The more things change, the more they stay the same. Gone are the days of Windows 95; heading into the year 2024, there’s an entirely new “blue screen of death” people apparently need to be watching out for – in their cars.
This week a photo went viral on social media purporting to show a Ford vehicle displaying a “your vehicle cannot be driven” message after a failed software update. “Please call customer support,” the screen urges.
Owning a car is about to get *really* weird.
Ford might be first but won’t be the last. pic.twitter.com/WSgOoMx0hj
— Car Dealership Guy (@GuyDealership) December 26, 2023
A post on one car enthusiast forum questioned the authenticity of the screenshot, stating: “This is going around on Twitter, but I couldn’t find any mentions of it here.
Is this even real? The phone number, when Googled doesn’t turn up anything official.”
One person responded: “That’s the message you will see on the rare occasion that an OTA fails. It’s a special customer service phone number for dealing with failed OTAs. It’s from a user on Reddit, his car has since been fixed and is back to normal FYI.”
“If an OTA update fails in such a way that this screen would be necessary, they should automatically revert to the last working state and notify the user,” another user posted in response.
“This is essentially a solved problem in the world of computing. I’m sure there’s some wrinkles that make it difficult, but it’s fundamentally something that they should change their systems to make it impossible,” they said.
In response, another shared issues they were having with Ford’s OTA updates, stating: “I’m still dealing with a failed OTA update. My 6.2.0 was incomplete. Called Ford Motor Company and they confirmed the failed update and stated the update would try again within 30 days. 60 days later, with no update, they sent me to a dealer for service.”
The nightmare continued: “Dealer claimed to have updated the software. My car was delivered to my home and nothing was fixed. In fact, my software reverted to 4.2.1. Now my service manager has no idea what to do. I can’t change drive modes, open trunk or frunk, and pre-collision warning turns on all the time. I can still drive but with limited capability. Feels like a car with a sprained ankle.”
Another mechanics forum user posted a photo of the picture with the comment: “I sort of hope this is a fake, but if it hasn’t happened yet, I presume some day it would. The old joke used to be that if Microsoft made cars, every once in a while they would just quit. Everyone would have to get out, walk 360 degrees around the car and get back in. This would be accepted as normal.”
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Frunk? What faggotry.
Well I learned a new word, so at least there’s that…
Frunk you, Frord Mrotor Crompany!
We just got a recall notice of our VW for an ignition problem that could cause the car to just stop on the Freeway. The notice explained a software fix was required, but at this time the fix doesn’t exist.
A friend had his Jeep lock up on the highway in traffic a few years back for a bug in the transmission software that Jeep had no fix for.
Growing technology complexity and collapsing technical competence… good luck to everyone in the New Year.
Up until about three years ago I had an o15 F350. Sensors out the ying yang. Took it to the local shop because something happened and the battery would drain overnight. They couldn’t find the problem.
Took it to a stealership and they had it for two days before they finally found the problem. A control module in the radio was keeping various sensors, always different, from going to sleep and drained the battery.
Today I own a 95 F150 with a stick anti-theft device and the only electronics are the efi.
It’s funny, my 98 explorer would lock up if I used a particular usb adaptor in the lighter socket. Only thing I could figure is it was somehow triggering anti theft crap. Something definitely susceptible to a “dirty” EMF signal fer sure. Makes me wonder if it is / was a feature and not a bug.
Would be interesting to see if the signal couldn’t be isolated, and analyzed / utilized, etc.
Well this belies the EV conspiracy theory that they want you in EVs to control when/where you can drive.
ANY new vehicle with OTA tech is susceptible.
Be advised on your new car purchase.
Be aware that Google is CENSORED! If you want to find that information us DuckDuckGo.com (duckduckgo.com) you’ll find it ALL there!
If you want a “trouble free” vehicle, stick with “low tech” they’re much safer too. Also too you’ll be at lesser risk of having your vehicle hacked for malicious purposes, they can even kill you if you happen to be a target.
Low tech and manual transmission are the only way to go. Oh, and be sure any words on the dashboard are written in cursive.