In the automotive industry you'll find that they pay for the very
expensive compilers, and they follow a set of rules for coding in C
called MISRA that disallow many common practices for reasons of "C"
safety.

They then test to the umpteenth degree.

Then they have backups and backups of the backups in really critical
cases, and often the backups are mechanical linkages that prevent
certain things from happening.

This is the major reason why we don't have, for instance, drive by
wire for steering, brakes, and only recently have introduced
electronic throttle control.

Even if every ECU in the car stopped (say, through an EMP pulse) the
car wouldn't explode, and it would still be steerable and brakeable.
When any major ECUs do shut down, typically the car enters a "limp"
mode, where it turns off all but critical systems, and automatically
turns on the headlights and windshield wipers in case it happens at
night, in the rain, or both.  This allows you to drive it to the shop.

So if your windshield wipers turned on at any odd time by themselves,
it usually means a fairly major ECU had a hiccup...

:-D

But yes, PICs are used in automotive modules (not often, but they are
there) and so are C compilers.  When a consumer sues the auto company,
the auto company tries to pin it on the supplier, who tries to pin it
on the compiler maker, who tries to pin it on the chip.  At the end of
the day the insurance for the companies go up, the lawyers buy new
yachts, everyone is under a gag order, and the supplier has to work
harder bidding on the next contract to prove that it won't happen
again even though it may have been the car company's fault.  Usually
this means another rule or so added to the great book of "lessons
learned."

-Adam

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 10:03 AM, Rafael Vidal Aroca <rafael@agx.com.br> wrote:
>
>    Hi,
>
>    i was reading MikroC user's guide, and there is a note that they do
> not take any responsability for any C code written for criticial
> applications.
>
>    My question is if anyone is using Microchip C18 or any other C
> compiler for PICs in critical applications such as flight control
> systems, automotive ones, or other applications that needs high reliability.
>
> thanks
>
> Rafael
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