by Anura Guruge
on November 12, 2022
The Google software on 2022 Volvos, e.g., the XC60, has been an unmitigated disaster. It has been painfully chronicled on the Internet. The entire automotive industry knows about what happened. Google had no idea how to make RELIABLE, RESILIENT software. Their software is OK on a PC or phone where you can afford to have some hiccups. But, that is NOT the case with a car. Software problems on cars can KILL. I am sure Google’s software on Volvos must have, by now, contributed to multiple accidents. Of course, Volvo nor Google, is going to make it easy for us to find out.
It is true that Renault is totally irrelevant in the U.S. It fled the U.S. in 1987 — its tail between its legs. No great loss now — & they will be even worse after this ill-fated relationship with Google. My adoptive parents lived in France for over 17-years in the late 1970s. I was living in the U.K. Between us we owned a number of Renaults, I a Renault 17 & my parents a couple of 25s. They were good cars. But this was over 35 years ago. Renault is now a non-entity. A no-op.
So, maybe they were really, really desperate. You would have to be to partner with Google knowing that Google essentially sabotaged Volvo.
