[Yunk]

I have a friend who worked for TI's automotive. They sold it off as the entire sector is bellow TI's minimum profitability level. So cost is issue #1..

But the subtext in the article makes it pretty clear. They are tracking cost of design as accurately as unit costs.

It is largely an "in for a dime in for a dollar" scenario for each internal engineer when they approve a design direction that appears to cut a cost. The larger oversight is unaware of some of the hidden issues and each engineer is motivated to paper over them to some extent to protect their relative standing. The engineers who are completely transparent are completely unemployed.