Great case study.
> Subaru Australia has recently been recalling the Vehicle Dynamics
> Control firmware in the newish Subaru Outback H6 (all wheel
> drive). This software is used to automatically apply power &
> braking independently to each wheel to counter the effects of
> over-aggressive driving habits (not mine, of course). The
> intended outcome is to maintain stability of the vehicle under
> slippery conditions.
>
> The system tries to measure the load on each wheel, rotation
> speed, incline etc. & uses all of this instantaneously to
> actively control the wheel systems (or so i have read in my
> owner's manual).
>
> The problem, it appears, from reading the recall letter, is that
> when the (pre-recall) vehicle is used for towing a heavy trailer
> downhill on a bend, the software mistakenly thinks that it is
> undergoing a completely different manoevre & produces an effect
> similar to driving on oily glass with three flat tires.
>
> I was told by Subaru Australia that the software & whole system
> had been tested successfully in thousands of situations, except
> for, it appears, the one described above.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.1 : Fri Aug 31 2001 - 03:10:02 EST