I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that more and more cars are becoming computer networks with wheels. This is not necessarily a good thing. Computers can be very difficult to work on and even harder to troubleshoot. Cars with distributor caps, points and rotors required a lot more maintenance than today’s electronic ignition systems…. but you could often figure out what exactly was wrong with them, and often fix them yourself.
A recent article about one of the more popular new cars, the Toyota Prius, came to mind. A few days ago, there was an article on Ars Technica about the Prius and how there is a software problem that has affected about 30 of the 2004 and 2005 models. It seems that this software bug causes the cars to just stall out on the highway. In some cases, the cars will not start again after this, and must be towed to the dealership for a software update. This strikes me as particularly dangerous.
A couple of years ago, I saw a story on the BMW 745 series, where the on-board computer which controlled most of the interior functions of the car would go haywire. The phone and the climate control would fail, and you couldn’t get them back up and running without a trip to the dealership. The car would stall out, even if there were still plenty of fuel, when the computer thought that the fuel tank was empty. This also struck me as pretty dangerous.
A car is supposed to be a reliable piece of technology. The computers that run modern cars haven’t had the bugs worked out and that is a serious worry. Having a car come to a fairly abrupt halt on the highway, because the software on the car has failed, hasn’t killed anyone that I’ve heard of, but it is only a matter of time.
The use of computer chips, and more sophisticated software to provide new features is a convenience when they work. When they fail, they seem to just up the repair costs by an order of magnitude, and the diagnosis is often much more difficult than a similar problems on simpler system.
Enough is enough… technology is great…but there has to be a limit to it. When technology starts making our lives more complicated and less livable, I think then the technology has gone too far. In many ways, simpler is better. To the product manufacturers I would say, don’t add technology to a product for technology’s sake… only add it if it will truly increase the value of the product to the consumer. And if you decide you must add technology to a product…make sure that it is at least as reliable as what it has replaced. I don’t think that is too much to ask.