CAN YOU TRUST YOUR CAR? : AS CARS BECOME COMPUTERS ON WHEELS, THEY HAD BETTER BECOME MORE RELIABLE THAN OUR DESKTOP MODELS
Ivan Berger · 2002
As electronic systems in cars become more complex, reliability becomes harder to achieve. The more complex a system, the more failure points it offers, and today's separate systems are being networked together in ever more complicated arrangements. With point-to-point wiring giving way to control and power buses, the possibility of massive failures that affect the whole car, not just individual functions arises. New functions often require new technologies, which in the beginning may be less reliable than more developed ones. The growing reliance on software raises more issues. As every computer user knows software is far more likely than hardware to fail, and rebooting is hardly practical in a sharp downhill turn. Then, too, automotive software modules must communicate and coordinate with one another