Zero emission road vehicles.

[pre65]

I'm not banging on about EV fires today.

How about a runaway EV ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67005620

[Nick]

The world of software has had its problems over the years. Maybe the Chinese should pay attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

[andrew Ivimey]

Open the pod door please Hal!

[Nick]

Just to say HAL was doing exactly what it was intended to do.

[shane]

I see nothing here to suggest that this could only happen in an electric car, given the amount of computer control in all types of car these days.

[jack]

I see nothing here to suggest that this could only happen in an electric car, given the amount of computer control in all types of car these days.

Aren't a lot of modern cars "drive-by-wire"?

[pre65]

I see nothing here to suggest that this could only happen in an electric car, given the amount of computer control in all types of car these days.

Fail safe might be nice for any safety related malfunctions.

[andrew Ivimey]

Fail safe might be nice...

Surely Hal wasn't intended to kill the crew..... or was it?

[Ray P]

Surely Hal wasn't intended to kill the crew..... or was it?

Unexpected consequence

[Nick]

Surely Hal wasn't intended to kill the crew..... or was it?

Unexpected consequence

It is of course fiction, but the sequels explain that HAL was given conflicting information that caused the problem.

2010: Odyssey Two (novel) and 2010: The Year We Make Contact (film)

Dr. Chandra discovers that HAL's crisis was caused by a programming contradiction: he was constructed for "the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment", yet his orders, directly from Dr. Heywood Floyd at the National Council on Astronautics, required him to keep the discovery of the Monolith TMA-1 a secret for reasons of national security. This contradiction created a "Hofstadter-Moebius loop", reducing HAL to paranoia. Therefore, HAL made the decision to kill the crew, thereby allowing him to obey both his hardwired instructions to report data truthfully and in full, and his orders to keep the monolith a secret. In essence: if the crew were dead, he would no longer have to keep the information secret.

[Nick]

I see nothing here to suggest that this could only happen in an electric car, given the amount of computer control in all types of car these days.

Aren't a lot of modern cars "drive-by-wire"?

I would be surprised if any were not now given emission control. The throttle drives a pair of pot's that supplies a control signal to the ECU. The ECU then controls a butterfly valve in the throttle body(s), with position sensor to close that loop. The ECU is also controlling the injectors and the coils, so the only place you could get into this would be to isolate the 12v supply if it decided to ignore your inputs.

I think the problem may be worst with EV's though, as AFAIK, the brakes on a ICE car should be powerful enough to stop the car against the engine. But in a EV not only are the brakes probably also under control of the car electronics (for regeneration) it may be the case that because the motor is assumed to do a lot of the work of slowing the car the actual physical brake system may not be enough to overcome the engine.

Good argument for a manual gearbox, at least you can put the clutch in to disconnect the engine from the wheels

[Nick]

Fail safe might be nice...

Even fail safe is often not as simple as you may think. Back in my days of controlling presses it was generally simple, the big red button isolated the incoming mains supply and everything stopped. But I remember the hot platen presses, that was far from safe if that happened. If it left the press shields open, the heat from the press (1000C) would eventually cause the hydraulic fluid to emit cyanide. The only way to close the shields was to have hydraulic power to close them, or to have people in full silver suits with air tanks to wind the mechanical interlocks to close the thing up.

Likewise, fail safe in a car may be as simple as stopping. But that's never a safe option if you were in the fast lane of the motorway at the time.

[brig001]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_un ... celeration

While brakes might theoretically be able to stop the car when cold, the engine doesn't fade like brakes can, so I guess that if it does happen to you, press the brake pedal hard to stop - don't try to just slow down

Brian

[Nick]

Or with reference to the link. Most likely thing to do is remove foot from accelerator.

[andrew Ivimey]

Did we ever get an explanation why this car continued on and on and on?