It doesn't seem like a huge thing when you are only thinking RAM trucks. But when you zoom out and consider the number of VIN and vehicle details across all Chrysler, heaven forbid all of FCA, the data set gets larger and more complex. Worse yet, it's likely the data spans multiple changes in DB technology Chrysler/FCA/Stellantis has put in place where old data may or may not get converted from old format and storage to new format and storage.
I've had more than my share of nightmares walking into various company's overly complex, legacy burdened, poorly managed, IT situations.
In a car company, IT is going to generally be seen as overhead (pure cost center) and not a key area of investment because of imperceptible ROI.
Edit: After writing this I saw this article about a snap ring wrecking transmissions
https://hdrams.com/nhtsa-opens-investigation-on-some-2022-ram-hd-trucks/ I wonder if any beancounters were involved overriding engineers to save a buck.
You can still get Jeep Monroneys. The main theory is that Ram has actually reduced prices on MSRP's and did NOT want the originals available for comparison or likely for those who have already purchased one at the regular price. And so, they are reducing pricing and need to make a bunch of new Monroneys. Interesting take on IT. My history is that they can tend to become a dominant force within a company to the extent that the primary mission for an organization can be subverted for the NEEDS of IT. It's the beancounter corporate syndrome at the digital level. More than one corporation has been brought down by bean counters when the creative and engineering people who created the product sold were sidelined by the bean counters. DeLorean was forced out of Ford by this dynamic.
Example: Let me tell you about a bulletproof GM transmission put in late 90 Blazers/Jimmy's where some kind of bean counter audit was done, a formerly metal part within a transmission was changed and made from some kind of synthetic material and at arouind 30,000 miles. It save less than a buck a unit but, it quit working. They never did fully acknowledge it and certainly didn't do a recall. It threw a code that told mechanics where to look first. If you stopped pretty much at the first indication of failure you only had to do a 1500 buck fix. That's all my wife had to pay. I saw the code, something was wrong and I stopped and had it towed. But a whole lot of people with that transmission had to do full transmissions. All because a bean counter wanted to save a few cents... What's customer satisfaction worth? How many didn't buy another GM product because of that. Oh, she got rid of it in the cash for clunkers thing got a Subaru.
Now we live in a digital world dealing with data and IT is the new bean counters. Or likely they work together to keep organizations from meeting their primary objectives. AND AI may just supplant its creators who designed it to help them and then it doesn't need them.
Specific example: I was in public health at a state level. The majority of our funding comes from the Federal Government with requirements in order to receive it. In one state IT refused to allow portals with required connections where if they didn't work, we could NOT do our jobs kind of priority. IT said, nope that compromises our security you cannot do it. This went on for weeks for key surveillance systems across the system and we literally could not report data required by our funding, the raison de etre for existence. IT said we would have to find some other way to report. They were also over Medicaid expenditures and were going to do the same thing.
Finally, CDC AND CMS at the highest levels like Assistant Secretaries called the Governor's office and laid out that one our agencies were what was important, not ensuring security to the point where it prevented the agencies from doing their primary jobs their entire purpose for existence. They then put a number to it from Federal sources and noted that all the other states were managing to get it done and fix it, NOW. We had an IT Director with control issues at the state. Oh, she ended up losing her job when it was discovered she was having an affair with someone at the Govenor's office. We figured that was why no one had reigned her in earlier. Her control issues and her entanglements ended up getting her.
