Non-RRer here, but I am an electrical engineer with experience in power and electronics for both public and private sector projects. At age 40 now, my career is mostly in field troubleshooting and less in the design aspect of things. Based on previous entries it seems like there are several distinct areas of problems, from software, data signals, connector hardware, etc. It sounds like Siemens is using a CAN Bus architecture with various controller nodes throughout the locomotives and along the train line data link. CAN Bus is an ISO standard, originally developed by German manufacturer Bosch and has been loved by OEM manufacturers and hated by field engineers, techs and mechanics ever since. CAN is used in EVERYTHING nowadays and it has its benefits and its downsides. It is used in every single car and over the road truck, used in Airbus aircraft, factory machinery, and even on Broadway shows (my current industry). OEMs like it because it's "off the shelf", cheap, uses a small number of wires to transmit data between nodes and provides "flexibility".
Most manufacturers of large, complex, machinery have moved to overly complex computer controlled systems because computerized systems are cheaper to design and make than mechanical systems. This is especially true if you are making customized versions of a product line for multiple customers, like Siemens is for Amtrak, Brightline, VIA, etc. Instead of having to do completely custom wiring harnesses and hardware to meet each customer's specs, they just build nearly identical units and use custom software, developed by 3rd party outsourced developers who live wherever coding labor is cheapest today. All large equipment manufacturers outsource much of their initial code development to 3rd parties and when the final product is delivered, the team that did the actual coding is long gone and the team supporting the updates is entirely different people, who had little to nothing to do with its initial development. So there's no "institutional knowledge" on the software side. But it was cheaper, so shareholders got their quarterly dividends.
CAN Bus is extremely finicky to troubleshoot. Have weird sensor issues in your car? Probably CAN Bus problems. I helped spec one of my volunteer Fire Dept's newest apparatus. It had the option of being a hybrid of old school relay tech and some CAN Bus or being 100% CAN Bus. I went with as little CAN Bus as I could and I still have all sorts of dumb problems, especially if you don't boot or shut down the rig "properly". If one of my older guys, who isn't computer savvy drives the rig and isn't super careful with procedures, we'll get dumb ABS issues, airbag system sensor issues or even transmission issues where it won't shift into gear until you "reboot" the truck. Our newest rig, which is a borderline lemon, is 100% CAN Bus and its even worse. The County's Tech Rescue Team of which I'm a member also has an all new rig, which is also 100% CAN Bus, and we have all sorts of dumb sensor and software issues. For example, if you put it in drive, all of the back lights for the dashboard turn off, unless you turn off the headlights or put it in park. Dealer and manufacturer can't get it sorted, over a year later (dealer not only won't honor the warranty, they won't even answer the phone anymore because they want to wash their hands of the damn thing). A buddy of mine is the field service head for a major NYC tower crane company and he's constantly complaining about CAN Bus nightmares in their newest cranes.
It is only going to get worse as manufacturers care more about delivering a product as cheaply as possible to maximize their profits and end users get shafted, because there's limited to no other options. Who are any of these railroads going to go to for new, higher speed passenger locomotives? EMD and GE barely want to make new freight locos for the US market, let alone passenger locos. Bombardier screwed up everything they touched. Kawasaki is currently in trouble with numerous projects. CAF USA made a mess of Viewliner 2 project. Hyundai-Rotem screwed up, Alstom is having issues with the Acela replacements, so honestly, why should we expect any less of Siemens? Cars and trucks are honestly not much better. Boeing has almost put itself out of business with its software screw ups on numerous projects. Nearly every Lockheed and Northrop project I have friends at from college seems to have software nightmares too.
In the end, my daily motto is that "Technology is Terrible" and it's honestly up for debate if humans inventing technology was really all that great idea in greater scheme of things, or maybe we would have been better off staying in the trees of the African savanna.
---Electrical Engineer---
5th generation from Harmon (Croton-on-Hudson, NY), home of the MTA MNRR Harmon Shops.
B.S. Elec. Eng. Tech., Rochester Institute of Tech.
"I have problems sleeping at night when I can't hear the idling of several GE locomotives reverberating off the hills."
