Porsche Software Testing

[tigerbalm]

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/202...ngineering-focus-on-the-essentials-33203.html

Porsche discovers continuous integration (CI) and you'd swear they'd landed on Jupiter the way they are banging on about it!

It's interesting though that this article explicitly focuses on Porsche Connect services – which have delivered a pretty rough experience to users so far.

I am amused that they explicitly mention they have 110 software testers working on this. Firstly, that seems like a very high number – also, every one of them know they are signing off on infotainment software that is not anywhere reliable enough.

Most of us sit into the car not knowing – as an example – if Apple Music will: (a) work, (b) take 30 seconds to start working, (c) decide to log you out and tell you can't log in again as you are moving. This is true of almost every Connect service.

For sure things have gotten better – a lot better since early 2020 – but Connect Services software quality is not something I'd be bragging about.

Now the software controlling the brakes, PDCC, 4D chassis, steering and all the drivetrain elements – now that's good software!

Porsche Connect/Infotainment: some distance to go!

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[mikezhang31]

Typical corporate, how would internal people know you're a big deal if your project or partnership doesn't get a corporate PR?

 

[JWreck]

I don’t entirely disagree, but it does make me laugh when I look at our Rivian in terms of feature set and software stability….it makes Porsche look like the market leader.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

@tigerbalm it seems to me the focus is on automated integration with the HiL test benches - and you'll probably appreciate, if you have done QA with HW, as not being trivial at all. The large number of QA engineers is probably a reflection of the different locales with their respective requirements (e.g. which maps you can show where, whether a driver action is permitted or not and so on.)

 

[TXAG]

Typical corporate, how would internal people know you're a big deal if your project or partnership doesn't get a corporate PR?

A while back some of my work colleagues compared Corporate PR to seagulls. They flew in, strutted around with their chests puffed out, ate all the food, squawked a lot, crapped all over you, and flew away.

 

[OzzieT]

110 multi-disciplinary team, complete automation yardie yardie yardie. All this may well be true, however the whole platform still runs on an IBM PC with Windows XP on a 28.8 dial up copper connection from the People's Republic of North Korea. At least that's what I thought when I got into my car this morning and my clock was displaying European time - it has since reverted to the correct local time. Lets also not forget the weekly glitch when the main screen just flashes 'Porsche'.

 

[Alfa]

This is very good news! I am a bit surprised (and not at the same time) that it took them so long. In the past we did in car entertainment as a side gig and had a fake dash set up from day 1. Now let’s hope they start listening to end user feedback, have a collaboration for their ADAS systems with big tech (because Germany is sort of behind on that front) and Porsche will kick ass!

BTW: you can never have enough QA 110 might be a little bit low, depending on how big they want to scope this.

 

[JohnPM]

Now the software controlling the brakes, PDCC, 4D chassis, steering and all the drivetrain elements – now that's good software!

Generally the responsibility of the subsystem providers rather than the vehicle manufacturer, with the manufacturer's role being tuning of the associated control parameters.

 

[whitex]

Porsche discovers continuous integration (CI) and you'd swear they'd landed on Jupiter the way they are banging on about it!

The more scary part of this is, how were they testing it before?

 

[whitex]

For sure things have gotten better – a lot better since early 2020 – but Connect Services software quality is not something I'd be bragging about.

They are testing it on 30 RiL rigs, I can almost guarantee they never test edge scenarios such as marginal cell coverage, possibly not even no cell coverage. I am convinced the intermittent locking out of my app (says car is in privacy mode even though they car says it's not) is related to some edge scenario where the car and the cloud are communicating via spotty cellular coverage, causing some state machine to get FUBRed for few hours. This always happens to me when I travel out of major cities, so through some spotty cell coverage areas.

With the complexity of Porsche Connect and PCM software, with all of its docker containers, I am certain they don't have 100% code coverage testing in place, like they (hopefully) do for ECUs responsible for drive train or battery management.

 

[daveo4EV]

trust the software the comes from the motorsports side of the equation…it's been run through the ringer - ECU's, transmissions, suspension, battery, cooling, etc…

there is no PCM/PorscheLogin/cloud in any of their motorsports products…

 

[hvywght]

It's been our biggest disappointment with the Taycan- infotainment gremlins. You really never know what you're going to get or not get. It's currently working correctly about 70% of the time at least. I have had zero issues with the infotainment in the BMWs and even my ex's Chrysler Pacifica is better and without glitches (UConnect is pretty good).

It is a spectacular drive and built very well not to mention great range and styling. But infotainment is a Porsche and VW group shortcoming. I believe the software issues are why the all-electric 718 cars have been continuously delayed.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

trust the software the comes from the motorsports side of the equation…it's been run through the ringer - ECU's, transmissions, suspension, battery, cooling, etc…

there is no PCM/PorscheLogin/cloud in any of their motorsports products…

Exactly. The specialized software of the various car systems is relatively trivial in comparison to the UX and its myriad of user touch points or upstream dependencies. Clever != complex.

 

[Edward]

Here's a Porsche GitHub repo if you want to see how they do things: https://github.com/porscheofficial

Most of it seems to be Porsche Digital + porsche.com website stuff. But at least you get a feel for how their PRs work.

That said, the PCM stuff is not developed in the open source world. So maybe they do need 110 QA testers?

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