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Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

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Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#81

Post by VBprogrammer »

callamdelaney wrote: post #38
gambiting wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think preventing your car from being stolen is an extremely basic issue - it's a risk that exists at the back of your mind constantly when you drive an expensive vehicle, so yeah, I'm glad the car does this. The situation in here is more like "haha, ok, we just need to tow this thing out of the garage and try again" - no big deal.

I agree with gambiting. Yeah, it sucks, but just tow your car outside and turn it on again. These things exist for a reason. If it had really been stolen, and there was the work around of 'oh, there's no signal so we'll let the car start and drive off' - then a thief could permanently jam that signal, or remove the electronic device responsible for receiving that signal. E.g, it's not perfect but it is secure.

Just tow your car outside sounds like a recipe for losing half a day trying to organise that.

Additionally, even average cars these days tend to have removable towing eyes with easily damaged plastic blanking plugs. The chance of damaging an expensive car doing this seems very high. Especially trying to drag it out of an underground car park. If I owned a towing company I'd take a hard pass on that job.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#82

Post by ceilingcorner »

pwinnski wrote: post #77
ceilingcorner wrote: post #63

Wonder if there will be a market for gasoline-powdered, or at least non-network connected, cars in the future. This sort of scenario makes me want to never buy an electric car, ever.

This is a gasoline-powered car we're talking about, so you've made quite a leap. I drive an all-electric car with no remote connections at all, unlike this gas-powered Ferrari.

Good point, I didn’t realize that. My assumption was that most electric cars going forward will have some unavoidable remote connections.

Is there some reason why this is downvoted? Most electric cars seem to have remote connections...

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#83

Post by comeonseriously »

Sebb767 wrote: post #54
mywittyname wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP clarifies in the thread that this was for a child seat installation. And I think that qualifies as something that's pretty basic.

In a Honda Accord, yes. In a Ferrari, though?

Rich people don't have babies? Heck, now-a-days they're the only ones can truly afford them.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#84

Post by bigwavedave »

rndgermandude wrote: post #60
bigwavedave wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car wasn't disabled because it lost reception, it was disabled because of an anti-tampering device that activated when the owner tried to install a child car seat (admittedly, what they did to install a child seat that set off the tamper switch baffles me). It remained disabled because the remote support team couldn't fix it since the parking garage was underground and had no cell reception.

The poster of the reddit thread clarified it wasn't swapping out seats, it was a child seat installation.

Updated for the clarification :thumbsup:

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#85

Post by callamdelaney »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #81
callamdelaney wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with gambiting. Yeah, it sucks, but just tow your car outside and turn it on again. These things exist for a reason. If it had really been stolen, and there was the work around of 'oh, there's no signal so we'll let the car start and drive off' - then a thief could permanently jam that signal, or remove the electronic device responsible for receiving that signal. E.g, it's not perfect but it is secure.

Just tow your car outside sounds like a recipe for losing half a day trying to organise that. Additionally, even average cars these days tend to have removable towing eyes with easily damaged plastic blanking plugs. The chance of damaging an expensive car doing this seems very high. Especially trying to drag it out of an underground car park. If I owned a towing company I'd take a hard pass on that job.

I guess if you've got a Ferarri it's a problem for your PA.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#86

Post by klyrs »

asdff wrote: post #64
klyrs wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can frame it as regulatory capture, but to a large extent, it's more about environmental and consumer protections that the auto industry has spent decades fighting. As somebody who drives an ancient car, I'm keenly aware of its lack of safety features. The "american steel" argument falls flat; my car was made before the concept of crumple zones, much less airbags -- driving this boat, I'd be seriously injured or…

Is throttle and steering by wire a safety feature? No. Its objectively worse than having the physical linkage, and manufacturers turn to it out of ease of design.

Sorry, but I'm not sure what part of my comment that you're responding to.

Maybe you're rebutting my parent? Because I've never heard of a regulation towards drive-by-wire, so I suspect this particular aspect of automotive design is a result of a free market.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#87

Post by jobu »

LeonM wrote: post #70

A lot of readers here, and on Reddit seem to be misunderstanding the situation. The way I understand it, this car was taken in by a garage for 'seat installation'. I presume this means after market seats. The car disabled itself during installation. The OP assumed due to an anti-temper device, but it could have been any failure mode. Most modern cars with airbags will have sensors in the seats to disable some of the…

> The way I understand it, this car was taken in by a garage for 'seat installation'. I presume this means after market seats.

It was even more basic than that. They were installing a child's carseat for the owner, and I believe it was an anti-theft system that was triggered.

The story reminded me a lot of the rental car that bricked itself because it lost cellular service - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/02/driver-stranded-after-c...

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#88

Post by AnthonyMouse »

OJFord wrote: post #56
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the cost of producing that is not actually high. Individuals have built cars out of parts in their own garage. You don't think there is anyone willing to make millions of dollars by producing a thousand of them for the thousand people who want them? But not if the fixed regulatory overhead is equal to the margin on twenty thousand cars.

I think the main thing is safety. On the face of it I'm with you, but then when it came down to it I'd be thinking well hang on this actually doesn't seem as safe (or at least not as thoroughly tested to determine if it is) as these other mass-produced things, and wouldn't end up buying it. If it was easy to make something as safe as a $modern_run_of_the_mill_family_car and that looked 'normal' (i.e. curvy, I suppose…

Making the car safe and making the car comply with safety regulations are two different things.

It's possible and even likely that we have rules which are unnecessary or not worth the cost for small production runs, but which apply to them anyway, because companies doing small production runs don't have lobbying clout and companies doing large production runs are amortizing the cost over hundreds of thousands of cars and don't want things to be easier for smaller competitors.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#89

Post by Scoundreller »

comeonseriously wrote: post #83
Sebb767 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a Honda Accord, yes. In a Ferrari, though?

Rich people don't have babies? Heck, now-a-days they're the only ones can truly afford them.

Some might argue it's the Accord owner that has the money left to raise one (or will maintain enough money left).
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