Rivian says “fat finger” caused software update to brick infotainment systems, physical servicing may be required::Today’s cars are more like computers on wheels, and even a seemingly routine software update can lead to unexpected consequences. Rivian unfortunately experienced a “fat finger” mishap with their latest software update, bricking infotainment systems […]
I’m a tech enthusiast, but I increasingly am slowing my roll on all updates but security updates. The era of heavily QAing feature updates is ending, which is leading to some frankly annoying issues across the board, from car software, to phone and computer software. Even GPUs don’t seem to be immune from occasional bugs in the latest updates.
Companies and orgs really need to dedicate more time to making sure updates are vetted and clean before releasing them. It might cost you some money up front, but it saves you PR, security issues, and hotfixes in the longer run.
I have yet to work for a company where management cares about this. It’s always about what can be sold next week if we rush it enough. Or, more commonly, what was sold weeks ago without any consultation with the technical team.
It’s a problem everywhere. Rush to build something, then don’t actually finish it, or iron out the bugs before moving on to the next sexy thing. Management wonders why everyone is on the super ancient, rocksolid platform and hasn’t really taken the bait on the series of products that have an “agile” development cycle and were dropped after about 5 years.
Guys…my entire team knows the issue. Support your damn products for years. Commit to improvements for a decade, and help people transition to a new product when the old one has to be sunsetted for technological or knowledge worker retirement reasons.