Stress Dangers
In our last post, we discussed the gap in the knowledge of automotive technology in first responders, as represented by a video from truthaboutcars.com and YouTube. It featured a man pulled over in his Tesla for having a computer mounted on his dashboard. The item is linked here.
But as we thought more about this, the video painted a very clear picture of how people tend to react to stressful situations.
The driver pulled over describes the computer as “his only center console” when he clearly meant something else and stated that it handles his air conditioning.
In truth, it is the car’s entire instrument panel! The screen offers control of everything, as well as a view to the functioning of the car, and mapping, etc. The center console is simply not in play.
A Thank You
Some weeks earlier, we had received this thank you (right) for one of our videos, covering a Mini in this case. We’ve transcribed it here, ‘as is’.
“Thank you 73 year old lady, 2013 mini nervous and panicked in parking lot with dead FOB yesterday. Your video heloed get everything up and running. Hard to read a manual with out reading glasses in stress situation. Thank you again.”
She describes perfectly the difficulty people face solving a problem and reading a manual while under stress. And stress is the central theme.
She identifies herself as 73, and the stress is due to the all too common key fob problem that we put a great deal of emphasis on here at DashboardSymbols.com. The video we discussed earlier puts the stress of being pulled over on full display.
Is Age the Issue?
But first we also get to once again dispel the ageism myth. The driver in the video is clearly quite young and still stutters and stammers his way through his interactions with the police officer.
This reaction to stress happens to us all irrespective of age, and returns us to our primary thesis. The relentless increase in automotive technology continues to outpace driver knowledge. And for those of you tempted to blame the driver for lack of effort, we will repeat that all of us learn by use and repetition, and if a new problem crops up, it will make little difference whether or not the driver has read about it in the manual months earlier.
And it is all too often the little things — and things that could easily be removed from the equation, taking us back to key fobs. If the battery in the fob dies, there is a back up plan, but there is no standardization. We know of and have documented exposing hidden keys holes from 15 manufacturers, a dozen variations for retrieving the standard ‘hard’ key from the fob, and over 50 distinct starting variations.
The hidden key holes are a particularly pointless exercise intended only to make a square inch of the car prettier. What it does in truth is leave drivers with dead key fobs vulnerable outside of their cars, fumbling for a mechanical key and trying to expose a lock cylinder. Will it happen on a warm summer day at home? Most likely it will be dark, rainy, cold, snowy, or in a parking garage with cell service blocked.
Make no mistake, these are safety issues and the responsibility lies with the manufacturer to make getting in to the relative safety of the car as easy as possible, and the majority of manufacturers are failing.
At the very least, once inside a manual can be consulted to get help to get the car started, but remember that stress is still in play.
Only a few manufacturers give a useful message if starting the car fails as shown to the right. And while we had at one time hoped that the industry would move to make this clear in every vehicle, most still simply refer the driver to the manual.
Unfortunately, it will take someone getting hurt or worse, or a manufacturer getting sued before this will change, and even if it does, there will be millions of vehicles already on the road holding tight to the old ways.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
An Actual Death Trap
electronic everything, right down to the door latches. It is also the result of very, very poor design.
up option, it is not remotely obvious and effectively not intuitive.
been out of his car much sooner.
inside. I immediately pointed out that there IS a way out — just not where you would expect to look. The unlock button is placed in the middle of the dashboard, and the entire group was clearly unfamiliar with this quirk in a BMW. And it belongs exclusively to BMW.
Back to technology and design, Tesla’s vehicles all feature electronic latches. As to getting out, the rear doors in the Model S require pulling a cable located under each rear seat. The front doors are released mechanically from the inside.
The latest Lincoln Continental also has electronic door latches. A back up release is just below the armrest but still on the door, and only the driver’s door. However, Lincoln says that the doors will not remain latched if the power goes out.
There are three basic locations to try, as shown in the image, but experience tells us you might just as well skip to the last one. The first, top to bottom, is to simply drop the key fob into the cup holder. If this fails, hold the key fob against the front of the console, as we are doing in the image (second). There are several places that can be tried in this case alone.
If all these fail, the next recommendation is to remove the battery from the fob and run through the options again. As it happens, this is exactly what we had to do with the Model X we had and we landed at the base of the console before the car recognized the fob. That location, with the key fob resting in place, is shown in the second image. The fob was recognized at last and we were able to operate the car.
If you were given a key card, place it against the left side of the of the space at the front of the center console just below the screen, as shown to the right. The vehicle will recognize the card, the instrument panel will come to life and the car will be ready for action. Don’t lose the card!
If your mobile phone has gone dead or is missing, place the key card on the center console behind and between the two cup holders. The car will recognize the card and will allow it to be driven.
In the earliest versions of the Model S, the back of key fob is to be placed against the passenger side front fender, somewhat below and to the right of the emblem, as shown in the image. When the fob is recognized, the door handles will extend as they do normally.
The concept is the same in the newer Model S, but the location is changed. However, it remains on the passenger side. Place the key fob near the base of the passenger side windshield wiper. The image to the right shows the exact spot that worked in the model we tested, and we tried several. Then press the driver’s door handle. The handles will extend if it is recognized, but it took a full 20 seconds in the car we tested. Try repositioning the fob if this fails. If it continues not to be recognized, try removing the battery and go back through the process.
Tesla’s Model X uses an entirely different back up location. There again is no hard key or key cylinder. In addition, the door handles do not extend in normal operation as with the Model S. The mirrors will extend when the key fob is recognized.
To get in, the key card is placed on the door frame between the front and rear doors on the driver’s side and just above the bottom of the windows, as shown. As with other models, the mirrors will extend inviting you inside. The vehicles can be locked this way as well.
In case over the air updates weren’t innovative enough, the latest solves a problem that has stumped the best minds at every auto manufacturer: a car is shut down and left in the sun to overheat, and any occupant unable to exit, human or animal, perishes of heat stroke.
Its Time for the Industry to Adopt Over the Air Updates
OTA Updates
Ever since Tesla introduced the idea of over the air (OTA) software updates with its Model S sedan, the rest of the industry has been scrambling to
catch up. Ford and GM will reportedly be ready with the 2020 model year, and the last 6 weeks or so have truly provided the evidence that it is sorely needed, now.
In that time, 10 recalls have been issued impacting 2.8 million vehicles, each of which was software related and all potentially safety issues.
The industry has plunged headlong into computer control of just about everything, without considering improving the methods for upgrades, recalls or clever problem solving. For instance, when Tesla’s sedans were striking debris in roadways and damaging battery packs, part of the fix was an over the air software change that literally raised the vehicle’s height in relation to the road.
The Recalls
The 10 current recalls include a software issue that causes the low fuel warning light to not come on when fuel is actually low, which could lead to a driver running out of fuel.
The third is a transmission calibration issue that can lead to stalling.
The fourth involves air bags, which is particularly galling given the attention paid to these devices over the last few years.
The fifth is a stuck purge valve that starts with the programming of the Powertrain Control Module.
Numbers 6, 7 and 9 revolve around the Electronic Control Unit, one of which hits the air bags again, while the last one includes another fire risk.
And finally number 10 leaves a back up camera inoperable.
The central issue across the board is software, and as cars become more and more computerized, you can bet that these issues will increase as well. But at legacy manufacturers, electronic systems have been added piece by piece with essentially no central core in control and no consideration given to over the air connectivity. Thus pretty much every recall requires the vehicle to be taken to a dealer for updates.
And while we see this as a safety and convenience issue for drivers, according to IHS Automotive manufacturers stand to save over $30 billion in recall costs by 2022 if over the air updates can be implemented.
Hacking risks exist in vehicles already and will be exacerbated by over the air connections. These issues simply need solutions and cannot be an excuse to avoid the bigger fix. But we would caution manufacturers not to follow the examples set by our computers and cell phones.
We have all experienced odd behavior from our devices only to discover that an update had been downloading while the devices were in use. This simply cannot happen in our cars. The
announcement shown in the picture of a Tesla screen would be more than sufficient to cover an update.
And we are assuming that new software was not actually downloaded before the message was shown. And if this is not the case, it damn well should be. Gumming up the works with a download while a car is in use is down right dangerous.
Make no mistake, software and software updates are a dicey game to play with moving vehicles. Aside from the recalls noted, a September software update by Tesla disabled their Auto Pilot
system rather than improving it. Other manufacturers, where they have the capability to update their infotainment centers, have experienced similar problems. Mistakes of this type could impact a far more critical system in any car at any time.
Now we’ve clearly oversimplified the issue. It’s not easy to turn around the methods used by existing manufacturers or to control the cost of those changes and the over the air data delivery. Also as we’ve seen too often in the industry, there are no standards for something that a few years ago simply wasn’t even on anyone’s mind outside of Tesla.
But leaving a driver in a car that has a fire risk or other safety issue that was likely caused by, and can be fixed by software changes is not acceptable in a computerized and wirelessly connected world.
——————————————————————-
Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY