Attack of the Robot Cars
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How comfortable are you with some of the new high-tech features on today’s cars? Looking over some of the posts on Automotive Forums, some newer cars are creating serious problems for their owners, and sometimes getting them injured. Range Rovers with electrically adjustable suspensions going flat at high speeds, Toyotas with electronic throttles that accellerate out of control, BMW’s that die suddenly on the highway…
What you have now are a lot of first-generation systems. Automakers feel compelled to deliver bleeding-edge stuff, and it doesn’t always work out. But given that the shift to electronics is unavoidable, the challenge is to make these systems more user-friendly.
In other words, the reliability of these systems isn’t quite up to snuff, and the people buying the cars that use them are basically beta testers for the automakers. Yikes. And it sounds like the automakers are trying very hard to keep things quiet about the problems people are having, making them sign NDA’s in order to get things settled.
I recently had an opportunity to see what gizmos, gadgets and doodads are on vehicles newer and more expensive than what I usually drive — I won the use of a 1999 Chevy Corvette to drive around for Father’s Day. (Fun ride, but way more car than I’m up to owning right now, so the 1-day thing was great.) Heads-up display, computerized traction control, in-dash computer that switches to display engine status, tire pressure, inside and outside air temps, moment by moment gas mileage (did you know that a Vette can get 80mpg? For a short time anyway while slowing down from highway speeds!), in-dash DVD player with video screen, etc… And who knows how much electronic gadgetry under the hood keeping the thing running.
But it also made me wonder how much we’re coming to depend upon these systems, and what happens when things go haywire. Like the salesguy at work whose 2002 Porsche Speedster keeps dropping the side windows down 4 inches because a sensor switch in the convertible roof is misaligned. Or like a friend whose Cavalier decided it needed to deploy its airbags as he drove into the parking lot at work one day. Or like the aircraft carrier Yorktown; during a 1998 exercise the ship was dead in the water for three hours because some bad data was entered in a database that helps control the ship’s power plant. Some problems are small annoyances. Some can cause people to die.
My Dad used to say, “Just one more thing to go wrong,” when it came to some of the niceties on cars. (Though when he said that, he was talking about power windows, power seats, and air conditioning.) I dunno. Fly-by-wire technology for automobiles may be on its way, but there’s something comforting about good old-fashioned gears that whir, linkages that click and clunk, and the ability to feel through the steering wheel that quarter-inch bump in the driveway.
From a Wired story
Comments
At the same time, automakers are still being taken to task for safety issues with old features like power windows: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/05/earlyshow/living/parenting/main627497.shtml Of course, this strikes me as one of those “Everyday things can kill you, Let’s get the ratings” type stories, but it seems to be a case of failing to address issues on old features, when it’s new features that sell cars.
I totally agree. Here’s an example of my thinking:
There’s always been a nagging push in automotive R & D to get rid of the steering wheel. If you think about it, putting both your hands on the steering wheel is a very un-natural position, and we all know it can get tiring for long drives.
One alternative I saw on the Discovery Channel the other night was to replace the steering wheel with a little joystick on the center console. It looked wonderful. You sat in the driver’s seat with both arms on contour armrests, head back against the headrest, and this little joystick just fell right into your hand. It looked so comfortable that I think I’d be at risk of going to sleep.
However, since you have much less leverage with just your right forearm compared to having both arms on the steering wheel, there was total power assist and drive-by-wire. The wheels were actually turned by electric motors, and this joystick just controlled those motors electronically.
Now, what happens when there’s an electrical failure, or a software bug (or worse, a software virus), or some other problem that elminates the power assist and electronic control? You. Are. Screwed.
Yes, the steering wheel is a pain, but if the engine quits and I lose power assist, I still have a physical, mechanical link to the front wheels and I can still wrestle the car in a safe direction.
By contrast, if something goes wrong with the joystick, you’re done for. Even if it wasn’t drive-by-wire, and just used total power assist, you still wouldn’t be able to muster enough force with just your right forearm to steer the car.
I cringe whenever I hear “drive-by-wire.” God willing, I’ll never drive a car that has this.
Fly-by-wire is used pretty regularly in aircraft, where it makes sense; there you’ve got control surfaces that are sometimes hundreds of feet from the pilot and eliminating mechanical linkages will save a lot of weight. And weight savings there makes a huge difference in how much cargo can be carried. But in a car you’re only talking about a few feet; the only thing you’d be gaining by using drive-by-wire is a step up in the cool factor, and to me it’s just not worth the risk.
Also, aircraft controls have redundancy on top of rendundancy, along with a maintenance crew to make sure the systems all work the way they’re designed to work. Not necessarily the case with your average car, no matter the price. Could you imagine the nightmare on the roads when early drive-by-wire machines start falling apart, are selling for $500, and get as much maintenance as a 1985 Dodge? Duct tape and bailing wire.
The Yorktown is a Ticonderoga (Aegis) class cruiser, not a carrier
“The Yorktown is a Ticonderoga (Aegis) class cruiser, not a carrier.”
Oops. My bad.
If your tv and sound player and other electronics can be reliable every day for more than 10 years cant the same be true for car electronic control ?
that was strange