Incident: Battery Management Software Bug Leads to Pagani Huayra BC Recall

Published Date: 2018-04-02

Postmortem Analysis
Timeline 1. The software failure incident with the battery management software in Pagani's Huayra BC hypercar occurred between October 18, 2016, and August 1, 2017 [70516].
System 1. Battery management software in Pagani Huayra BC hypercar [70516]
Responsible Organization 1. The software failure incident in the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar was caused by a bug within the battery's management software [70516].
Impacted Organization 1. Owners of the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar [70516]
Software Causes 1. The software bug within the battery's management software caused the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516].
Non-software Causes 1. The front driver airbag might not be secured to the steering wheel properly, leading to a recall in 2016 [70516].
Impacts 1. The software failure incident in Pagani's Huayra BC hypercar resulted in a recall of 16 vehicles in the US-spec production run due to a bug in the battery management software [70516]. 2. The bug in the software caused the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516]. 3. Pagani confirmed the bug during standard vehicle testing and is replacing the affected batteries to remedy the issue [70516]. 4. The automaker has not provided a timetable for the fix or when it will begin notifying owners of the recall, potentially causing uncertainty and inconvenience for the owners of the $2.5 million hypercars [70516].
Preventions 1. Implementing thorough software testing procedures during the development phase to catch bugs before production [70516]. 2. Conducting regular software quality assurance checks to identify and address potential issues proactively [70516]. 3. Collaborating closely with component manufacturers to ensure the reliability and compatibility of software components [70516].
Fixes 1. Replacing the battery with one that doesn't contain the bug is the solution to fix the software failure incident in the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar [70516].
References 1. Pagani (the automaker) [70516] 2. Battery's manufacturer [70516]

Software Taxonomy of Faults

Category Option Rationale
Recurring one_organization (a) The software failure incident related to the battery's management software causing a safety hazard in Pagani's Huayra BC hypercar is not the first time such an issue has occurred with Pagani's vehicles. The article mentions a previous recall in 2016 for non-BC variants of the Huayra due to a different issue with the front driver airbag not being secured properly to the steering wheel. This indicates a history of software-related problems within the same organization [70516]. (b) The article does not mention any similar incidents happening at other organizations or with their products and services.
Phase (Design/Operation) design (a) The software failure incident in the Pagani recall article is related to the design phase. The issue with the battery's management software was identified as a bug that may cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. This bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, indicating that it was a design flaw introduced during the system development phase [70516]. (b) There is no specific information in the article indicating that the software failure incident was due to factors introduced by the operation or misuse of the system.
Boundary (Internal/External) within_system (a) The software failure incident related to the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar's battery management software was within the system. The article mentions that the issue stemmed from a bug within the software itself, which could cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516]. The bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, indicating an internal software flaw that was identified within the system.
Nature (Human/Non-human) non-human_actions (a) The software failure incident in the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar recall was due to a bug within the battery's management software, which may cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. This bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, indicating a non-human action as the contributing factor to the failure [70516]. (b) The article does not provide specific information indicating human actions as contributing factors to the software failure incident.
Dimension (Hardware/Software) hardware, software (a) The software failure incident in the article is related to hardware. The issue with the battery's management software in the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar was causing the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, which is a hardware-related problem [70516].
Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) non-malicious (a) The software failure incident related to the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar's recall was non-malicious. The issue with the battery's management software was identified as a bug that could cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. The bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, and Pagani confirmed it with the help of the battery's manufacturer. There is no mention in the article of any malicious intent behind the software bug. [70516]
Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) unknown (a) The software failure incident related to the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar recall was not due to poor decisions but rather a bug within the battery's management software. The bug caused the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. The issue was discovered during standard vehicle testing, and Pagani confirmed the bug with the help of the battery's manufacturer [70516].
Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) accidental (a) The software failure incident in this case is not attributed to development incompetence. The issue with the battery's management software causing the power supply problem was identified during standard vehicle testing, and Pagani confirmed the bug with the help of the battery's manufacturer [70516]. (b) The software failure incident is categorized as accidental. The bug within the software that may cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle was not intentional but was discovered during standard vehicle testing. Pagani did not mention any intentional actions or lack of professional competence leading to this bug; it was an accidental discovery during testing [70516].
Duration temporary The software failure incident related to the battery's management software in the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar can be classified as a temporary failure. The incident was caused by a bug within the software that may cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, presenting a safety hazard. Pagani identified this bug during standard vehicle testing and confirmed it with the help of the battery's manufacturer. The remedy for this issue involves replacing the battery with one that doesn't contain the bug, indicating that the failure was due to specific circumstances related to the software bug [70516].
Behaviour value (a) crash: The software failure incident in the article is not related to a crash where the system loses state and does not perform any of its intended functions [70516]. (b) omission: The software failure incident is not related to omission where the system omits to perform its intended functions at an instance(s) [70516]. (c) timing: The software failure incident is not related to timing where the system performs its intended functions correctly, but too late or too early [70516]. (d) value: The software failure incident is related to a value failure where the system performs its intended functions incorrectly. The issue stems from a bug within the battery's management software that may cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516]. (e) byzantine: The software failure incident is not related to a byzantine failure where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions [70516]. (f) other: The software failure incident is specifically related to a bug within the software that affects the performance of the battery in the vehicle, leading to a value failure [70516].

IoT System Layer

Layer Option Rationale
Perception embedded_software The software failure incident related to the Pagani recall was specifically related to the embedded software. The issue stemmed from a bug within the battery's management software, which could cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. The bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, and Pagani confirmed the bug with the help of the battery's manufacturer. The remedy for the issue involved replacing the battery with one that doesn't contain the bug [70516].
Communication unknown The software failure incident reported in Article 70516 was not related to the communication layer of the cyber physical system. Instead, the issue stemmed from a bug within the battery's management software that caused the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, presenting a safety hazard. The bug was discovered during standard vehicle testing, and the remedy involved replacing the battery with one that doesn't contain the bug. This indicates that the failure was not at the link_level or connectivity_level of the cyber physical system but rather a software bug within the battery management system [70516].
Application TRUE The software failure incident related to the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar's battery management software was indeed related to the application layer of the cyber physical system. The article mentions that the issue stemmed from a bug within the software that caused the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516]. This aligns with the definition of an application layer failure, which involves contributing factors introduced by bugs, operating system errors, unhandled exceptions, and incorrect usage.

Other Details

Category Option Rationale
Consequence property The consequence of the software failure incident related to the Pagani Huayra BC hypercar recall was primarily in the category of (d) property. The software bug in the battery management system could cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard. As a result, the defect impacted the material goods (the vehicle itself) of the owners of the affected cars. There were no reported injuries or collisions related to the defect, indicating that the consequence was more related to potential property damage rather than physical harm [70516].
Domain transportation (a) The failed system was intended to support the transportation industry. The software failure incident was related to a recall issued by Pagani for the Huayra BC hypercar due to a bug in the battery's management software, which could cause the battery to not provide enough power to the vehicle, posing a safety hazard [70516].

Sources

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