The owner of a 2019 Chevy Equinox was puzzled about his car seemingly believing it was 1970, based on a message on its entertainment system screen. But there’s actually a reasonable explanation for it that doesn’t have to do with linear time.
The video showing the nod back to 1970 comes from Michigan-based creator Trav Hodges (@atastewithtrav), whose channel offers “Food, Sports, Golf, Travel and Laughs.” This particular TikTok offering, posted last Monday, has received more than 30,600 views as of Monday.
It shows the entertainment system screen in the dashboard of the Equinox, reading, “Checking for updates. Last checked for updates on 1/1/1970 at 12:00 am.”
He’s chosen an on-screen caption that reads, “My car is trippin,” with a laughing emoji to punctuate it.
As the screen displays in the video, he notes, “When your car was built in 2019. But the last checked update was 1970, that don’t add up, sunshine.”
Why 1970?
It’s not that the car thinks it’s in the bellbottoms era. The 1970 message likely has something to do with a Unix operating system.
As DevOps engineer Gary Stewart explained on Quora, “The time in computer systems is based off Unix epoch time which was setup from the 1/1/1970 therefore most computer systems if not all will revert back to January 1st 1970 and because the time uses a signed 64bit integer it will eventually expire at some point in 2038 (2038 problem) and if systems are left unpatched (lacking updates) at this time when it expires you will see they reset themselves to 1 January 1970.”
Another user, claiming to have a B.A. in computer science, added, “Having zero as an error result is common as it is unlikely to be correct, but additional checks can be made to ensure that it is not a valid result.”
An error with the ’19 Equinox entertainment system isn’t unheard of. According to a Redditor on the r/chevy forum, “My radio on my 2019 Chevy equinox keeps turning on and off while driving. It keeps disconnecting everything like my Bluetooth my radio turn off and reset itself back to the user screen.” The person indicated, despite unplugging the battery for 24 hours, a fix was not achieved.
One respondent said, “There was a bulletin back in 2022, that explains similar symptoms.” That bulletin noted that at times, sometimes connected to adjusting the volume on the radio, it “resets or reboots itself and that the myBrand Splash Animation (the animation that usually only occurs at startup) plays.”
Viewers were amused by the TikTok
Commenters reacted, seemingly without Unix knowledge.
“I swear these car companies build cars in advance then hide them from us,” one remarked.
“Rein-CAR-nation,” punned another.
“Mine says my software version was made in 1969 lol,” another observed.
Someone came closer to explaining it, saying, “The system clock is not set right,” asserting that “desktop and laptop computers do the same thing” due to a battery issue.
@atastewithtrav Something just don’t add up here #tiktokshop #chevyequinox #chevygang #chevy #equinox #car #carproblems #updates #tiktokpartner #fyp #foryoupage #foryoupage #trending ♬ original sound – Trav Hodges
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok and Instagram direct message and to Chevrolet via email.
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