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posted by
Fnord666
on Thursday January 02 2020, @04:15AM
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
from the What-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
Mirrors have been an integral part of motor vehicles for over a century. The low tech solution has solved the major visibility issues involved with driving and now car makers think they can do one better using cameras instead of mirrors. This may be an improvement in large trucks where visibility using mirrors can be poor to the point that obstacles directly in front and behind the vehicle cannot be seen but for cars it may prove to be a theft opportunity.
Best not to mount a mirror, or indeed a camera, directly in the line of fire of a neighboring car door in the parking lot. Maybe someone should tell them about the practicalities of life?
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Cameras to Replace Mirrors on Cars and Trucks
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TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @08:23AM (3 children)
Last time I replaced my battery, the car bricked itself. I had to have a mechanic come out with a $1000 professional-level scan tool and a procedure he printed off of Alldata to completely reset the car's computer. I thought I ruined the computer or something with a short, but he said that the entire generation and later of my car model is like that. Thank goodness he did it for free because I've gone there for years and he lived nearby, or that job would have cost me more than the AGM battery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @03:30PM (2 children)
Make and model?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @05:55PM
This is a common problem, the memory requires power to store anything. If you're going to do work like this, typically, you'll need a special tool to keep that circuitry powered while you do the replacement. I'm a bit skeptical that it outright bricked itself, but in some cars, they will make minor adjustments based upon sensor readings and may have to relearn what those readings should be by driving around.
Plugging what is essentially a UPS into the appropriate port will prevent that from happening. They're not even particularly expensive as all they do is keep the appropriate parts powered on while you change the battery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:53PM
Sorry it took so long to get back. It's a Mercedes C-class, which probably goes a way to explain it. But my mechanic did say other cars have similar things that need reset when the battery changes, usually involving the anti-theft protection or keyless systems.