A look at some international glitches
Posted by Jeff Papows on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 @ 03:08 PM
We don’t always expound upon every major glitch that makes the news affecting businesses and their customers (though we do point them out here), but a few have happened in succession over the past several days that warranted examination.
According to The Telegraph, Jaguar has found that once the cruise control was engaged in certain car models, it became difficult to disengage it in what the company calls a “normal manner.” As a result, Jaguar is recalling 18,000 cars in the U.K. The problem (fortunately discovered by an employee) results from a glitch in the cruise control software.
This is yet another example of what can happen when a mismatch occurs between software vendors and manufacturers that may have little expertise with implementing software controls. While we’re annoyed when a navigation system doesn’t work correctly, we often overlook the fact that the same problems (software code and process) can also lead to more severe results.
Additionally, the New Zealand-based telecommunications company, Telecom, has refunded more than $2.7 million dollars to customers after a software flaw caused inaccurate data usage readings for more than 95,000 customers, causing many to be charged overuse fees for exceeding their data caps between November 2010 and June 2011.
Unlike Jaguar, the company did not discover the problem. Instead, customer complaints finally lead Telecom to take action. And while this problem is minor in comparison to the Jaguar recall, it serves as an illustrative example of the pervasiveness of software problems in our lives.