Over Complication Paper #3 Draft

Mitch Young

English 101

11/23/15

Over Complication

New technology and innovation have always deemed our world as we know it, insufficient. Need based inventions have lead to some of the most profound breakthroughs in technology, and ultimately have had a dramatic affect on every living thing. Currently, complex mechanisms are responsible for hundreds of things we as humans encounter daily. Some of the most complicated of machinery in our daily lives, like cell phones, computers, and cars are becoming more and more of a necessity. With high demand comes greater effort to supply, many a times new ideas lead to new customers. This is today's world in a wrap. Too many things today, especially in the automotive world, are major problems waiting to happen. Things like electronic parking brakes and touch screen controls are so complex that they are bound to fail. There are some things in life should be kept simple, robust, and dependable. Some things, for peace of mind, should be kept mechanical. Over complication of devices on automobiles is a major danger, and should be addressed with simple, proven old school mechanical designs.

Logically speaking, parts wear out after heavy use, mistreatment and abuse. That being said, the fewer moving parts there are, and the stronger they are built, the likelihood of failure is dramatically decreased. Cool new touchscreens trying bring a greater ease of use, come with a major learning curve. People can generally figure out how to change the station on the radio, and turn the defrosters on while in the driveway, but trying to figure these buried commands out while driving can be an extremely dangerous task. Richard Truett expresses this same concern in an article for Automotive News, stating that switches and levers are being replaced by apps on a touchscreen. Looking back to “old cars” he says, “lowering a window, adjusting a seat or changing the brightness of the of the instrument lights is a quick, intuitive no-brainer” (Truett). Notice the powerful word, intuitive. Nowadays almost everything in a car is somehow controlled or manipulated by some kind of electronics, or computer. Anything from brake power distribution to a complex variable fuel injection system, they are all extremely complex and to the average person, not intuitive. A major problem with newer cars is the cost to maintain then with these unintuitive complex parts. With onboard computers, troubleshooting has to be accompanied by a code reader, found in dealerships and some mechanic shops, but costing neer $7,000 per unit (Allen). It is a new era where even the most knowledgeable person cannot just get out, pop the hood, fix the problem and keep driving.

All these driver's aids and safety features are good things, but when things really matter, it is important to make mechanisms simple and bulletproof. An electronic parking brake is on of the best examples of what not to do as an auto manufacturer. Speaking from personal experience with a 2009 Volkswagen Passat, electronic parking brakes are finicky and may leave you stranded. Park your car and push the button, its simple, takes no physical strength, but that one time where for some reason the break just will not turn off, you are in trouble. Situations like this make consumers question their safety in situations where it truly matters. What are you to do in a situation like this? It is truly unfortunate that things like this happen because there is no simple way to try to go about fixing the issue. With an old school cable style parking brake design, you could perhaps reach under the car and wiggle the cable until it unbinds, but trying to think through how a computer works inside its little circuit board buried in the dash is not something most people can do. Even if someone has the knowledge and know how to diagnose the issue inside the dash, they cannot get to it. This is extremely unintuitive.

Something as important as a parking brake should be kept to a barebones no fail design, it has one job to do---it better be able to always do that job. Electronics fail, that's something we all hold as common knowledge with a little reflection, and with that being said some things just need to stay mechanical. Looking at automobiles two wheel cousins, motorcycles recently---especially dirt bikes---have been on a slippery slope. On a motorcycle equipped with electric start, the battery is prone to loose its charge after not being ridden for a while, and with the battery dead on some bikes it will be a long push home. Some dirtbikes even recently have been produced without a kickstarter - electric start only. This is possibly one of the worst things that a manufacturer could do. Getting the bike started when the electric start fails---and they do fail, becomes made much more difficult. Why would a never fail kick start mechanism be removed from something like this?

Auto manufacturers everywhere should focus on reliability and serviceability on crucial components on cars. Parking brakes, windshield wipers, and engines specifically should be of the most robust and mechanical of components. Smaller things like an electronic tailgate, while maybe appealing to consumers---assuming it never malfunctions---should still at minimum have a manual override that allows it to operate normally. One of the best examples of pure robust mechanical dependability is the 5.9 liter 6BT Cummins 12 valve turbo diesel engine. While it appears to be a big hunk of iron on the outside, its internals are simple and insanely heavy duty. Cummins uses a gear driven injection pump, camshaft, power steering ram, etc. There are no timing belts or chains to wear over time, it is purely engineered to last. It is not uncommon to see these diesel engines go for 500,000 plus miles, they are truly a magnificent piece of automotive engineering. This engine is able to operate so flawlessly because of its simplicity and mechanical reliability, there are no electronics anywhere to be found influencing the engine. Compare a purely mechanical design with a similar electronic design, and the mechanical one will always win in reliability.

Back between the 2009 and 2010 model years, Toyota recalled over eight million vehicles due to a “sudden acceleration” issue caused by an electrical malfunction in the throttle pedal (Koebler). The “drive by wire” configuration that they had implemented in these cars was a fully electronic system. When the pedal is depressed in a “drive by wire” system, the motion is imputed into a computer which then electronically controls the fuel flow to the engine. If something in the complex electronics is to go wrong, the car may be held in rapid acceleration and the input from the driver's foot will do absolutely nothing. In a typical mechanical drive by cable design, when the throttle is depressed it pulls on a cable that is directly connected to a valve. Little can go wrong, and if something does go askew, it is easy to diagnose the problem. U.S. News & World Report’s Jason Koebler did an interview with Mr. Wikie, an employee of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the issue of the danger or over complex car parts. "As the systems become more and more complex, the task of safety becomes ever more difficult," Wilkie says. "You almost can't prove, no matter how much testing you do, that incidents can't happen." Before and during the recall of Toyota and Lexus models, it is believed that this malfunction was partially or fully responsible for the death of 89 people (CBSNews). This furthermore proves that the not only can important systems be problematic and cause annoyance and costly repair bills, but can cost people's lives.

For all these reasons and for countless others, simplicity seems to win out on important things in cars, especially since our lives frequently depend on them functioning properly. Auto manufacturers everywhere need to learn from the mistakes that have been made regarding electronics, and revert to simple mechanical designs. It is hard to argue with the principal of chaos theory, with so many electronic devices and software in cars, things will go wrong. Why overcomplicate anything in an automobile that could be kept in a simple, robust, and proven mechanical design?

Works Cited:

Allen, Mike. "Save Money on Your Mechanic Visits!" Popular Mechanics. Hearst Communications,

Inc., 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Koebler, Jason. "Killer Cars? Auto Computer Systems Open to Malfunction, Hackers." US News.

U.S.News & World Report, 25 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

"Toyota "Unintended Acceleration" Has Killed 89." CBSNews. CBS Interactive Inc., 25 May 2010. Web.

30 Nov. 2015.

Truett, Richard. "The Drive to Make Car Functions Simple Is Cutting out Simplicity." Automotive News.

Crain Communications, Inc., 21 May 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.