The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company

Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by brobinson on Monday April 11, 2016 @10:34PM (#11476824)

Same here. I'd love to work in automotive tech. I recently came across Koenigsegg's camshaft-less, pneumatic valve actuator system and it made me question everything I know about cars/bikes.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by mathattack on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:04AM (#11478516)

But you would prefer Ford over working at Apple or Google's auto groups? Or Tesla?

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by brobinson on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @01:29PM (#11481610)

Good question... I guess I don't really care as long as the projects I get to work on are interesting and I actually get to work rather than dealing with bureaucracy. I like when big companies essentially create internal startups which are independently managed.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by mathattack on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @01:51PM (#11481837)

Subsidiaries are better than the mothership, but it's very hard for subsidiaries to get things done. (Lots of great ideas at Xerox/PARC, but they struggled to bring any to market) The Ford subsidiaries are forbidden from selling outside of Ford. That limits the customer base. Meanwhile, there won't be much in the way of equity, so hiring/retaining will be tough.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by HeyLaughingBoy on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @02:05PM (#11481977)

The overwhelming majority of businesses do not give their employees any equity. I think that will be the least of their problems.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by brobinson on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @02:06PM (#11481987)

Fair points, but as someone who is about -$25,000 in the last 9 years on ISOs/equity at startups, equity isn't something I'm really looking for or caring about unless I'm joining a very early stage company.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by mathattack on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @06:07PM (#11483992)

Would you really take the Ford bureaucracy over Google auto's? I can understand taking Ford for work-life balance, but I haven't heard anyone claim that's a reason to work there.

If people have true success stories of corporate outposts out here, please share. I'm happy to be proven wrong.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by kabdib on Monday April 11, 2016 @10:34PM (#11476826)

Take a good look at the management structure.

If the management tree is deeper than log(2) your age, run away :-)

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by _delirium on Monday April 11, 2016 @10:45PM (#11476857)

I personally slightly prefer deeper management structures, all else being equal, because they usually result in less management I have to directly deal with. In "flat" organizations it's often the case that you're not very deep in the org chart, but the layer you're on is densely webbed, so there are 3 or 4 people in the level above you who you de-facto report to in one way or another. With more hierarchical organizations you're usually insulated from these other managers because you only directly report to one. For me, having fewer layers of management above me, but in return having to deal directly with a larger number of individual managers, isn't a good tradeoff.

(This is assuming a roughly normal company overall. Something that really takes being flat seriously, like a worker's cooperative, might be different, but I've never worked at such a place.)

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by dagw on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @04:37AM (#11478012)

Absolutely. Working on auto-related stuff would be far more interesting to me than any of those three you mentioned.

Sure, but the question here is would you rather work on auto-related stuff at Ford or Apple? Admittedly I have no idea what Apple is up to, but I do know from a couple of acquaintances working in the car industry that they've recently interviewed a ton of automotive engineers.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by JorgeGT on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @06:42AM (#11478418)

> Sure, but the question here is would you rather work on auto-related stuff at Ford or Apple?

Ford, of course. Where my manager and my manager's manager and so on know about the technical aspects of automobile development, facilities for automobile-specific testing (engine test cells, turbocharger test cells, wind tunnels, anechoic chambers, etc.) are available, experienced technicians can advise me...

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by dagw on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @08:25AM (#11478884)

Ford, of course.

Given how many engineers I know of whom have left traditional car companies to go work for automotive 'startups' it seems that they have a real problem holding on to talent despite the advantages you mentioned.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by JorgeGT on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @12:21PM (#11480917)

Well, automotive engineering is a very big field involving lots of disciplines (mechanics, combustion, modelling, NVH, design, aerodynamics, etc.) so I assume it heavily depends on what you like to do :)

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by HeyLaughingBoy on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @02:11PM (#11482050)

I have the same amount of knowledge of the internal workings of either company: none!

But I do know that if I wanted to get into the auto industry, I'd rather go with the one that has 100 years experience instead of the one just getting started.

It depends on what you mean by "auto-related stuff." In-Vehicle entertainment? I'd go to Apple. Powertrain management (the stuff that I'm more interested in)? Ford, no question.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by santaclaus on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @01:22AM (#11477423)

Google/Alphabet X is working on auto tech. It's also pretty obvious that Apple is, too.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by mathattack on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:04AM (#11478515)

But would you prefer Auto at Ford to Auto one of those firms? Or Tesla?

Perhaps I'm just jaded by the traditional Detroit mismanagement.

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Re:The new Ford, a Silicon Valley software company by mathattack on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @05:38PM (#11483803)

But how about auto-related work for one of them (or Tesla) versus Ford?

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