Leaving Snapp Automotive
Today is my last day at Snapp Automotive. It’s been a difficult decision to make, but, for me, leaving is the right thing to do for many reasons.
Firstly, I’m a believer in adding value or getting out of the way. The current state of the automotive industry, and where Snapp Automotive is right now, means I don’t believe I’m adding enough value to stay around.
I could keep taking a salary and spend my time on hobbies, but I believe that course of action will only cause friction in the company, and put things on a bad path. I’ve been in the position where I’ve put in long hours to earn money for a company, and watch other folk seem to deliver little and take home a good salary. It’s not a nice feeling, it’s not something I consider an honourable thing to do, and so it’s not a path for me.
Secondly, there’s what’s happened in the automotive industry. When we started SA there was a lot happening; Android Automotive OS wasn’t widely adopted, there were lots of micro-mobility and EV startups, and so there were clear opportunities. Over the past four and a half years that has changed.
Many automotive start-ups have significantly shrunk, or have gone out of business. Arrival, Sono Solar, Lightyear etc., are no longer on a trajectory for large scale growth and success, and those are just a few of the names that have hit the headlines, there are many more that folk won’t even know about.
AAOS is also now a thing most automotive manufacturers have plans for. Their strategies are in play, and, while there’s a place to help them deliver on that, or refine their strategy, those opportunities are mostly in-house, or are following the trend of most software development jobs.
Finally, with our product, SnappOS, there has always been an issue with hardware. There basically isn’t an affordable “buy it off the shelf” solution for automotive head-units, you’re either looking at high costs (due to the low volumes), which makes projects infeasible, or you hit the wall of companies who have existing units but don’t have the ability (usually for legal reasons) to give you everything you need to build a recent Android firmware for their device. Customers rarely have their own hardware, so a company with only good software can easily lose out to suppliers who can offer software and hardware.
What’s next? Who knows. AI is a thing, and while I’m currently pretty convinced we’re near, or at, the top of the bubble with it, I could be wrong, and it seems worth digging into, but then again someone could turn up tomorrow with an idea that grabs my interest in another field.
So, for now, it’s thanks to Juhani Lehtimäki, Casper Kessels, Jasper Morgan, and all the other folk at SA for the fun ride, but this is my stop, and it’s time for me to get off the SA bus.