The problem there was the junior co-pilot responding all wrong and the other pilot not noticing because Airbus sticks don't move together. The captain woke up, came to check and realized what was wrong but did so too late to fix it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/business/worldbusiness/11...
However, as airbus released the first fly by wire airliner (a320), they have more experience in software over boeing. Boeing was always afraid to give too much power to the software, a boeing plane has more mechanical backup than an airbus.
I sincerely hope that they are not fucking around by following the agile trend from the sw industry, and instead stay focused on old and proven engineering development practices.
I must say that this whole boeing show makes me scared to hop in a boeing, and is another reason why i will now seek flight in a a320 instead of a 737. The first reason is simply comfort, the 737 cabin size is really too small.
Edit : the a350 had a bug where the pilots needed to switch off the plane every 149h, and recently they discovered a bug in the a220 P&W engine (not airbus developped) leading to engine shuting down in flight. They also found a kind of mcas like bug the a321neo, but I think it happens in extreme manoeuver which can be only replicated in simulators
A Boeing with an engine fire will pop up a dialog saying “flight computer detected a possible engine fire, would you like to shutdown?”. An Airbus with an engine fire will pop a dialog saying “flight computer detected an engine fire, shutting down engines”.
The joke being Boeing pilots have a chance of saving the plane in the event it’s not an engine fire, Airbus will just do what it thinks is best and let the pilot sort out the aftermath. MCAS changed all that