Re: [OT] ALSA userspace API complexity

[jerome lacoste <jerome.lacoste@gmail.com>]

On 1/6/06, Stefan Smietanowski <stesmi@stesmi.com> wrote:
[...]

> Same as when Renault introduced the keyless system in the Laguna in 2001
> (some call it the Laguna II) - it's basically a card you stick into a
> slot in the console which enables you to just press a button to start
> the car instead of turning a key and it also contained memory about
> your chair settings, mirrors and volume/sound settings of the radio.
>
> Now, is this a highly complex piece of software running there to do
> those things?
>
> Regardless of how what someone believes - a few months later someone
> was out driving and all of a sudden the car started speeding up and
> since there was no key you couldn't turn the car off and the breaks
> weren't strong enough to slow the car down and running at roughly
> 200kph he managed to YANK the card out of the slot before it could be
> slowed down and the ignition turned off - the guy was lucky to be
> alive.

I think you are mixing 2 stories. According to my sources, the driver
of a Renault Vel Satis reported a similar issue and got stuck at
around 190kmph during an hour in October 2004. In March 2005, the
driver of a Laguna reported that he got stuck at 90 kmph for 40km.

> It turns out that it was a combination of a bug in the keyless
> system AND the cruise control that made this happen - two bugs
> that in themselves wouldn't have triggered but at the right speed,
> and when everything matched things went haywire, so no, no matter
> how tight you write specifications or papers you can't get
> everything bugfree, even in such a simple system as a keycard
> for your car. Note that one of the bugs WAS in the keycard.

To my knowledge, none of the reported issues have yet been identified
as coming from the car. I searched again before posting and found no
reference to that issue.

I would be happy to know where you found this information. At least to
know if the constructors are hidding something.

Cheers,

> // Stefan

Jerome
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