The cars coming off of assembly lines today may contain 30 or more computers. It depends a lot on which car we are talking about and how expensive it is but the cars of today can perform some very impressive things on their own. Things such as staying in their own lane if the driver has a lapse of consciousness or even parallel parking itself into a tight parking spot without driver intervention. The complexity of new cars makes it nearly impossible for the home mechanic to perform anything other than simple routine maintenance procedures. If you don’t like the seatbelt warning buzzer you can’t simply unplug the seat, since that may cause a fault to be registered on one of the many computer systems.

Why Do Cars Need So Many Computers?
In the good old days cars had no computers and we got to and from work or went on vacation without any problems. You could easily customize and modify your car into anything that suited you, and back then you could easily diagnose and repair a problem with a small toolbox of common tools found in just about any garage. So exactly why is this explosion of computer technology turning something that worked just fine and was so simple into something so complicated, that does exactly the same thing? The immensely complex integration of microchips and software into cars can be directly attributed to the competitive nature of the automobile business itself. Car manufacturers are marketing their products based on advanced features and we the consumer like it. Many would argue that many of those features are useless and are actually harmful by giving drivers a false sense of security when they should actually learn to drive better. “Hey you guys, watch my car park itself”. A computer can accomplish a repetitive task or a very precise task without getting tired, forgetful, nervous, distracted or overwhelmed by its surroundings. An ABS computer knows how fast each wheel is spinning and can apply and release the brakes 30 times in one second independently on one or all wheels, if your car were to suddenly skid under panic braking. Vehicle stability control can keep a car from skidding off of the road in a turn by doing exactly the right thing without hesitation, one wheel at a time. A world class race car driver couldn’t do these things any better.

Is There a Downside To All Of These Technological Advances?
There is not so much a downside to technology as there is a need to be aware of the nature of computers in general and software in particular. The human brain is often compared to a computer but it is difficult to imagine a computer ever being able to modify its instructions on the fly. The human brain can instantly modify its reactions by constantly learning and adapting, something that today’s computers are not capable of. In computer lingo it’s called Artificial Intelligence and we are not there yet. The reason that I bring all of this up is because I recently had a flat tire and the spare tire on my 2007 truck as supplied, is 4” smaller than the 4 tires on the vehicle. It was immediately obvious to me that I couldn’t mount the spare tire and drive the car. For every revolution, 4” of diameter makes a difference of 12” of distance covered per tire revolution. The speed differential would cause the stability control and traction control computers to think that the small tire was losing traction; I knew the main processor would apply the brakes to that wheel to try to slow it down, burning up that one brake. Even worse if I were to step on the brakes the ABS computer would think that the other 3 wheels were spinning too slowly and had lost traction. The computer would then release the brakes of the three “skidding” wheels, trying to slow them down to catch up to the one that was spinning too fast; simply put all of this would present a very dangerous situation. There simply is no way for a computer to modify its instructions or to learn a new parameter. After nearly an hour of futile arguing with my friendly neighborhood car dealer service representatives, I told them to provide a letter on company letter head signed by the service manager and general manager stating that it was fine to operate the vehicle with a tire that is 4” too small. After a half hour meeting between the 3 of them, the service manager called me and told me that they would provide a properly sized spare tire! As I drove off with my new spare tire, I noticed other trucks with oversized tires on them sitting on the showroom floor just waiting for unsuspecting buyers to drive them off the lot. In this case it seems that computers can create safety hazards.

Will We Ever See a Reversal of This “High Tech Trend?”
No, it will probably accelerate. We can never go back to the simple cars of previous decades. Not only does high tech sell cars, most of the systems are an improvement. The government has gotten in on the act and many of these formerly optional high tech safety systems are now required by federal law. However in the case of our cars and our lives as it is in all things, be they large or small, the most important thing to remember is still “Caveat Emptor” or “Let The Buyer Beware”…