19th April 2015, 8:58 AM
Your computer is not the same as a flight computer. Here's what I mean by that. They can hard-test these things. If they: remove all online access to the components that actually keep the plane in flight, and make those parts of the plane a hard ROM that can't be overwritten instead of storing it in Flash memory, then it is safer.
Also, consider the computers designed by NASA. They work out how those machines should function right down to the bare metal to such a degree they can actually upgrade a satellite's physical abilities without taking it offline. They've got such a high degree of what their software needs to function that the majority of their satellites are still functioning to this day.
Hold up a highway computer system to that standard, we've got something we can rely on. To that same extent, Tesla has done similar things with their own onboard computers.
Also, consider the computers designed by NASA. They work out how those machines should function right down to the bare metal to such a degree they can actually upgrade a satellite's physical abilities without taking it offline. They've got such a high degree of what their software needs to function that the majority of their satellites are still functioning to this day.
Hold up a highway computer system to that standard, we've got something we can rely on. To that same extent, Tesla has done similar things with their own onboard computers.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)