My Car's OTA Update Broke Android Auto: An Indictment of Modern Software
My car's OTA update broke Android Auto, and it's a indictment of modern software
A recent firmware update on my MINI Countryman completely disabled Android Auto and CarPlay, exposing the failure of rapid deployment cycles. I argue that the industry's obsession with two-week sprints and compliance mandates like Cyber Essentials Plus prioritizes speed over quality, forcing users to act as unpaid beta testers while software quality degrades across platforms like Windows 11.
If we don't start demanding that software works before it leaves the developer's machine, we are going to keep paying premium prices to act as unpaid, frustrated beta testers for the rest of our lives.
- charles_f
> I have to call MINI at some point and demand they fix this garbage
That would never occur to me. Whenever something produced by a large company breaks, I pretty much assume there's no signal possible back to whomever is responsible for the breakage, and that whatever is broken now is broken forever.
To the author's point, they're A-gile, but forgot that the first step in the process was customer feedback
- odysseus
Kia just did this with their EV9 update - it broke CarPlay with a blank screen a few minutes into driving, which then reverted itself a minute later. Another OTA mostly resolved it. Neither of these updates explained what happened or what the fix was.
- michaelje
Once upon a time, physically shipping faulty software had real costs borne by the organization - production, redistribution and transportation of a physical disc.
Today there’s no disc, no recall - that cost to shipping broken software is gone. We the users pay the price.
- foofoo55
> I am not your QA department
The article is a lovely cathartic rant against agile software development methodologies applied in the wrong place in the wrong way, whether or not the software(s) in question used such methods. On of the worst assumptions, I believe, is that the end-user is willing and able to function as testing/QA without detriment to the product and company.
- BeetleB
It's not an indictment of modern software. It's an indictment of using SW where not needed.
Don't put discrete, isolated HW functions behind a SW powered screen. It's that simple.
- hparadiz
Auto manufacturers need to realize that one bad software experience means lost sales of entire cars. Fail to provide a good experience at the cost of your brand for years to come.
- ww520
When I bought my car, it had no Car Play or Android Auto. Upon some investigation I found out that both of them were installed on all the current models. It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. Some open source software for the car entertainment system flashed on the car was able to turn on the flags to enable various features including Car Play and Android Auto. So a happy story.
- naturalmovement
Glad to own a car that will only update via USB and even then only when I want it to.
Which is never, unless something is broken.
Having rolling releases for a CAR is absolutely stupid.