Computer System Failure-Autopilot System Issue on the Boeing 737 Max

Computer System Failure-Autopilot System Issue on the Boeing 737 Max
Student Name
Institution Affiliation
Technological advancements that continue to characterize the 21st century are having tremendous impacts in different sectors of the economy. They have significantly improved service delivery and enhanced business operations between individuals and organizations in diverse regions. While these benefits are highly welcomed, there is an increasing overdependence to these technological developments and particularly computer systems in society. As a result, individuals are exposed to massive losses and risks when computer systems fail. Over the recent past, there have been several cases witnessed in organizations from computer system failures. Most notably is the computer glitch on the autopilot system installed in the Boeing 737 Max. The essay seeks to summarize an article that was published about the autopilot issues on the Boeing 737 Max.
According to the article, the author Jeff Wise acknowledges the significance of automation in the airline industry. Wise notes that “The gradual spread of automation through the civil aircraft fleet is a primary reason the accident rate worldwide has fallen from about four accidents per million flights in 1977 to less than 0.4 today. From the above statement, it is evident that automation of the aircrafts through the incorporation of autopilot systems has made air travel safer. However, while Wise notes of these benefits, he also shares that majority of the air disasters being reported are attributed to be automation-related accidents. Wise shares that the Lion Air 737 Max aircraft that crashed shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2018 could have been caused by a malfunction on the autopilot system that caused it to run haywire and jeopardize the state of the plane (Wise, 2019). He proceeds to suggest that the same automation issue could have been behind the Ethiopian Airlines crash on 10th March 2019. From the article, Boeing had introduced a maneuvering characteristics augmentation syst...