Software and the Auto Industry

Many years ago I was wondering why personal computer (PC) pricing was dropping and car pricing was rising. Several news articles explained the difference, but I still did not get it. I never thought much about it because I did not want to reboot my car at 75 miles an hour on a highway.

One day though I ran across this information from http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showwiki.php?title=Model+S+software+firmware+changelog that has a change log.  I have many change logs for our U2logic application software and our XLr8 tools software.  I know what those are.  I own two cars. I know one of those cars has about 7 computers. But never once have I had the dealer call and say I need a software update.  With, I’m guessing here, millions of lines of code running these computers why have I not ever had an update?

Maybe the auto industry, except Tesla in my example, thinks you bought the car or truck as is and you don’t need and update. Obviously, the government will not let a safety update be withheld, but all else is up to the auto company you bought it from.

Let’s, for example, buy a car without cruise control, automatic door locks, and dual air conditioners for you and your seat mate. A few months after you bought this great car, you want the prior mentioned options.  Guess what you are out of luck whether by design or by lack of forethought.

Maybe if all cars were built with all of the hardware installed and the software controlled the use, then you and I would have to pay for those options just like we do with our desktop software.  With the reduction of components that go into the car by using software to control those options, there would be some price reduction but nowhere what I would like.

Next time you are driving to work think about all of the functions you are using to get from your home to work that could be computerized.  Or maybe I will be calling you from my “Johnny Cab”.

Bug Tools not in U2 Shops.

In U2 world (Universe, Unidata, and D3) very few of us use any bug related tools.  Maybe your IT department uses a spreadsheet for all outstanding tasks, or maybe you use email from users to fix and change software.  At U2logic many years ago we thought we would create our own tool.  We definitely were suffering from NIH (not invented here) mentality.  Our tool looked great because it was web based, but it suffered from a lack of vision of what was important.

One of the more important components was email feedback.  Whenever a task or problem is requested of you or your programmers, it should be visible to the entire staff.  That way if someone is on vacation or it is after hours then many eyeballs can and will be watching the bug tool queue.  When status is changed on your task or problem, the user that requested the task or pointed out the problem should be emailed with that notification.

Another important component that was missing in U2logic homegrown version was the ability to upload pictures.  We did not even comprehend how important this was to users.  Some users would spend hours designing a report or web form and we would either not pay attention to it or we would do our own thing for whatever reason.  With a great bug tool programmers and users should be able to upload screen captures, spreadsheets, text documents or PDF’s, so that everyone can visually see what is wrong or what direction they would like to go.

One component we have found that users and programmers must have is ability to edit and re-edit their comments.  We cannot tell you how many times some of programmers cannot spell and that makes the bug tool and the issue look bad.  We have found that users have sent us off on tangents because of bad descriptions of the problems.  Now, they still have bad descriptions but we can edit them back to reality.

After we abandoned our in-house tool, we went to Bugzilla which was very good but not well received by our users.  We have dropped Bugzilla for JIRA last year which is a paid tool unlike Bugzilla which was free.  Whatever tool you decide to use make sure it fits within your organization and those you support.