[Amps] Good engineering

[Alex Eban]

Well guys, I heard here in 4Zulu land about cars whose electronics were
messed up by their own ignition. Things would act up on their own.
Alex		4Z5KS 

-----Original Message-----
From: amps-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On
Behalf Of mikea
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:24 PM
To: amps at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Good engineering

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 03:01:09PM -0400, Pete Smith wrote:
> I have read that in his testimony, the American in charge of Toyota 
> USA (Exec VP?) said that their on-board computers had not been 
> subjected to EMC testing.

> If that's the case, I wonder how many incidents are caused when joe 
> trucker pulls up alongside with his 400-watt solid state CB "linear"
> while chatting with his pals.

> "Ten-fourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr good buddy"

I was wondering very much the same sort of thing earlier today, though I
grant I was musing more on cellphones and other weaker QRM. 

A friend who was involved in automotive microcode for a US carmaker, rather
a while back, told me he had found some hundreds of disaster- guaranteed
code flaws, ranging from software race conditions resulting in indeterminate
results (roll dice) to brakes, steering, or other major subsystems failing
hard.

I doubt things have got a whole lot better. I am very decidedly troubled by
this bit of testimony. These are man-rated systems chock full of
electronics, and EMC testing damn well ought to be mandatory. 

--
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin
_______________________________________________
Amps mailing list
Amps at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps