QUESTION: I have been looking for information on the Y2K problem and how it relates to vehicles. Are all our cars and trucks going to stop working? With everything more and more computerized I wonder how this will affect our vehicles. What about the dealerships and their equipment? Will they be able to diagnose problems? Will they be able to contact their manufacturers? I haven't seen anything relating to this problem and vehicles. Thanks for the good work. Please keep it up.
ANSWER: This was such an interesting question, that I wanted to call some experts about the problem. Everyone I talked to said that the Y2K issue would not effect our cars. So, no they won't stop working. The experts said that the software in cars and the computer-based diagnosis systems mechanics use should all be just fine. There was some disagreement about the digital clocks in cars, but I suspect that since we are still in 4 digits (1999 going to 2000) that shouldn't be a problem either.
The experts' concerns were about public utilities that affect vehicles. Things like street lights. There was also some nominal concern that the automakers might have problems with their automated design and manufacturing systems. However they expected that those companies had probably already addressed the problems.
As for the dealerships being able to contact the automakers, no one really had an answer about that. But they can just pick up a phone.
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