Automation running amuck

 I was alarmed when most of the warning lights came up on my Subaru Forester one fine day a few weeks ago. One of them was indicating a malfunction of “Eye Sight” , a vision system that keeps car in the lane and maintains distance from the car in front. Especially disturbing was the sign that we need to check the engine. In addition, among others, there was an "S" blinking in and out, where "S" is the sports mode of driving.

I checked the manual to see what was going on. That was totally futile because nowhere in the manual it said what the Christmas Tree of lights (my name for multiple lights coming on and blinking) meant. When we tried Google and YouTube, there were all types of suggestions: It is the engine, it is the transmission, it is the Vehicle Dynamic System, it is the battery, it is water in the gas. In short, totally confusing answers, written by equally frustrated customers.

 

So, I took the car to the dealer. They hooked it up and came up with diagnostic....it was the coolant bypass valve failure, which, if not attended, can lead to the engine overheating. They fixed it in a few hours and, better still, it was covered under warranty.

 

My question: How can so many warning lights come up for a coolant bypass valve failure? I can see check the engine light but all the rest? Probably, the engineers that designed the system wanted a way to communicate to me that something was wrong, but to use the “Christmas light” approach? 

 

In short, the modern cars have become so complicated that it is impossible, even for an engineer, to figure out their bizarre behaviors.

 

This is not the only case where automation has run amuck. The very same day I had the car incidence, I had to battle the sprinkler system in our backyard. 

 

The old controller was replaced by a system called Rachio which operates through my iPhone, using the home’s Wi-Fi system. The problem was that our Internet service provider had issues and so we had periodic Internet blackouts. That made our dear Rachio get disoriented and disconnected. The problem persisted even after the Internet service was restored.

 

Worse, one of the sprinklers sprung a leak and I wanted to shut the system off. Without Wi-Fi connection, Rachio will not obey. I had to find the shut off valve and manually disconnect the system.

 

Meanwhile, the Rachio controller had multiple lights blinking. I tried to decipher the meaning of blinking lights and reconnect Rachio. That just did not work. Like an endless loop, the system changed its blinking light sequence but came back to the original set. I was going to call Rachio for assistance but then, magically, the system started working.

 

After giving away the simplicity for controlling sprinklers to a Wi-Fi run automated system, I said “hell no” when our new microwave and gas stove (from LG) asked to be connected to Wi-Fi. 

 

Enough is enough. Especially for a senior citizen.