Can someone fill me in on the future of the automotive industry for software developers? Specifically about Continental, do they have a bright future? What are the most interesting roles there? And what tech stack do they use?
Last time I contracted for Continental, they were measuring developer productivity by lines of code.
My team lead actually asked me to unroll for loops just to hit KPIs.
I doubt things have gotten better since then.
What do you think about the “software-defined vehicle” project? I also heard that Continental uses high-level tools like Java and web languages. Can you share some insights on that? I get why they’d want to use AI and machine learning, but what’s up with the web component?
They promote themselves as using programming languages to write programs? Impressive.
And they say Germans aren’t funny!
Honestly, it feels like they know little about actual software development and have a management culture more suited for a sausage and pretzel factory. They’ve been surviving on government support for a while, so you’ll definitely get a paycheck. There’s a big emphasis on “defining the product,” while the actual implementation is seen as blue-collar work.
As for the web part, I think they’re talking about moving some HMI controls to a tablet with a web browser, a trend started by Tesla that many consumers actually hate.
Some German companies are trying out subscriptions and in-car purchases (like paying for heating) to make extra cash, so I guess that’s a big part of it.
I can’t see them creating anything better than a clunky version of Shopify built into the dashboard, tied to money traps all over the car.
Overall, my take on their “software-defined vehicle” is simple: “I don’t care,I drive a Hyundai.”