I've been working a few years in various SW-related roles in the broader MB ecosystem. It helps to understand those german car manufacturers are not monolithic entities, there is a confusing system of subsidiaries dealing with software, often overlapping in scope and competing over projects. Hence, a MB software engineer would often work at DFS, DMS, MBition, FreeNow or one of those shops. By design those do not adhere to corporate standards and they emulate start-ups, i.e. k8s, aws, slack, table tennis, bro culture, beer.
It's a curious setup because most of those subsidiaries ("corporate startups") are huge money sinks and produce little of value. Salary is decent/good, the offices are lavish, and the tech can be interesting. The downside: you cannot shake the feeling of being on a large playground with rich, generous but eventually indifferent parents. I'd say in germany, it's a good place for juniors to pick up some technologies and skills, quite a few former colleagues ended up at prestigious tech companies later.
Core technology like autonomous driving, Engines, CAN, etc... is developed in-house with more rigor, compliance and process, and the disregard for "software engineering" is also due to those agile software subsidiaries producing sloppy 2nd tier, unsuccessful auxiliary technology like apps, services or entertainment stuff. Unlike maybe Tesla, MB or BMW could not afford the reputational damage for selling half-broken autonomous driving.
It's a curious setup because most of those subsidiaries ("corporate startups") are huge money sinks and produce little of value. Salary is decent/good, the offices are lavish, and the tech can be interesting. The downside: you cannot shake the feeling of being on a large playground with rich, generous but eventually indifferent parents. I'd say in germany, it's a good place for juniors to pick up some technologies and skills, quite a few former colleagues ended up at prestigious tech companies later.
Core technology like autonomous driving, Engines, CAN, etc... is developed in-house with more rigor, compliance and process, and the disregard for "software engineering" is also due to those agile software subsidiaries producing sloppy 2nd tier, unsuccessful auxiliary technology like apps, services or entertainment stuff. Unlike maybe Tesla, MB or BMW could not afford the reputational damage for selling half-broken autonomous driving.