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Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#11

Post by BrentOzar »

I think the comments here say more about us as an audience than they do about the Airbus. We're totally accustomed to hardware & software problems whose solution is, "just restart it," and we don't even find it all that disturbing - mostly just humorous.

Our standards as developers & testers have gotten pretty low.

I think the only way you'd see outrage here at HN is if the restart involved a real physical crash (as opposed to a software one) and the loss of human lives. Otherwise, we're all, "meh."

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#14

Post by greatpatton »

StreamBright wrote: post #6

Software engineering needs some significant improvements if we would like to keep using critical systems like aircrafts. It is getting to the point where serious software problems are impacting everyday life, not in a good sense.

Airbus is already using formal method for creation and validation of the code which are the ultimate version of testing.

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#15

Post by tjr »

StreamBright wrote: post #6

Software engineering needs some significant improvements if we would like to keep using critical systems like aircrafts. It is getting to the point where serious software problems are impacting everyday life, not in a good sense.

What kind of improvements do you have in mind? Any specific examples?

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#16

Post by [deleted] »

greatpatton wrote: post #14
StreamBright wrote: post #6

Software engineering needs some significant improvements if we would like to keep using critical systems like aircrafts. It is getting to the point where serious software problems are impacting everyday life, not in a good sense.

Airbus is already using formal method for creation and validation of the code which are the ultimate version of testing.

[deleted]

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#17

Post by raxxorrax »

dahartigan wrote: post #2

It's a scary thought that such issues exist, regardless of how common or not.

I think planes already scrutinized to a very high degree. What I am more concerned about is airlines doing the reboot in flight to save time. Planes are often on a very tight schedule (maybe not cargo planes).

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#19

Post by [deleted] »

mpweiher wrote: post #9

So this is already fixed: "The remedy for the A350-941 problem is straightforward according to the AD: install Airbus software updates for a permanent cure ..." And it has the known workaround. So this has almost nothing to do with Airbus at this point, the directive and the "sighs" uttered by the EU aviation agency are directed at the airlines that won't install the update. But good distraction from Boeing's woes as…

[deleted]

Re: Some models of Airbus A350 airliners need to be hard-rebooted after 149 hours

#20

Post by AuthorizedCust »

BrentOzar wrote: post #11

I think the comments here say more about us as an audience than they do about the Airbus. We're totally accustomed to hardware & software problems whose solution is, "just restart it," and we don't even find it all that disturbing - mostly just humorous. Our standards as developers & testers have gotten pretty low. I think the only way you'd see outrage here at HN is if the restart involved a real physical crash (as…

That's not necessarily a "low" standard. It's that the value of preventing a reboot every few days is much lower than other things we could spend our time on. Mandatory oftware perfection would be a huge drag on valuable new features.
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