When Cars Crash Like Computers

Like computers? With over 40 percent of their value now invested in electronics, cars are computers.

But as we make our autos ever more similar to and dependent upon the functioning of computer and even internet connections, the more vulnerable are these heavy, fast moving vehicles to the vagaries of electronic malfunction.

This would be bad enough if the problems were confined to the realm of sometimes quirky and idiosyncratic behavior familiar to anyone who uses computers, smartphones, tablets and the like. Which is to say, everyone in the developed world and close to a majority in many developing countries. But the problems dont end there: increasing concern is focusing on hacking and cyber attacks that could paralyze a transportation system or create homocidal havoc reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller. This potential for mayhem is compounded by the interaction between smart cars and smart cities whose traffic flow, parking and even bill paying systems may become increasingly intertwined.

There are those who believe this falls into the realm of 'nice problem to have,' if we ever get there. The theory here being that if our investment in sophisticated infrastructure reaches that level we will benefit from the advantages far more than we will suffer from the problems.

The larger point is that seemingly innocent and personal changes in the way we employ technology may, in fact, have significant public policy implications requiring thought that goes well beyond the realm of 'bureaucratic interference.' As advances are adapted, we must give some thought to the broader impacts that every innovation may bring with it in a networked world. JL

Alexis Madrigal reports in The Atlantic:

When we make pieces of our infrastructure "smart" with computers, we also give them the other characteristics of computers, like bugs, crashes, hackability, and downtime

Daimler's Car2Go, which offers on-demand, one-way rentals to its users, crashed.
Not physically, but in the code that powers the ridesharing service and controls the cars. Would-be drivers in Washington, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Portland, and other cities could not couldn't access the fleet of vehicles, leaving the service's customer-service crews scrambling on social media to explain what was going on. Starting at 2pm, the service's city-level Twitter accounts started warning people that they were experiencing, "a partial interruption and are quickly working to resolve the issue." For about 12 hours, the service appears to have been completely down down.
For those who remember Twitter's fail-whale, it was a familiar scene. But the difference between not being able to send tweets and not being able to drive home from work or pick up your kids is huge.
As with the hackable toilet we reported on last week, when we make pieces of our infrastructure "smart" with computers, we also give them the other characteristics of computers, like bugs, crashes, hackability, and downtime. These tradeoffs might be worth it -- after all, trains and cars break down for all sorts of reasons already -- but the ways that things don't work will be novel.
In this case, Car2Go's Vancouver branch responded to a tweet asking if they'd gotten hacked by saying, "We are still identifying root causes but are taking this very seriously."
Whether it was a bug or an attack, this is also part of the future of mobility, along with the gee-whizness of picking up a car off the street with your phone.