More Software Woes For The Auto Industry

The world has somehow been both shocked and completely unsurprised by the news that Volkswagen has been intentionally poisoning the planet and polluting the air that consumers breathe. By using software that cuts emissions during testing but then releases illegal levels of emissions when the car is not under testing, the automaker and its family of other brands have sent an estimated 11 million vehicles out into the market with dangerous levels of diesel emissions. So far, autos from Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, and Seat have been found to have this nefarious software installed, while recent independent testing found that Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat, and Volvo models emit as much as ten times the allowable levels of emissions, regardless of whether the cheating software was installed.

So it shouldn’t be too surprising that Honda has issued a recall of 143,000 of its Civic and Fit line of autos for faulty software. Unfortunately, the real shock in this recall isn’t that emissions are affected; instead, the software causes the front wheels on the vehicle to engage and lock. According to the auto manufacturer, the software was written in a way that causes undue stress on the drive shaft pulley. (Man, I hate it when my software causes undue stress.)

Releasing a typical update with a few bug fixes isn’t usually quite the cause for alarm that finding out your software could kill you in an accident that it caused. Honda Civic and Fit owners of 2014 and 2015 models are urged to contact their dealerships or Honda directly in order to have the vehicle reprogrammed. There is no charge for this repair due to the manufacturer’s fault in the issue.