The government should have safety regulations such that if a 50 cent microprocessor fails the car will not continue to accelerate, and be unable to shift, or to stop.
Manufacturers are even now talking about electric steering that is computer controlled. So there would be NO linkage from the cab of the car to the engine/transmission. Just a wire sending commands. And they could do variable steering in software.
Well, I have 2 degrees in Computer Science, and I am not gonna be driving a car with non fail-safe controls.
Maybe we could convince all the liberals to drive “fly by wire” cars, and just sit back and wait......
There is a fail safe; you can turn the car off. In the case of the state trooper, it was a loaner car, and he wasn’t familiar with the keyless ignition system.
Just because the guy was a cop doesn't mean he knew how to drive. This was an unfamiliar car and we have no idea if he just didn't know how to operate the vehicle other than a third persons panicked phone call to 911. Your whole argument is based on this indecent. Have you noticed no other episodes have occurred since then? Many of the "problems" at the time were immediately sourced as scams to sue Toyota.
I would generally agree with you if "fly by wire" cars were causing a steady stream of problems. There just haven't been any. I dislike these cars for maintenance reasons, but as for safety, the jury is still out.
Also take note that this MSM panic happened at the exact time GM was on the skids and the Gov't took them over. They really needed their competition to take a hit as they rolled into #1 car manufacturer. There are no coincidences.
“Maybe we could convince all the liberals to drive “fly by wire” cars, and just sit back and wait......”
HAAHAHAHA :-). Now that’s an EV I’ll support right off the bat :-)!
The term in the industry, I thought, was “drive by wire” though “fly by wire” technology is widely used in aviation ... I guess it has been adopted by the automotive industry.
I can see how the technology *can* work and be safe. Those 50 cent microcontrollers are pretty robust and reliable these days. Networking them for redundancy is not as hard as it used to be. Still, it’ll take several more years ... I agree 100% that these things should not be on the road right now. The system will have to be as reliable as “fly by wire” systems on modern airplanes. I don’t think these cars have something that reliable ... not when you’re engineering for cost in the case of automobiles. Even a 0.5% failure rate can kill a lot of people.
I think drive by wire faces two big problems ... one is that the driver gets no feedback from the steering mechanism. When you hit a pothole with a traditional steering system, you can *feel* that via the steering wheel and take corrective actions. I cannot see how that happens in a drive by wire system. The system could sense an event like this and give you some indication, but the driver would only *feel* the thud through the chassis ... the steering wheel would do nothing. A force-feedback system could be used, but then the computer is simply going to give you an estimation of the *thud* you encountered.
The other problem I see is, in the event of failure, how does the system know how where to point the wheels! Say the system fails and you are driving 65MPH. It can’t just kill the ignition and let you coast to a stop. You still need to be able to steer!
Something that could work in the interim is a hybrid mechanical/wire system. Primary steering can be handled by wire. A mechanical system could be used as the “backup” in the event of a catastrophic failure of the primary steering system. The mechanical system wouldn’t have to be engineered for “long life” ... in theory (heh heh), it wouldn’t be used much if at all.
Like you, I’ve programmed and designed all sorts of computers (I mainly deal with FPGAs anymore). I can see the benefits of drive by wire, but I prefer to be safe ... this technology has a ways to go in the automotive world :-)!