Comment by xyzzy_plugh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by xyzzy_plugh | Hacker News Reader

This is funny to me, in a perhaps sad way. I've interviewed quite a few Tesla software engineers and worked with several ex-Tesla software engineers in various capacities.

The impression I have is that Tesla software is fucking terrible, generally. I'm sure there are some smart folks there and I don't mean to disparage anyone working there but, the stuff I've seen or heard is enough that I would never purchase one of their vehicles for those reasons alone.

That being said I've worked with even fewer folks from other automotive companies, and the impression I get from them is that for the incumbents it's nearly as bad as one could imagine, so the article doesn't surprise me.

All of which makes me pretty sad. My most recent vehicle purchase was largely driven by the desire for the least "smart" features possible. But why is this?

In software, the closer to metal you are, the harder the problems are (mostly due to constraints) but the worse the job is -- pay, culture... it's all bad. Why?

> the closer to metal you are, the harder the problems are (mostly due to constraints) but the worse the job is -- pay, culture... it's all bad. Why?

Not saying it’s universal, but I’ve seen this being related to lacking economics of scale. You write software for a limited fleet of widgets and have to constrain your expenses.

I don't know what software you are referring to. But with the IVI, which is what users interact with, the difference is night and day.

Most cars have shitty, laggy IVI that will get no meaningful updates. You are on many cases almost forced to use Apple/Android Car.

Teslas give you more of an Apple treatment. You will receive meaningful updates for years. It is mostly fluid and good looking. It is exciting for the people looking for the latest gimmick, the same way people look forward to iOS 15 or whatever.

>Teslas give you more of an Apple treatment. You will receive meaningful updates for years.

What is the cutoff for Tesla cars receiving software updates? Are the early models no longer supported?

At the moment even the earliest 2012/2013 Model S still receive updates. Those updates don’t contain all the fanciest features anymore, because they’re limited by the specs of the system (1), but you still get map updates, small improvements and gimmicks. The last update for the old cars introduced Tidal as a music streaming service (2), for example.

(1) Cars that old come with what’s called MCU0 or MCU1. They’re both running on a Nvidia Tegra chip. MCU2 uses Intel Atom and MCU3 uses AMD Ryzen. For 1500 euro you can update on any car from MCU0 and MCU1 to MCU2. Even the old 2012 models.

(2) Tidal was already available for newer cars with MCU2 since end of ‘21.

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