Recently, I happened across an older article in the December 13, 2008 issue of The Economist with the title “Vehicle-safety systems – Stopping in a hurry.” The article describes new systems that help cars avoid collisions by monitoring speeds and distances to objects to the front of the car and automatically braking if the driver does not respond quickly or forcefully enough. I had felt some measure of discomfort when first reading of these systems, but, in the light of the bugs in Toyota’s electronics, my level of concern is greatly increased. While autopilot systems might be highly desirable in planes, which are relatively sparsely distributed in the skies, and automatic braking systems are generally a good thing for trains, since they are constrained to fixed tracks, I question whether reliance on such systems for road vehicles increases or reduces safety. We need to factor in all the various possibilities. If there are bugs in the systems, how will they respond? What if sensors are knocked out of alignment and respond to vehicles in other lanes? What if there are errors in the computer control programs that result in erratic behavior? What are the potential consequences of such behavior?
It just seems that the increased dependence on electronic controls in the light of questionable software quality and the (admittedly slight) chance of an EMP attack, does not make sense unless there are adequate mechanical backup systems. It really is a question of design and cost. Many of the devices we use are totally dependent on batteries … perhaps they should incorporate those manual cranks that you see on some radio-flashlight combinations for emergency use.
In any event, we need to be thinking about not only the malfunctioning of electronic devices but also the possibility of their being totally destroyed. If you read One Second After, which I highly recommend, your whole attitude about reliance on electronics will change, I have no doubt. And perhaps you will start thinking about what we might do if such an event, or something similar, were to occur. As I have mentioned in the past, we looked at some of these unthinkable scenarios as part of Y2K contingency planning. For some of the scenarios, it was hard to imagine what one might actually do to mitigate the risk and get through the event. But in many cases, some simple precautions served to provide at least some options in the face of catastrophic failure, where otherwise there may be none. It might be as simple as retaining hard copy reports of key information.
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