They would never introduce a new system without extensive testing and a back-up on early systems. But this seems to be exactly what car makers are planning to do with steer-by-wire. If you want proof that automotive digital stuff breaks, just look at those Tesla owners who were recently locked out of, or inside, their vehicles. If a digital door can stop working then so can a steering system. Sadly, our cars are not equipped with zero-zero ejector seats like many test aircraft!
I mean.. Most modern cars have throttle by wire, some of them have gearselect by wire, these are not new systems. And they’re reliable.
If it was something edge of the pants high tech never seen before stuff, sure. It’s not. It’s well understood, plenty used already and is just consequential to take it to that level. The reason i don’t like steer by wire is the same reason for not liking electronic steering in the first place, it feels “off”, doesn’t give as much “feeling” for the ground you’re driving on. Not because the technology is in any way, shape or form dangerous.
Then, your Tesla example. I’m pretty sure you misread something somewhere, but nothing stopped working on the car. Everything was working perfectly fine. What failed was the servers that Tesla owners connect to when they use their phones as key. They couldn’t give the command to open the lock, even though the lock was working perfectly fine, because that command goes to the Tesla server, and from there to the car. That’s not to say that Tesla doors haven’t failed before, they sure have. So have mechanical doors, at a similar rate. Point being, it has nothing to do with an electronic component in the car failing.
In the end, a company will not release a car where 30% of them crash into trees because the steering stops working. The lawsuits and resulting mass-recalls without option to retro-fit a mechanical steering link (rendering the cars non-operable) would ruin any car manufacturer.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.