'Y2K on the Home Front
By Lois Porlier
Anyone who has a husband as immersed
in Y2K as mine is, most certainly has a
heightened sensitivity to the Millennium
Bug. But the events of the last 7 days in
my life have given me more than sensitivity.
Victor thought his readers might derive
some new insights from the tale.
I had noticed something awkward about the
steering on our new sport utility vehicle
(UTE) right after a routine maintenance during which the tires
were rotated. It was difficult to keep the vehicle going straight.
It would pull to the left and then become very difficult to handle
-- like driving without power steering, abruptly veering back and
forth. "It needs an alignment and perhaps the power steering
fluid needs to be checked," I thought.
Four days later, (the earliest appointment I could get) I waited
for three hours in the un-air conditioned dealership, while the
mercury hit 90 degrees. I was surprised when the service
manager told me that my 4 month old UTE needed parts. He
explained to me that what I had thought was a car was, in
fact, a "computer on wheels". He told me that my "EVO" had
"a bad chip" and that it would have to be replaced. He
explained that the diagnostics are fairly simple in that they are
performed with the use of a computerized hand-held tool.
Whenever any repairs/ upgrades are required, the
manufacturer simply sends a disk which is uploaded into the
unit which in turn attaches to the vehicle and updates the
system that keeps the car functioning. A far cry from the
"grease monkey" days.
"If it's so simple", I asked the service manager, "could the
manufacturers simply send a disk to update whatever date
sensitive chips there might be before 2000?" He said the
diagnostics were such that they could identify what system
was in trouble, but could not specify the exact location of the
fault. With the dearth of information coming out of the car
manufacturers, it is difficult to know if embedded chips in
vehicles are much of an issue. But it would be reassuring to
know what one might reasonably expect should a chip fail
while the vehicle is operating. It certainly would be interesting
to know how many date-sensitive chips there are in any given
vehicle. There is an enormous amount of anxiety involved
when one thinks of the prospect of embedded chip failure on a
snowy road in the middle of the night or in heavy traffic.
My exchange with the service manager, (he even invited me in
to see the technician if I wanted), was very cordial and
decidedly different from the reports by others on the Net who
have encountered anger and hostility when asking car
dealerships about Y2K. The lesson here is that, there will
undoubtedly be Y2K liability issues for the car manufacturers,
but perhaps they could mitigate their liability by being a little
more forthcoming about the subject of their preparedness and
things about which we should be aware.
We are a nation that depends heavily on our vehicles. What
about the police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, repair trucks?
We sell cars by appealing to people's sense of safety, do we
not? The Michelin Tire baby, the boy in the back seat of the
Mercedes' UTE, immediately come to mind. Obviously, the
car manufacturer that demonstrates a willingness to work with
its customers will build enormous brand loyalty. (Of course,
the manufacturer that offers us a Y2K compliant vehicle will
probably corner the market.)
...
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