Bad software choices - can some things be modded?

[BlackTruckGuy]

Hi,

I'm a professional software engineer for embedded systems so I may be a bit overly critical because I know how it "should have been done" while most people just use the software obliviously.
There are several things that are just annoying with the software's operation such as:

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fan control
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You twist the fan speed control to 7 (Don't they know 10 is the number! *** 7!) and 5 seconds later it gets there.
Then you twist it to 1 and 5 seconds later it gets there.

I can't tell you how dumb this is. It totally removes the ability to grab the *** and adjust it while looking out the window. It isn't saving the fan motor because if you wanted to do that the ramp up time is much less. It is just a dumb arbitrary value that makes your truck look like it has a laggy slow axe processor (Which I'm pretty sure it does...or its even worse software than I thought.)

The operation should be that with 0.5 seconds it goes from full off to full on smoothly (thus eliminating fan wear). It should go from full to off in 0.5 seconds as well.

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Stupid warning about uconnect
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If you want to display it once fine then it should go away. If you insist on it being there then as soon as the truck starts being operated it should go away. As it is now if you get into an accident claim you were reading the uconnect message and were distracted by RAM. They can pay the bill!

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Software occasionally flips on your flashers while using apple mapping features
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Ya should never do this. But what this tells me is that via a usb bus you have access to things you should not have access to. Would not be surprised if I could write a program that allowed me to control your brakes and throttle via bluetooth. (They will claim otherwise....mostly because they don't know about it. But I would not be surprised.) Oh and by having a bug like this it makes people say stupid **** like "I bet you could totally make someone crash by blue tooth...totally man! Dur.". I realize how dumb that sounds but it allows the argument because of **** software.

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Slight delay on accelerator pedal
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Maybe because I have a heightened sense of timing from playing too many fps games...but the throttle response is slightly lagged. Not as bad as a turbo, but more than a 1970's nova with mechanical linkage and a carb. Gotta think it is the software again and a too slow of refresh rate on the pedal or controls.

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Dumb turn off radio feature
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OK this is just dumb.
The truck knows when you open the door. You stop and let your passenger off and shut off the engine. The radio plays and finally shuts off after some delay. So think about that. The truck just decides you have had enough radio? It knows you didn't open the door...hmmm maybe they left through the passenger door?...but even then they know I'm sitting in the seat because there is a sensor there. I'd really love to hear the design teams explanation for this one. Oh and yes I know just hit the button again without the brake pedal.

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Big delay needed when turning aux back on because the radio is going to go dead in a little while.
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OK so I know that if I shut the engine off the radio will follow shortly so I take the precautionary step of turning the aux power on. Can I do it quickly? Nope. I must do a 1 count and then press the button. There is this thing called switch bounce. Switch bounce does not occur anywhere near a full second. It is measured in single digit milliseconds. So I would expect that 50 ms I'd be able to energize aux.

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The etorque restarts the engine when it should not
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Foots on the brake. Etorque decide to save me some gas and shuts off. I decide to flip the gear changer from D to P. Oh he changed gears! Start your engine! Noooooo! Why the hell did the engine just start when my foot is still on the brake? This is just dumb. The logic should be such that if I'm trying to move it restarts otherwise stay shut off.

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Etorque trucks should have coast mode (Not really a problem but a wish.)
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I sure wish the truck would coast with the engine off when it could. I realize this might not be automatically doable, but a user input would be nice. Especially in mountains or large hilled areas. Lots of stuff you could do including engine braking, and max speed settings etc.

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Locks
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Apparently some doorknob dropped something on the lock button while getting out of the vehicle...AND must have had the fob on the dash...BECAUSE there is a delay to lock and unlock your door. Get out press the lock button on the door and close door. Hmmmm....not locked. Open door. Press AND HOLD button and it locks ...FINALLY....
Seems to be a theme with this software. Everything is SLOW reacting. Your lucky I don't do this with flight controls, engine controls, clutch controls...So maybe its a difference in aviation systems vs. tinker toy not very good automotive embedded software engineers.

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Collision warning shutoff switches
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OK you have a trailor hooked up and have to turn off the backup collision detection. You do that...drive where you need to...unhook the trailer...turn off the truck...come back 2 days later...back over a tricycle. What the...oh the sensor is still disabled. Why RAM why! Reset these suckers on power off or after an hour. Could be you disabled it and forgot to turn it back on and your wife gets in next and runs over that tricycle. Again a feature to reset or leave in place would be nice...


I know I'm forgetting some other things.

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Having menus for every settable thing instead of goofy sequences of key on , brake press and etc.
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Title pretty much says it all. Have a menu to set anything that can be set.

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Make all things settable such as warnings displays, radio off time, auto-lock speed, headlight off time etc.
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Make all things customizable because your factory decisions are often dumb.

P.S. If somebody from RAM would like this work done I am available to do it as either a solo contractor or with a team through the company I work for.

 

[BlackTruckGuy]

Nobody finds any of this **** annoying? Not very good. This is the kind of stuff China does.
Might as well buy an old 1970's pickup. More reliable and stuff works instantly.

 

[hemihustlin]

oh I agree 100%
while I find the uconnect system very good compared to the others I have a few bugs that get me good

first memory too small for the favorite artists and songs on the satellite radio. I find this feature quite handy so I filled up the list. would like more spots but the big problem is that sometimes it does the ding notification for fav song on air but when I go to the favs screen it says none of your favs are playing at the moment but one or more actually is. This usually resets itself after a power cycle but annoying. also seems provoked by my removal and replacement of a fav song when its all full.
I could also use more than 12 fav stations haha.
last weekend when I was driving the uconnect shut down and rebooted several times in a row. hasnt happened since...

 

[BadHemi2014]

Slight delay on accelerator pedal
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Maybe because I have a heightened sense of timing from playing too many fps games...but the throttle response is slightly lagged. Not as bad as a turbo, but more than a 1970's nova with mechanical linkage and a carb. Gotta think it is the software again and a too slow of refresh rate on the pedal or controls.

This is why a bunch of us install a Pedal Commander or similar throttle response controller, it eliminates that lag.
You aren't the only one to be annoyed at this stuff, there's a whole thread here about it:
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/what-dont-you-like-about-your-ram.98831/

 

[crash68]

You twist the fan speed control to 7 (Don't they know 10 is the number! *** 7!) and 5 seconds later it gets there.
Then you twist it to 1 and 5 seconds later it gets there.

I can't tell you how dumb this is. It totally removes the ability to grab the *** and adjust it while looking out the window. It isn't saving the fan motor because if you wanted to do that the ramp up time is much less. It is just a dumb arbitrary value that makes your truck look like it has a laggy slow axe processor (Which I'm pretty sure it does...or its even worse software than I thought.)

The operation should be that with 0.5 seconds it goes from full off to full on smoothly (thus eliminating fan wear). It should go from full to off in 0.5 seconds as well.

Yet a shining example of an engineer that has a complete disconnect from how things work in the real world.
Just because you think it should be able to change speed in less than a second doesn't mean the hardware is capable of controlling the fan that tightly, nor do the NVH engineers want it to.
If turn the power off to the fan motor, it doesn't stop instantly, it will spin down slowly. The fan speed control doesn't have any form of reactive braking capabilities, nor is it needed and would add a stupid amount of expense to the HVAC system. To go from a dead stop to full speed in under a second the speed control would need to actually over drive the fan to achieve that kind of acceleration. The speed control is not capable doing any form of torque control which, you guessed it would add a stupid amount of expense and the NVH engineers don't want it either.
Other than fan slowing down a bit much for my liking, the fact the fan changes speed while using Auto climate control smoothly changes speed practically unnoticeably shows the engineers know what their doing.
The auto companies invest a considerable amount of money making vehicles quiet while operating.

 

[Scottly]

This is why a bunch of us install a Pedal Commander or similar throttle response controller, it eliminates that lag.

So does pushing the pedal faster and further down....Which is all the pedal commander really simulates. It doesn't "solve" anything.

 

[BadHemi2014]

So does pushing the pedal faster and further down....Which is all the pedal commander really simulates. It doesn't "solve" anything.

I must respectfully disagree. Have you tried one?
Even if you stomp the pedal, there is still a slight delay before the truck responds.

 

[Scottly]

I must respectfully disagree. Have you tried one?
Even if you stomp the pedal, there is still a slight delay before the truck responds.

The pedal itself is nothing more than dual potentiometers, one verifying the other, with 5-volt signals going into them and a 0.4v - 4.8v coming out. Any of the aftermarket devices that are added, including the beloved Pedal Commander, do nothing but lessen the amount of pedal travel required to produce a given output signal. I don't mean this personal, please don't take it that way but... Speaking from the perspective of operation and what it's engineered to do...Any performance "gain" is purely in the head of the operator.

 

[tron67j]

Just another point of view and only applies to me. Locking the door, I never do it other than with fob and it is instantaneous; keeps me from locking key in truck. Fan, I need low, medium, and high (have 4 speed) and never have a lag on speed increase. Maps - I use Google maps from phone through Android Auto. Updates are always free and never have my blinkers come on. Just the point that software, like anything else, does not always work the way we want and instead works as the designer made it. So reducing reliance on one all-encompassing software package to do things has made my experience better (easier?) than some who post on here.

 

[BlackTruckGuy]

Yet a shining example of an engineer that has a complete disconnect from how things work in the real world.
Just because you think it should be able to change speed in less than a second doesn't mean the hardware is capable of controlling the fan that tightly, nor do the NVH engineers want it to.
If turn the power off to the fan motor, it doesn't stop instantly, it will spin down slowly. The fan speed control doesn't have any form of reactive braking capabilities, nor is it needed and would add a stupid amount of expense to the HVAC system. To go from a dead stop to full speed in under a second the speed control would need to actually over drive the fan to achieve that kind of acceleration. The speed control is not capable doing any form of torque control which, you guessed it would add a stupid amount of expense and the NVH engineers don't want it either.
Other than fan slowing down a bit much for my liking, the fact the fan changes speed while using Auto climate control smoothly changes speed practically unnoticeably shows the engineers know what their doing.
The auto companies invest a considerable amount of money making vehicles quiet while operating.

Sorry but I am a software engineer with a minor in electronics with 30+ years of experience in embedded software. Electric motors by design have very fast response times. In fact some traction motors can blow themselves up if the controller tells them to. So this delay of a full 5 seconds is completely some random choice made by an idiot designer. Yet a shining example of someone knowing nothing criticizing experts in the field and giving laughable examples. Just use an old 80's car and flip on its fan and then shut it off. It behaves exactly as I desire AND still works 40 years later. The method of speed control is via pulse width modulation. The controller can make the pulse width 100% instantly. The motor will react as if it was hooked up to a switch that applies full voltage. It will be at full speed within 1 second. The braking of the fan is done by the fan blades. It will not blow any significant amount of air after 1 second. The current design it is 5+ seconds on and off.

 

[BlackTruckGuy]

The pedal itself is nothing more than dual potentiometers, one verifying the other, with 5-volt signals going into them and a 0.4v - 4.8v coming out. Any of the aftermarket devices that are added, including the beloved Pedal Commander, do nothing but lessen the amount of pedal travel required to produce a given output signal. I don't mean this personal, please don't take it that way but... Speaking from the perspective of operation and what it's engineered to do...Any performance "gain" is purely in the head of the operator.

Exactly. The delay is completely a software issue. My old 2012 RAM had no such delay. It might have had a smaller one but it was not noticeable to me. My guess is the cause is one or a combination of:
a.) a slow sample rate of the pedal
b.) Controller lag to calculate new throttle position
c.) a slow update rate of outputs
d.) If the throttle control is a separate controller on a bus it could be that control or even delay introduce by CAN bus.

As of now I notice the delay.

For educational purposes:

Lag - is a delay in response to inputs. You press the pedal at time 0. Then 100 milliseconds later it reads the pedals position. If your controller pushes the pedal "harder" it still is doing it 100 milliseconds after you pressed it. The controller would have to know you were about to press the pedal and do it before you actually pressed it. This only works in Deloreans with fusion drives.

 

[jawzs2]

As someone who's spent 20+ years making COTS software work and fixing it when it breaks, I owe software engineers a big thanks - they help pay my mortgage

 

[BlackTruckGuy]

As someone who's spent 20+ years making COTS software work and fixing it when it breaks, I owe software engineers a big thanks - they help pay my mortgage

Agreed...As someone said "Auto companies don't do random whatever, there's usually a significant amount R&D to meet the design specs for vehicle." and because of that the 3rd party and aftermarket stuff is always "inferior" right Jawzs2! Yeah we know better. The real truth is that auto-manufacturers get stuff working and then call it good enough. Should ask Ford about Pinto's and exploding gas tanks...or Chevy and the side gas tanks...or VW and the emissions of diesel engines? **** everyone knows you never buy the first year model because the 2nd year of the line will have all those bugs worked out.

 

[Richmond2000]

I have no proof but was told the throttle delay is emissions related and "intentional" not a HW / SOFTWARE stack "issue"
it is to allow the closed loop emissions systems to "keep up" with the engine - also why modern engines "hang" when you release throttle to shift a stick shift car
the HVAC fan I don't know why as that is NOT a "common" practice at least not in heavy trucks / equipment - Volvo tractors with auto climate will ramp up / down the fan but in a 2 - 3 second ramp rate
Peterbilt's are "instantaneous" within pulling rates between the climate computer and the motor controller with is a low current PWM signal
and as for "annoying" quality of software design / UX try using a modern Volvo "DIC" )-: makes the RAM work well
but the next gen VN-X likely will be totally "glass cockpit" the Fh and Fn-X are

 

[StickyLifter]

I sure wish someone could tune the rev hang out, I really hate that. The slow fan control deal is also an issue on my 2014, it's way slow to ramp up and down. Also, sometimes I have to turn the air director knob all the way to defrost and back to get it to switch to my feet or back up to my face.