4 Technology Failure Examples

Last updated on June 23rd, 2022 at 04:29 am

Technology does a lot for us. Think of the many societal advancements that we owe as a species to it. We use technology to make our everyday existence so convenient, and it even prolongs our lives.

However, technology doesn’t always do what it’s supposed to. Sometimes it fails, and when it does, the results can range from annoying to deadly. Let’s talk about four technology fails.

Airbags

Cars have definitely come a long way in the past hundred years. We’ve gone from burning fossil fuels to hybrids and finally to electric vehicles. Modern vehicles also come with things like:

• Seatbelts
• Rear automatic braking
• Airbags

Airbags can fail to deploy sometimes, though. They save many lives every year, but it’s possible to get a defective one.

If you want to make it less likely that your vehicle’s airbag will fail to deploy, you should do some research on that model before you buy it. The IIHS safety report is a good place to start. There, you’ll see a comprehensive vehicle feature breakdown.

If that vehicle’s airbags don’t work very well, you’ll learn about that, and perhaps go with another option. Airbag failure can mean the difference between life and death, so this is not something to take lightly.

Smartphone Problems

You might have some of the most impressive techs on the planet in your pocket right now. Your smartphone can do some amazing things. You can use it to:

• Play your music
• Send your friend an email
• Check how your stocks are doing or last night’s basketball scores

That’s tremendously impressive, but how secure is your phone? You’ve probably used it to pay credit card bills or check your bank balance before. Is it possible that a hacker can steal some of your info when you do these things?

To avoid this tech’s security failing you, there are a couple of things you can do. The most critical one is not to use public Wi-Fi if you’re going to pay a credit card bill, check your bank balance, etc. Only do those things at home or on a trusted network.

The other thing to avoid doing is “jailbreaking” your phone. This happens when you alter the device’s fundamental software. You might do it if you have an Android, but you want to use an iPhone app.

Once you jailbreak your phone, you can do that, but you’re making the device much more vulnerable to hackers. Don’t ever tamper with a smartphone’s software.

Plane Autopilot Issues

Many commercial airline planes now come with an autopilot feature. Some of them work okay, but there are still kinks to work out with some others.

For instance, Boeing autopilot technology recently got some bad press when one of their 737s crashed right after takeoff. It happened another time right after that.

It seems clear that this tech was not ready for release yet, and that Boeing had pushed it through too fast. Amazingly, US air safety regulators had allowed mass-production of the autopilot before the company had done enough testing on it.

Boeing lost billions because of this failure, and their whole 737 Max fleet is still grounded as they try to overhaul it.

Peloton

You’ve probably seen Peloton commercials at some point. Peloton is a high-end exercise bike where you can take live classes as you use it. Because of the high price point, it’s not for everyone.

You can certainly get in shape with Peloton, but it has had its share of troubles. For instance, the first-generation bikes came out in 2014. Five years later, the company abruptly said they would no longer support the original line.

That was because of touchscreen performance issues after software updates. The company announced that those who owned the first-generation bike could retrofit it with new tech to solve the problem. The only issue is that they wanted $350 for the replacement parts.

The bike already cost close to $2,000, not to mention a monthly $40 class fee. It angered their customers, and rightly so. The brand got a ton of bad press because of this.

We can take lessons from these failures. The biggest one is that while technology can amaze us, it also doesn’t work one hundred percent of the time. Tech can quickly become obsolete, and when that happens, it can cost us money or worse.

Technology is a double-edged sword, and while we marvel at it, we also shouldn’t worship it. Sometimes it’s just as harmful as it is helpful.