Car trouble and how technology could help

So I took another long break between posts. This time around, major car trouble is to blame as I am putting all my spare time into a fight with an automobile giant.

To give you a bit of a background, here is what happened;

I own a mid size car which is recently out of warranty and which has less than 100 k km on the odometer. I have been maintaining this vehicle as indicated in the manufacturer's guides and until a few weeks ago, I had no trouble with my car. Other than changing parts that succumb to wear and tear such as break pads and the battery, not a complaint. That is until after a routine oil change, my check engine light lit up. On the day that I intended to get the issue checked out, the engine would not run.

So I called the garage that performed the oil change. The mechanic was nice enough to come to the place where the car was stuck to do a quick check on the warning light. He first checked the oil level and it was normal. Also there was no oil stains on my driveway after I brought the car home after the oil change first took place. My oil warning light never lit up since I bought the car in question.

At this point, other than mentioning that this car was bought in large part due to the fact that its manufacturer has a reputation for producing mostly reliable and durable cars.

You can see that I am not disclosing any details on this car at least for now, as I am still waiting on the conclusion of this incident.

So at this point, assuming that I did not bore you with the preamble, you may be wondering what a broken engine has in common with a technology blog. And your question is legitimate. If you take some time to familiarize yourself with modern automotive diagnosis, you will soon find that the two fields are quite related. You may also come to think that the automobile industry does not use technology to the best interest of the consumer nor the industry itself. Why? Read on to find out more.

Once the car got towed to the dealership for a second diagnosis, I asked the director of the service department this;

Can my car's computer indicate precisely what happened and when the breakdown began by using time stamps associated with the diagnosis codes?

To my surprise, the answer was " no".

So the conclusion is that in a car which costs over 35 thousand dollars when new, the electronic and computer system does not store data other than precise and predetermined codes which are triggered by the failure of certain components or systems.

Given the fact that a basic computer can be built for a few hundred dollars, I am surprised that one is not a standard part of any modern vehicle. The benefits of recording certain data such as speed, distance, date, time, just to name a few would be potentially helpful not only to the vehicle's owner but also the manufacturer and designated authorities in the event of a mechanical failure or accident.

Even though I am not sure if any car on the road today is equipped with such a device, given the relatively low cost and potentially huge benefits, I think it should be standard equipment. Just like assisted steering and electronic fuel injection.

In my particular situation, the presence of such a computer would have saved the car manufacturer at least a thousand dollars. How so? In order to determine what happened to my car's engine and ultimately decide on what or who is responsible for the damage,  they are asking the dealership to dismantle my engine and take pictures and scans of certain components. If a computer was recording data, they would be able to see in a short time that the car was driven within specifications and all maintenance was done as warranted for.

So as I wait for the manufacturer to decide what happens next and most importantly who pays for the major repair, I can only think about how in certain situations data records can be used to benefit everyone. Not to compare different scenarios, but airplanes are equipped with black boxes for a specific reason and have been for quite some time.

I understand that a plane and a car do not have the same value. I fully comprehend that a failing plane has a potential tragic impact that goes beyond a car accident. Which is why I am suggesting that cars be equipped with a simple computer and not a black box.

Enticing offer from Microsoft

So I took another long break from the blog. Since I am merely an amateur blogger, I don’t feel guilty for not writing anything in a few weeks. However a lot has happened in this time span and I have a few things to share with you, the readers. So what do I write about after such a long haitus? A great offer from a vendor of course!

A few weeks ago I wrote about the different offerings of Microsoft in regards to the line of Microsoft Office products. I have also in the past praised Google’s free alternative to the traditional office suite. However, sometimes a basic solution is missing certain features that you use on occasion but not often enough to notice until you really need them.

Such is the case with editing word documents and writing content for publication. A client of mine who is writing documentation for publishing has solicited my help with certain issues. I was required to section a document into various formats and this requires Microsoft Word as opening the original with any other application resulted in formatting discrepencies. So I had to get myself MS Office and fast. My first step was to install a free trial of Microsoft Office 2013 which was good for 30 days to see if all of the features were there. Once I determined that the tools I needed were there, I had to choose my course of action once the 30 day trial expired. Logically, I was debating between Office 365 and Office 2013.

Microsoft made the decision very easy for me given the promotion found in the Microsoft Store; for a paltry 99 dollars, I would be getting; Office 365 for one pc and one tablet, 1TB of cloud storage on one drive for one year. And a 7 inch HP Tablet running windows 8.1! Oh, and they also threw in a 25 dollar gift card to use to buy apps in the Microsoft Store! So, either I got a free tablet or MS Office 365 free of charge depending on how one looks at it! Given the fact that I needed the software, the free tablet was a sweet offer.

I will review both the tablet and the Office 365 Personal in separate reviews. But for now, I suggest that you check out the Microsoft Store. So far I got two solid deals from them. Given the fact that it’s microsoft we are talking about, I’ll take it!