There are about 100 million lines of code in modern cars, according to PwC – far more than a passenger jet running 14 million lines of code, or a fighter jet with about 25 million. Therefore, it should come as little surprise that software fixes now account for over 20 percent of automotive recalls, according to an analysis of 10 years of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data by DeMayo Law, as reported by Ars Technica. For better or worse, this represents a significant shift in how recalls are handled.
Maybe if they cut out the shit like serial (or vin in this case) locked components, spyware, adware, software that does things only hardware should do, and touchscreen “buttons” complexity would be reduced enough that they could actually coherently review and verify their embedded systems.
Fuck any car built after 2014.
I do not understand why car manufacturers love touch screens so damn much. My newish car has a nice display screen and on the console by the arm rest is a nice big chunky knob that controls the display interface. There are a couple other physicals controls around it as well. I can control everything without ever looking at the screen. HVAC system, also physical controls.
I have had a few rental cars from different manufacturers and no physical controls anywhere. So it’s touch screen only and the screen is not reachable from the driving position without leaning way forward. And of course since it’s a touch screen, do you know where my eyes aren’t? The fucking road!
Touch screens are annoying and imprecise at the best of times why do they think traveling at speeds in excess of 70 mph that it’s better? Make it make sense!
End Of Rant
When you have separate teams that design everything and never talk to anyone else because “our design is modular and can be used anywhere that fits these x basic requirements” you never have a conversation about the overall product design and usability in context.
It is the result of shitty engineering processes that are optimizing on a small scale. It sacrifices the end product in the name of savings on a single component.
Same brainworms that will cut R&D to post a profit this quarter but completely wiped out long term competitiveness. Pretty much everything terrible about modern life is explained by rampant unregulated capitalism.
Even the ones built before can have some bullshit. But I’m with you.
Had to replace a totalled, paid off car in 2019…best value was a 2016. Fortunately (to quote Monty Python) “it’s not got much spam in it!”. It already has a couple minor glitches with the “cool” features, like the stupid keyless system.
I will happily pay thousands to fix what’s wrong on my early 2000’s vehicle, just so I don’t have to get all that BS.