Why didn't BMW get DCT software right the first time?

[JEllis]

Originally Posted by rldzhao

First, congrats to DCT owners for the new update!

My question now is, why didnt BMW get it right the first time? These cars are tested to death before release, so the testing engineers must have noticed big problems like stalling and laggy response. But why did BMW release a tranny with a faulty software anyway? Were they rushed? Not sufficient funding? Bad program manager?

It just seems odd that BMW would allow a very important new technology w a bad software come to the market and be tested for less than its actual potential.

Two part answer,

1. As others have said getting software right the first time never happens...NEVER happens, no matter how much testing was done ahead of time.

2. Most of the problems owners have been having are isolated cases. For example, I have experienced none of the stalling issues others have reported. While some drivers have had some serious issues, others have only noticed a shift lag which occurs in certain situations. The downshift problem only makes itself known during heavy braking. I myself have only encountered the redline/shift lag issue one time and I have been driving my DCT aggresively for almost five months now.

This forum tends to amplify issues with long threads and lots of people chiming. I applaud BMW for addressing the noted gripes with the DCT logic, especially since many of the fixes only effect aggresive driving/track situations.

Jason

[M3WC]

This won't be the last DCT update, guaranteed.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by man02195

They dumbed it down so people wouldn't break anything in the first 6 months of serial production. Then when they were certain it was OK mechanically, they released version 1.1.

OR

They didn't have the capacity to produce 100% M-DCTs, so they released a buggy version so people would be scared away and buy a 6MT. Now that production's ramped up on M-DCT, they released the updated software.

Your first answer is kind of like what I was saying, but I hope you were joking with that second one since its quite preposterous.

[AZ-BMW]

Originally Posted by man02195

They dumbed it down so people wouldn't break anything in the first 6 months of serial production. Then when they were certain it was OK mechanically, they released version 1.1.

OR

They didn't have the capacity to produce 100% M-DCTs, so they released a buggy version so people would be scared away and buy a 6MT. Now that production's ramped up on M-DCT, they released the updated software.

OR

They let their customers debug it (ala, Microsoft style)

[man02195]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Your first answer is kind of like what I was saying, but I hope you were joking with that second one since its quite preposterous.

yes, kidding on the second one, it was put in for the 6MT people to laugh at.

[rzm3]

Originally Posted by AZ-BMW

OR

They let their customers debug it (ala, Microsoft style)

haha with the connectedDrive, updates will be directly downloaded to the car