Software Glitches Stall Toyota Prius 560
t35t0r writes "CNN/Money/Tech reports that 2004 and early 2005 Toyota Prius models have software bugs that cause them to stall while traveling at highway speeds. While no accidents were reported to have been caused by the software glitch, could we be heading into an era where our automobiles will require software updates and fixes to keep them from literally 'crashing'?"
Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:5, Funny)
Crashing? I can see it now. (Score:1, Funny)
But officer..... (Score:5, Funny)
There will be no crashing (Score:4, Funny)
I can see it now... (Score:2, Funny)
Yes officer, I was trying to figure out how fast I was going but the speedometer was not refreshing and when I looked up "WHAM!"
If Microsoft designed cars... (Score:5, Funny)
I can just imagine it... (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't the engine designed to turn off? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Crashing? I can see it now. (Score:2, Funny)
hour long software upgrade (Score:5, Funny)
They meant:
It's a five minute software upgrade, but if we told you that, you'd be upset when the service dept made you wait for an hour.
Re:Blue screen of death... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Crashing? I can see it now. (Score:3, Funny)
Well no, Minardi cars can start without an activation key.
Figures (Score:2, Funny)
"Please insert your Prius into the original location from which the software was installed."
It Finally came true..... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:BMW?? (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, there's nothing worse than your engine shorting out and telling the sensor that you want to floor it.
If Microsoft made cars... (Score:2, Funny)
(From Here [vbrad.com]
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.
In response to Mr. Gates' comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO).
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.
19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.
20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
H3 may stall at freeway speeds too (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:5, Funny)
I've actually had this happen once with an older Ford - Punched it around a corner and the throttle stuck wide open with a new SUV parked crossways 40 feet away. Didn't touch Nuetral. Went from drive to 1st, 1st to park and stopped about 3 feet from the truck. The kid standing beside it nearly died of fright.
I expect doing this with any car made in the last 20 years would leave your transmission in little itty bits...
Good thing we don't have Jet Packs and Flying Cars (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Failover (Score:5, Funny)
#include <obYouMustBeNewHere.h>
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:5, Funny)
I've done it some 20 times at least, and never got even so much scared, except for one time when the stupid throttle got stuck just as I was racing an 18-wheeler after flipping a birdie at him. Which was, of course, somewhat dangerous even without the throttle problems.
Re:If Microsoft made cars... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, there are still a few wandering nomads in equitorial New Guinea who haven't seen the "if cars were as unreliable as computers" joke yet. Good job!
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code not informative (Score:2, Funny)
do not turn off the ignition until the car is stopped if you do that you loose your power steering and brakes, the engine will bounce of the rev limiter for a minute but shit happens.
1. shift to neutral
2. stop car
3. turn off ignition
4 . profit (sue ford)
I hope this gets duped... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh wait, this is slashdot, even the dupe is going to have tired jokes.
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:3, Funny)
I know your wife SAID it was an "accident" when she rammed her Ford Explorer into you, but I've watched enough Court TV to know better. <:)
Re:Failover (Score:5, Funny)
LOL. Note the user id, Mr. 151611.
Re:BMW?? (Score:5, Funny)
It's all servo-driven, no linkage between the throttle and the gas pedal at all. If I had thought to check stuff like that I wouldn't have bought it.
And a cable is any better? I've been a car where the accelerator cable broke and left the throttle wide open. I suspect a servo might well be more robust than a cable.
Luckily it was a 70's era VM Vanagon camper. I think we went from 62 to 63 in the 5 minutes or so we spent playing with the accelerator pedal to see what the problem was.
New Microsoft Slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It Finally came true..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:See, it's that 'should' (Score:2, Funny)
My Prius has done this thrice... (Score:4, Funny)
It seems to me that the problem occurs when the computer tries to restart the engine, and it doesn't catch immediately. It does seem that the car will continue to run as an electric car, and it does seem to come its senses within a few seconds.
My blindingly white Prius is nicknamed "Snowcrash" for exactly this reason -- if the computer goes down, it's just a car shaped hunk of metal.
Thad Beier
Eerie coincidence (or maybe not!) (Score:3, Funny)
The driver was wandering around the hood looking like he wanted to open it, but had no idea what to do when he did
Re:Shouldn't have stolen that code... (Score:2, Funny)
"Yeah, I mean over the phone, yeah, he looked at it. He says that it sounded like my hobbit that turns the crank case is depressed and needs therapy. We need get us a new hobbit. They's from the land beyond time. Land beyond time is also gonna hook us up with a unicorn for the radiator. I ain't even gonna tell ya about that haunted air conditioner. Plus, the air filter? That's made of plutonium. That's gonna involve Superman, so...ya know, plus shipping from Krypton. And the cow..jumped over the moon."