by Miha Markič
23. October 2007 10:19
It is annoying when your computer takes time to boot or to load some application. Mostly it is just an annoyance. But sometimes it might be more than that:
"My finger slipped on the steering wheel and I accidentally pressed the button used for the starting sequence,"
"The car went into neutral and I had to reinitialize the system, that is, reload the gearbox management program," he explained. The onboard camera recorded images of Hamilton pressing several buttons on his steering wheel while other drivers sped by. (read more)
The quotes are related to the latest Formula One Grand Prix event held in Brazil. Hamilton pressed a wrong key during the race which cost him the race and the title. One has to ask, why did software let him press the button in first place. I mean, it doesn't make sense to initialize the start sequence during the high speed race, does it? Why didn't the software prevent him a nonsense operation? The next question is, why the heck did reinitialization take a minute. Is is really necessary to "reload the gearbox management system" to reinitialize? From my perspective it looks like a software with stupid problems which might, obviously, cause huge problems. Not foreseeing that driver, who is still a human, might press a wrong button during the race is not really sign of well thought out software.
The bottom line is that the software should prevent nonsense actions as much as it is possible. At the same time there has to exist an "override all" button but it has to be turned off by default. That's it.
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