Cars and software bugs

In "The Inmates Are Running The Asylum", Alan Cooper presents the following equations:

Warship * computer = computer Alarm clock * computer = computer Camera * computer = computer

Any damn device when crossed with a computer turns into a computer—with the negative properties of a computer dominating, of course.

Soon it'll take a two minutes to boot your car in the morning after which you're greeted by a BLING that comes with a useless explanation that the car went and booted itself into safe mode, or that chkdsk failed, or that there's a critical update available which you must first download and install before driving.

The author of this article is out of touch with modern engineering. It's nice to wax about the old days when things had simple linkages that were easy to debug, but I'll take my incredibly responsive anti-lock brakes, intelligent traction control, variable valve timing and electronic control of niceties before I go back to the bad old days.

I also have serious doubts that Toyota actually has any real problems with their software. I'm betting 90% of the issues are human error with a side of new-fangled-gadget blame.