In recent decades, cars are becoming increasingly reliant on electronic control of many sub-systems, from ignition and engine control systems to anti-lock brakes and communication/navigation components. While some of these features are selling points for modern vehicles, they can also be a source of major headaches for automakers and vehicle owners.
According to safety expert Sean Kane at Safety Research and Strategies, Inc, electronics recalls (when defined broadly), accounted for over twenty-five percent of total recalls in the past twelve months. When narrowed down to software-related problems, there were still a whopping 24 recall campaigns as well as a significant increase in warranty claims and defects.
It is only logical, that as vehicles incorporate more integrated electronics systems, the number of electrical problems will increase. This is because, in addition to problems introduce by individual electronic systems, integration issues will multiply that number. A system that works perfectly well individually, may not work so well with other systems in the vehicle.
An additional problem with these types of defects in particular, is that they are often intermittent which makes diagnosing and fixing the root cause of the defect very time consuming and difficult. Mr. Kane ties this into the Toyota sudden acceleration problem that has been so difficult to track down:
As electronic systems continue to proliferate in modern vehicles, these problems will, unfortunately, continue to present themselves. We can only hope that as engineers and technicians gain additional experience designing systems and diagnosing problems, they will be able to anticipate sources of defects and the most serious problems which can lead to accidents and injuries or deaths such as Toyota’s sudden acceleration fiasco, can be avoided.
According to safety expert Sean Kane at Safety Research and Strategies, Inc, electronics recalls (when defined broadly), accounted for over twenty-five percent of total recalls in the past twelve months. When narrowed down to software-related problems, there were still a whopping 24 recall campaigns as well as a significant increase in warranty claims and defects.
It is only logical, that as vehicles incorporate more integrated electronics systems, the number of electrical problems will increase. This is because, in addition to problems introduce by individual electronic systems, integration issues will multiply that number. A system that works perfectly well individually, may not work so well with other systems in the vehicle.
An additional problem with these types of defects in particular, is that they are often intermittent which makes diagnosing and fixing the root cause of the defect very time consuming and difficult. Mr. Kane ties this into the Toyota sudden acceleration problem that has been so difficult to track down:
As electronic systems continue to proliferate in modern vehicles, these problems will, unfortunately, continue to present themselves. We can only hope that as engineers and technicians gain additional experience designing systems and diagnosing problems, they will be able to anticipate sources of defects and the most serious problems which can lead to accidents and injuries or deaths such as Toyota’s sudden acceleration fiasco, can be avoided.
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