A mechanic is claiming that a customer experienced a retro experience with the car’s entertainment system after hitting a bump.
The video comes from TikTok creator Ryan (@ryran88), the only video on the channel so far, getting more than 1.2 million views as of Monday. The short video went up on Friday, with an on-screen caption reading, “Customer states hit a bump and radio turned into a computer from 2004.”
The video shows a blue screen in the entertainment system above the center console in the car with a blue screen and part of a logo for what several commenters identified as the Windows Embedded Compact operating system.
As it went up Friday, some commenters referred to the faulty CrowdStrike software update that wreaked havoc with computer systems worldwide on Friday.
An AP story on the outage noted, “Worrying about the fragility of a globally connected technology ecosystem is nothing new. It’s what drove fears in the 1990s of a technical glitch that could cause chaos at the turn of the millennium.”
The AP story also noted, “This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time,” via Australian cybersecurity consultant Troy Hunt, who posted his observation on X, formerly Twitter.
But a TechCrunch article about the unfolding situation noted, “Automakers GM and Ford told TechCrunch their manufacturing operations were not affected by the outage and that their consumer-facing apps, which owners use to unlock and lock their vehicles and control other information, are working as normal. OnStar, the GM subsidiary that handles in-vehicle communications including emergency services, is also working as normal.”
@ryran88 #fypage ♬ original sound – Ryan
Commenters weighed in further
“Windows CE was particularly good for cars because it boots VERY fast and does not care if disconnected from power suddenly,” one observed. “Which happens all the time in cars.”
Another noted, “You’ll be suprised how infotainment systems still use old operating systems.”
Someone else said, “I’d take it over the new Google system GM is now using in its EVs that lack Apple CarPlay.”
One commenter remarked, “If they really hit a bump, I wonder if it just happened to cause the right button combination to be triggered.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
