Infosys scores deal to write code for EV-maker Polestar Indian tech services giant Infosys has scored a deal to write code for Swedish electric vehicle outfit Polestar. Infosys on Wednesday announced it will work on in-car infotainment, advanced driver assistance, telematics, software and electrical/ electronics engineering, user experience (UX), and unspecified "cloud-powered …
Infosys worked on an integration at one place I worked, since they maintained (but hadn't originally written) the third party system that was being integrated with.
The code was supposed to be supplied in "vertical slices" of functionality on a monthly basis. After three months and no code, our CEO intervened and demanded something be delivered by Infosys.
The code that arrived had hard coded paths to things like user directories on their developers Windows PCs, didn't even compile and was a spaghetti mess with no discernible architecture. There were even glaring SQL injection vulnerabilities where they just concatenated strings into raw SQL statements rather than using prepared statements.
I was so frustrated that I wrote an integration over a weekend which provided the core functionality we needed. The CEO and head of IT then got a contract lawyer to write to Infosys and thankfully got us out of the contract. So no money directly lost, but three months of delay and my time wasted reviewing their code, doing my own implementation and providing evidence of Infosys's incompetence to the lawyer...
Infosys won a contract at one place I worked to produce an integration and data management solution. Similar to your story, we intervened after a few months and demanded to see the code.
It was an absolute horror show. Hardcoded credentials and paths. Conditional statements nested > 20 layers deep. Empty exception handlers. User credentials (including passwords) being sent in cleartext into the application logs. Wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, I trawled the code to look for at least some evidence of some good practice, or even any signs that anybody knew what they were doing, but I came out empty-handed.
The contract stated a defined coverage of unit tests. There were none whatsoever, and this is what allowed us to wriggle out of the contract and inhouse the development.
In our case the warning signs where there as soon as the contract was signed. We were a Java and Spring framework on Linux environment with PostgreSQL as the RDBMS, and the contract clearly stated that was what the solution Infosys were to provide would be implemented in and for. The moment we signed the contract I, as as the in house lead developer, started to receive emails asking for licenses to Microsoft products such as Windows and SQL Server and access to a development environment for that platform.
It turned out that they completely ignored our technical spec, and wanted to implement in C# and .NET for a Windows and SQL Server platform. When we pointed out the contract they had agreed to stipulated Java, Spring and Linux that was when things went quiet. The code I eventually received looked exactly what I'd expect from novice Java programmers - it was like a case study in how not to code a Java application. Given how C# and .NET are basically Microsoft's Java clone, I can only assume from the sheer ineptitude displayed in the code we received that we were relegated to having their most inexperienced programmers work on our project.
I'm sure it's all part of "enhancing the user experience" and in no way data mining whatsoever.
Makes you wonder how long it'll be before we get cars refusing to start until they've had a system update - or require a functioning internet connection to release the handbrake!
Imagine the possibilities. Integration with the local traffic management system, so cars can broadcast taylored ads on to the windscreen while you are stopped at red traffic lights. Refuse to release the seatbelt until you've read through and agreed to the latest terms and conditions update. Including the organ harvesting clause, just in case the software crashes you in to a tree.
Think I'll walk!
jim> Rose, our car just crashed!!!
rose> How come? We are still driving?
jim> Look, I am pressing accelerator, brakes, look even can't turn on Classic FM!
rose> Thank god for the last one. So what now?
jim> I guess we'll crash too!
rose> I know, we are going to Steph's.
jim> No you weirdo, we will have a car crash!
rose> Yes, you said it crashed but we are fine?
jim> You don't understand, nothing works!
rose> I know! Have you been to the doctor as I told you?
jim> Not THAT silly.
rose> That hedge over there looks nice, I'll start calling 999
jim> Finally!
Are they no aware of Infosys and the quality of the code that is provided to their customers.
Either wrong and it will do some weird shit, or so badly written and slow that while it may detect something as being an issue and what to do, by the time it has got through all the crap coding it is too late
And then, it's too late.
Not necessarily. Cars are one aspect of technology where there's no lock-in, so it's easy to change supplier.
After a couple of years experience of VW's crappy new infotainment system, and their total disinterest in fixing it, I am absolutely certain that my next car will not be from VW group.
I have to add dealing with the infotainment of a Ford something-or-other circa 2012-13, Microsoft-supplied. On two different trips.
Never could get my phone to work over USB, the darn thing to shut up about GPS precision in emergencies each time I started the car, etc... No music. Deep nested submenus, with error/help messages referring to missing deep/nested submenus. It was a chore just getting FM to work.
That thing was so horrible that I would never buy a car with MS-branded infotainment systems in it.
Apparently so bad that it derailed Ford sales as a result and MS got dumped. As gloriously, gloriously, reported by El Reg: https://www.theregister.com/2014/02/25/ford_dumps_windows_for_qnx/
Outsourcing realtime safety critical software (advanced driver assistance) is never a good idea. Especially when you outsource it to a large company for whom you are a small unimportant income stream. Infosys will do what they do here, deliver a minimum cost solution. This is minimum cost to Infosys , which means the minimum quality they can get away with. Polestar will either spend more money on QA than they would have on development or end up with a poor quality solution.
They need to be aware that the low quality might not be obvious in the first release. However, updates will be expensive, especially if Polestar want to change hardware (e.g. new sensors).
As they are only a small customer for Infosys they are over a barrel. All they can do is drop their trousers and bend over.
TBH I have no direct experience with Infosys , but I have seen this scenario play out with TCS.
I had a Polestar as a hire car earlier this year. Very nice vehicle, but all the touchscreen stuff -- which is just about everything, really -- is run on Android. So Google gets to track me driving too.
Great.
Note to manufacturers: when my current lease expires next year I could well be in the market for an EV. But it won't be one with Google stalkware built in.
-A.
This post has been deleted by its author
I do have one. A P2, hence why I commented. Bit weird assuming I don't (especially as I'm posting anon - I'm hardly trying to impress internet strangers).
Nothing to do with prejudice. Plenty to do with Infosys being a large outsourcing company, with questionable secuity practices (do your own research), even more questionable ethics ("70 hour working week"/refusing to pull out of Rusia) and a particulalry questionable record in the UK.
I have a problem generally with large outsourcing companies, and Infosys in particular as they're what's left over when you've scraped the bottom of the barrel, but cheers for accusing me of being a racist.
The Horizon scandal demonstrated the quality of code considered acceptable for a huge expensive project. Those of us who have seen outsourced code from outfits like Infosys will be well aware that a schoolchild could probably do better.
Yes, it's unfortunate that a certain country is implicated (or maybe a certain sector of business), but really, a shitshow is a shitshow.
Nobody does. It's tanking, so that explains why they're making moves like this.
Polestar stock tanks after big Q2 loss and CEO quits - Quartz
https://qz.com/polestar-evs-q2-earnings-loss-replace-ceo-1851635177
Polestar Posts $242 Million Loss Amid EV Demand Slowdown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-29/polestar-posts-242-million-loss-amid-ev-demand-slowdown
Volvo to Dump Most of its Shares in Struggling Polestar
https://www.wardsauto.com/industry/volvo-dumps-most-of-its-shares-in-struggling-polestar
That also means there's real value to be had in Polestar. You can pick up a nearly new P2 LRDM (with near hypercar acceleration), low mileage, still with Polestar warranty, zero tax, no fuel costs, and they've lost nearly 1/2 or 2/3rds of the value over the new ticket price. Shop around and you can pick up a Polestar for <£20k.
They're cheaper than the comparible Tesla. They look nicer. The interiors are far nicer, and they're not manufacturered by a raving drug-addicted nazi. Win/win (or at least, it was win/win until Infosys got involved).
Very few people actually want an overpriced soulless battery car these days, those that have tried them miss the experience and aural feedback of driving a proper car, those that haven't have no interested in a one peddle milk float no matter what the claimed 0-60 times. Those who consider driving to be the just the process of getting from A-B and hate the experience, value the entertainment system of the EV more than it's driving dynamics, and even they now will be but off by the atrocious buggy mess which is the enviable consequence of engaging InfoSys in any project.
There are many forums online that show how poor their current software update process is anyway. They had Android Automotive OS 11 which ran kind of fine, then they upgraded to AAOS12 which is terrible at memory and process management. Now they have a system that closes background apps like Spotify when you want them to run. Also they've had to shut off the maps on the dash to allow the reverse camera / sensors to function in real time. Shows just how under allocated these vehicles are.
P.S. my 2022 Volvo has been in the dealership many times over the past 6 months, sometimes for a week at a time, just because of this software.
https://volvo.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10366/~/ota-%28over-the-air%29-software-updates
Been a mostly very happy PS2 driver for a bit more than a year now. The car looks good (at least that's what I think), build quality is very good and it's an absolute joy to drive.
The only real downside are the software problems. Since the last update I've had to force-restart the infotainment system at least once every other week. (Note that many basic car functions, such as ventilation/heating/AC, audio feedback etc. fail when the infotainment system falls over.)
Android Auto (connecting my Android phone to the car, as opposed to Android Automotive, the OS that the car runs) is missing entirely.
For two weeks I've been unable to update the buggy Deezer app or use other nice-to-have features until I've supplied Google with a copy of my passport for 'age verification' purposes.
And now Infosys.
I suppose once the lease runs out next year I'll be shopping around for another car.
Not that this is a fault of EVs per se, mind you. ICE cars get the exact same crappy infotainment.
a few years ago I was driving my wife's lexus and coming off a slip road it braked really hard, my wife screamed at me saying "what are you doing", I said wasn't me, was your car which had pre-sense braking turned on. There was no traffic for over 100m. I has similar experiences with pre-sense on my audi as well, if I swing the car into the left to avoid an island in the middle, and there is a car parked on the left, the pre-sense slams the brake on, only if it thinks the velocity and distance I'm going to hit the car, but I know it's not. The algorithm they used here doesn't match what a human can do within the time period.
The other one I used to use the cruise control and lane detect on the motorway but stopped after reading this
https://www.rushlane.com/car-cruise-control-jammed-12215785.html
Quote> "My car is not coming out of the cruise control"
Now I just want a car without a computer!
