The Robot And The Recall

Usually, we don’t report on recalls. If we would, we would be reporting on recalls all day. Sometimes, we make an exception, if the matter has wider ranging implications. This is one of those times.

The recall: BMW recalls “approximately 50” BMW X3. They have electric power steering. There is nothing wrong with the power steering. But there is everything wrong with the computer that runs the power steering. The steering has a position sensor, and the sensor’s calibration data pertaining to temperature balancing was mistakenly overwritten.” At some point, the computer finds out that something is wrong, and shuts off the electric power steering (EPS).

The wider ranging implications: DARPA challenges colleges to build autonomous vehicles. Google already has “look, ma, no hands” cars drive autonomously through the city, now they want some that read your mind. Cars drove autonomously from Italy to China. Nevada paves the legislative roads for driverless vehicles. What do they all have in common?

Electric power steering. Along with all kinds of other computer gadgetry than can go wrong. This is definitely a topic worthy of LaHood’s attention. The entire concept is only as robust as the “weakest-link” in the car’s trinity of mechanical/electrical-electronic/software systems. It relies on the 1st tier supplier’s ability to manage “pharma-level” quality from it’s sub-tiers, or to conduct “NASA-level” fault detection prior to delivery to the OEM (which BMW’s German-Swiss steering supplier clearly failed to do).

Long-proven complex systems and new simple things fail because somebody screwed-up or cut-corners, or both. Car companies and their supply base have proven time and again, for the last 100 years, that they are not able to achieve the pharma-NASA level, maybe because it does not really exist. Even if it does, it did not spare NASA from the occasional screw-up.

If the pinnacle of product development and manufacturing goodness promised by the nexus of premium-price German technical excellence (BMW) and Swiss quality (ThyssenKrupp Presta Steering) can’t protect itself from the stupidity of overwriting a block of essential data, imagine the mayhem when all the “lesser” (or greener) technology companies try to climb aboard the autonomous bandwagon. If the EPS is shut off, the human behind the wheel will have to work a bit harder, but he or she will still be able to steer.

Without a human behind the wheel … I know, the car will receive a recall notice drive, and dive autonomously to the dealer to have itself fixed.