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Phanuthier · 04-14-2009, 05:09 AM

Cue : US-car apologists talking about how long they've had a GM, Ford, et al without having problems but thew blew a tire on a Toyota.

Its funny sometimes talking to a non-science person about reliability, they'll say they had a car for x many years and it doesn't have a problem. As a pre-emptive strike, it should be mentioned that reliability isn't the lifetime of your car - reliability is usually measured by looking at the probability of failure of a component/sub-system in a system, and how components are assembled in such a configuration to minimize the probability* of failure of the overall system (series versus parallel, et al). And, a measure is made on whether the failure of a component will cause a major failure and what is the tolerance of it in different configurations, i.e. does it require redundancy.

So, if you are driving a GM car and you are on the lucky souls that didn't have their car breakdown inbetween Lac La Biche and St Paul, there are (example) double as much Toyota lucky souls that didn't have their car breakdown either. Conversely, if you have a Toyota and you are one of the poor schmucks calling AMA for a tow at 4am just outside of Calaway Park, there are (example) double as muny poor schmucks out there hoping they are within a cell service calling for a tow as well.

* Probability is often measured in terms of MTTF (Mean Time to Failure)

04-14-2009, 05:09 AM	#2
Phanuthier Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Silicon Valley Exp:	Cue : US-car apologists talking about how long they've had a GM, Ford, et al without having problems but thew blew a tire on a Toyota. Its funny sometimes talking to a non-science person about reliability, they'll say they had a car for x many years and it doesn't have a problem. As a pre-emptive strike, it should be mentioned that reliability isn't the lifetime of your car - reliability is usually measured by looking at the probability of failure of a component/sub-system in a system, and how components are assembled in such a configuration to minimize the probability* of failure of the overall system (series versus parallel, et al). And, a measure is made on whether the failure of a component will cause a major failure and what is the tolerance of it in different configurations, i.e. does it require redundancy. So, if you are driving a GM car and you are on the lucky souls that didn't have their car breakdown inbetween Lac La Biche and St Paul, there are (example) double as much Toyota lucky souls that didn't have their car breakdown either. Conversely, if you have a Toyota and you are one of the poor schmucks calling AMA for a tow at 4am just outside of Calaway Park, there are (example) double as muny poor schmucks out there hoping they are within a cell service calling for a tow as well. * Probability is often measured in terms of MTTF (Mean Time to Failure) __________________ "With a coach and a player, sometimes there's just so much respect there that it's boils over" -Taylor Hall Last edited by Phanuthier; 04-14-2009 at 05:27 AM.