Official Trapped in Car After Computer Fails

Yahoo! News ^ | Mon, May 12, 2003 | Reuters

[jdege]

And people wonder why engineers prefer mechanical backups.

[FreedomPoster]

Here's $10 that says it was a 745i, and that screwy iDrive system that failed.

[Major Matt Mason]

Suchart Jaovisidha and his driver were trapped inside the BMW for more than 10 minutes before guards broke a window.

Gee, a whole 10 minutes locked in a car. What a harrowing experience.

[sigSEGV]

IIRC, it runs a variant of Windows CE.

[maro]

The problem was that the default in the event of a crash was "lock everything."

[RipSawyer]

"Gee, a whole 10 minutes locked in a car. What a harrowing experience."


If the car were sitting in full sun in hot weather ten minutes without air conditioning could be harrowing indeed. I expect the temperature in Bangkok right now is probably fairly high and with high humidity.
What kind of company sells a car that can lock someone inside?

[Omedalus]

"Here, hold muh Intel StrongARM microprocessor" alert

[Lost Highway]

One thing you never have to worry about with the old reliable Jeep Wrangler.

[ricpic]

Silent killer computers: Ready to spring at the slightest sign of human error.

[mhking]

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!

[jocon307]

This is a good example of why I got manual locks and windows on my car. I feared driving into water and being trapped, I never thought about being locked inside, but that, obviously, can happen too. And yeah, if you were out in the sun that can be deadly. This man is just lucky this happened with other people around who could break him out. There are also those little stylus things you can get that will easily break the glass for you. Scary stuff.

[Eagles2003]

I heard certain Toyotas used to do this also. The source I got it from was Nutz and Boltz, a car repair newsletter.

If the battery failed, you were stuck until you could break you're way out. N&B recommended carrying an automatic center punch in the glove box. Enough weight and big enough to break you're way out.

N&B also mentioned some Hondas had doors so thin you pull on the door panel in the middle and easily unlock them. They had a real high theft/breakin rate.

[Siegfried]

"I'm sorry, I can't do that, Dave."

;-)

[ladyjane]

BMW? Why am I not surprised.

[stainlessbanner]

One thing you never have to worry about with the old reliable Jeep Wrangler.

Amen - you just beat me to it!

O)|||||||(O

[Billy_bob_bob]

Yet I'm sure you still have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission, right?

[ARCADIA]

This is probably one customer testimonial that will never make it into a BMW comercial.

[CyberAnt]

Thank you - I think I'll be happier with my Mirage!!! At least I don't have to worry about suffocating.

[coloradan]

It's a pity the limo wasn't armored enough for the windows to withstand sledgehammer blows. Gotta keep those government agents safe these days!