It would only take only a couple of lines of code to wreak havoc. Short of dumping the code and having someone who knows what they're looking for examine it, who knows what kind of mischief is embedded.
I would think they would have a valid hash code for each and every version of the software, but who knows. A hash code is a 16 digit, more or less, number that's unique to the contents of the file. Change one byte and the has is totally different. I still have an old copy of a hash code program from the computers I worked on in the mid-80’s. Very handy tool for seeing comparing files or knowing very quickly if a file has changed.
The average person is clueless as to how much a modern car depends on a computer to do.
I had a 1988 Honda Accord that suddenly sped up, full throttle, on me one day when I was on the Interstate. Talk about scary. I took it in and they assured me the floor mat had gotten tangled up with the accelerator and that the end of of that. I went for months waiting for it to happen again. Gosh, you would think by now they would have some means of assuring the floor mat and accelerator or brake or clutch pedals could not interfere with each other.
This could be a really tough one to figure out, but I would start by looking at the thousands of lines of code that control the computer.
Informative post! :)
Interesting. I was thinking of the problem from a mechanical perspective more — not at the computer end.
If you can’t tell if a floor mat caused your problem you should take a driving class, or quit driving.