Comment by jcgrillo

Exactly. It has become accepted that manufacturers can sell us complicated systems before they're "done" and software is the excuse. It should not be acceptable, and if done well we could see incentives against this behavior causing manufacturers to sell radically simpler, safer, and more maintainable systems.

In this case, it appears somehow that an infotainment system update impacted the drivetrain. In my fully "fly by wire" computerized vehicle from 1999 (M-B E300), even if it somehow could receive OTA updates, these systems are physically separate. The ABS system is a different module from the transmission controller, which is different from the engine controller. They all communicate over CAN, but the only way one could crash another is if somehow it responds poorly to incorrect CAN messages.. And even if these computers crash the mechanical components they control will probably keep working more or less.. What has happened in the intervening quarter century that made it possible for this failure to happen?