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AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,989
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From: DC
The Tesla crowd love crushing Audi for this software error. I just lump it in as a trivial oversight that some engineer left in as 'yes there is an inspection due'.
The fact of the matter is that the software could use an overhaul, but it is not a priority for Audi or even VAG. Thank goodness this is one of those 'errors' that we can just smile about. And the lift is great.
The fact of the matter is that the software could use an overhaul, but it is not a priority for Audi or even VAG. Thank goodness this is one of those 'errors' that we can just smile about. And the lift is great.
AudiWorld Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 1,138
Likes: 394
The Tesla crowd love crushing Audi for this software error. I just lump it in as a trivial oversight that some engineer left in as 'yes there is an inspection due'.
The fact of the matter is that the software could use an overhaul, but it is not a priority for Audi or even VAG. Thank goodness this is one of those 'errors' that we can just smile about. And the lift is great.
The fact of the matter is that the software could use an overhaul, but it is not a priority for Audi or even VAG. Thank goodness this is one of those 'errors' that we can just smile about. And the lift is great.
Somehow, across all those miles, nobody came across this message and made note of it needing to be changed. They also never noticed the fact that listing the upcoming gas stations in the nav is a bit useless and annoying.
AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,989
Likes: 901
From: DC
"Logged a million test miles ... bla bla bla" ... remember the bragging from 2 years ago?
Somehow, across all those miles, nobody came across this message and made note of it needing to be changed. They also never noticed the fact that listing the upcoming gas stations in the nav is a bit useless and annoying.
Somehow, across all those miles, nobody came across this message and made note of it needing to be changed. They also never noticed the fact that listing the upcoming gas stations in the nav is a bit useless and annoying.
I would almost bet a paycheck that it was noted by the testers, but the software guys simply said 'it works'.
I am really starting to get the impression that the software was designed in a vacuum and that as problems were fed back into the system, an acceptable answer was 'functions as designed' regardless of whether or not it functioned as a user would want.
I would love to know if the project manager responsible for the coding ever gets to drive the final product and see the implementation outside of a black box.
AudiWorld Member
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 561
Likes: 145
I have a little darker take now of the software designers.
I would almost bet a paycheck that it was noted by the testers, but the software guys simply said 'it works'.
I am really starting to get the impression that the software was designed in a vacuum and that as problems were fed back into the system, an acceptable answer was 'functions as designed' regardless of whether or not it functioned as a user would want.
I would love to know if the project manager responsible for the coding ever gets to drive the final product and see the implementation outside of a black box.
I would almost bet a paycheck that it was noted by the testers, but the software guys simply said 'it works'.
I am really starting to get the impression that the software was designed in a vacuum and that as problems were fed back into the system, an acceptable answer was 'functions as designed' regardless of whether or not it functioned as a user would want.
I would love to know if the project manager responsible for the coding ever gets to drive the final product and see the implementation outside of a black box.
AudiWorld Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 1,138
Likes: 394
We crack a lot of jokes about the sorry state of their software dev and QA processes and yes, for anybody in the business, it's quite obvious what's going on there.
The software was indeed developed in a vacuum, i.e. separate from the vehicle testing; the prototypes and test vehicles surely ran on the Q8/A6 software and nobody paid much attention to such messages since it was not supposed to be the eTron-specific message. All that would be perfectly normal, provided that they performed thorough integration and regresssion testing afterwards. It looks like there has been precious little of that, in the rush to get the vehicle out.
It's still surprising though. Germans love checklists, sometimes more than beer and bratwurst, and the fact that they let so many small issues fall through the cracks would indicate that there was a lot of stress and chaos in that team. Since they're not exactly lacking in terms of capital and resources, that points to weak/incompetent management.
The software was indeed developed in a vacuum, i.e. separate from the vehicle testing; the prototypes and test vehicles surely ran on the Q8/A6 software and nobody paid much attention to such messages since it was not supposed to be the eTron-specific message. All that would be perfectly normal, provided that they performed thorough integration and regresssion testing afterwards. It looks like there has been precious little of that, in the rush to get the vehicle out.
It's still surprising though. Germans love checklists, sometimes more than beer and bratwurst, and the fact that they let so many small issues fall through the cracks would indicate that there was a lot of stress and chaos in that team. Since they're not exactly lacking in terms of capital and resources, that points to weak/incompetent management.
AudiWorld Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 1,138
Likes: 394
I feel the same way. For example, just yesterday I was driving on a country road -- one that I have driven on before many times with my eTron -- and the SOS error warning came one and the SOS light on the top center console was red instead of green. It was an overcast day, but I have driven through there when it was raining and overcast. Apparently, the signal was just a little too weak at that moment. But what was irritating is that as I returned to town, the SOS warning light was still there. It was never programmed, apparently, to keep checking whether or not the signal improved. I stopped at a store, did my business, came back out and started the eTron and the error went away. I have seen other false-positives (the fragrance low error was another one-off I haven't seen return) in this vehicle as the software is hyper-sensitive to anything not 110% correct. The proper way to program something like this is to perform multiple tests over a period of time and if all of those tests come back negative, THEN report something. This is how the OBDII system works. I would say the design is the problem if the programmers built it to design specs
Every piece of actually-german software I've come across completely fails to grasp the concept of exception handling and does not treat errors based on importance and relevance to the user but rather on the "zat ist nich permitted be und must be korrekted" principle, such as the warning in your example.
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