash on cars that miss actual target-user’s needs and wallets.
Unfortunately, this is a pattern having emerged in Germany since quite a while - it’s either the pandemic, putin, the government, china or whatever is en vogue to put blame on.
German engineering prowess is dying a slow death caused by their own ignorance of their arrogance.
They are still selling cars for the badge but people are slowly realizing that things have changed.
And don't get me started on the quality of their automotive software. I just bought an Audi so the pain is still fresh but after two weeks I'm still not able to properly login to my car - actually, it's 4 (four! yes!) different logins, and one of them is stuck to Italian. To call Audi software "garbage" is an understatement, and if there's anyone working there in here, yes I stand by my statement.
Spent 7 years at the three pointed star within design and UX - one day, when i’m over all i had to witness and experience i’ll write a book about the downfall of the german automotive industry.
It’s all politics and due to constant battles and changing ownership throughout departments they won’t ever have a solid foundation. And i dare to assume that this goes for most of the automotive industry.
It’s sad to see that a once driving force of innovation is stumbling over its own arrogance and ignorance.
A major factor contributing to this are cost saving measures from the early 2000s where most of them stopped in-house research and development giving most of the work to contractors - a very expensive cost saving measure long term.
We’re down to them using “technology” as a seasoning for consumption like a fancy restaurant - very little long term thinking.