Clearly, it's a software issue, not a hardware issue. Hard to believe that software is really cheaper than a 555 timer. I wonder why this decision was made.
For example, an ECU that controls blinkers does it with a 555 timer, based on a "start blinking" CAN bus command. It resyncs on each new "start blinking " command. It times out after 50 blinks, if no "stop blinking" command comes.
This makes each ECU autonomous and responsible for doing "the safe thing", once it has been commanded to.
Finding all the new subtle horrible timing problems in this design is left as an exercise for the reader. :)
3 different controllers or software becomes an easy choice when CAN is already running everywhere