[jim_trent]

Q. Did it have -- did the person that run the test have to make the task die? A. Yes. So using the same tech screen, laptop basically as Toyota test equipment hooked up to the car's computer, he was able to simulate the bit flip. Of course we can't -- you know, as scientists we want to test something, we need to be able to make it happen, we need to make it happen in no time. We can't just wait around for that particular bit to flip, which may take a long time. So he was able, using that same computer, to, you know, enter a command and cause that bit to flip. And then that would have the effect of killing that task in the vehicle. And then the rest of data is the data collection of cars's behavior around then.

So they hacked it, inserted a command to "flip" something and it malfunctioned. But, they did not cause it to malfunction. It would have malfunctioned eventually. They just could not wait around for it to "flip" on its own, but trust them when they say it would happen eventually.

[Stevenc131]

“So they hacked it, inserted a command to “flip” something and it malfunctioned. But, they did not cause it to malfunction. It would have malfunctioned eventually. They just could not wait around for it to “flip” on its own, but trust them when they say it would happen eventually”

If I were a judge, they would have to prove to a very high degree of certainity that the bit flip would eventually happen on it’s own. Most systems have debug modes that allow you to stop a program at a particular point and bring up a command line where you can manually change a data element to whatever you want. It’s a good method to test a particular situation, but it has to be relevant to mean anything.

In the case of the Toyotas you still have a group of millions of cars that have operated for multi-millions (or maybe billions) of hours collectively without anything going wrong. I would want the experts to be able to explain how you can have millions of hours of operation without a failure, then suddenly the program in some random car just generates bad data on it’s own. To me it’s just b.s., same as the bogus Audi ‘sudden acceleration’ problem in the 80s.