Let's take a step back when it comes to automotive software

When I was driving a 1985 Volkswagen Golf in the 1990s my local garage could fix anything on the car as long as it didn't involve the vehicle electronics.

Roughly a decade, in 2004 to be precise, I wrote a column for Automotive News Europe that noted that in Germany 60 percent of all breakdowns were electrical or electronics related. Around that time, one of the biggest news stories was that Mercedes-Benz's new E-Class was suffering serious problems with its own electronics.

Fast forward to 2024 and we're experiencing déjà vu on an almost daily basis. The focus of the auto industry is on software and it's causing massive problems.

Two European examples: Volkswagen is having to postpone the launch of several key electric models because its Cariad software division cannot deliver on schedule the software needed for the group's Scalable System Platform (SSP). That's according to the Handelsblatt newspaper and manager magazin.

And according to Automotive News Europe, Volvo is delivering its flagship electric EX90 without some key software features, which aren't ready yet and will be delivered through over the air (OTA) updates later.

VW and Volvo are just two examples, but it is clear that software is a major headache across the industry. “Software development and management are occupying center stage in automakers' plans,” S&P Mobility wrote in a July research note.

Failing software strategies are negatively impacting automakers' plans. Next to product delays, they have resulted in management turmoil as well as huge, largely ineffective investment The result: malfunctioning driver assistance systems, non-intuitive interfaces and unhappy customers. It's all part of the software conundrum now facing the industry.

So, what can be done?

First, let's stop rolling out new features that aren't perfect. This may sound simplistic in a highly competitive global market where product innovation traditionally drives buying behavior.

And, yes, tech enthusiasts love beta-testing systems before their official release.

But many people, me included, are perfectly happy to buy a car with a set of functions that work. Moreover, compare those features with what is on offer in a 10-year-old car, the average age of the passenger car fleet in Germany, and most drivers are in feature-heaven.

Second, make sure that anything that can be shut down legally, can be disabled. That includes adaptive cruise control that misjudges obstacles, speed-sign recognition that misses signs, emergency stop technology that brakes when there is no emergency, near-constant alerts that warn about non-existent dangers and, yes, autonomous-driving functions. I love technology when it works, but I would rather not have it if it isn't perfect.

Third — and I have said this before — bring more digital-tech expertise into the uppermost management ranks of the auto industry. It can't be that cars' digital functionality is often primitive and unintuitive while almost all smartphones now offer a near-flawless consumer experience.
 

That's a management issue. I know that a car is much more complex than a mobile phone, but, in terms of customer acceptance, it is held to the same standards as every other consumer product. The industry now strives to build software defined vehicles (SDVs). That requires software expertise at the very highest level.

In my view, it's perfectly OK to take a step back when it comes to introducing new technology in cars. There are some relatively new digital functions that customers like and that work well. I'm talking about easy smartphone connectivity, CarPlay and Android Auto integration, a good screen, maybe a few key apps, and some configurability. Even cheaper cars offer this nowadays.

There is nothing wrong with keeping things simple. That is especially true in the era of OTA updates. Cars can be updated if and when it makes sense. As Volvo CEO Jim Rowan told ANE in July: "The whole point of a software-defined vehicle that has over-the-air update capabilities is to continually upgrade that software. We can do that."