The more electronics and software involved, the more errors like that will occur. I expect it to worsen as the car gets older, with fewer updates and available parts. The only exception is strict testing, similar to what is done with commercial airplanes.
> Drive by wire throttle is in the vast majority of cars made in the last twenty years because emissions and fuel efficiency require it.
Electronic throttle controls is still safe because if the code hits a bug and the throttle becomes uncontrollable you can still use the brakes to stop the car.
But if you also have drive by wire braking system, you can have a big problem.
I agree, but none of them has autopilot, and the article lacks a technical assessment of why it happened, but I reckon it was due to that. ECUs, on the other hand, don't decide their own actions; they are essentially microcontrollers. All modern cars have plenty of ECUs, each for specific functions, like terrain ECU, brakes ECU, etc. They are extensively tested for FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), so the margin of error is slim compared to modern electric cars with all these autopilot technologies.
