Technology is scary.

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00000553

Mobile phones can immobilize cars... sort of.

 

The battery was depleted because of many hours of excess use of electronics (GSM phone system) on-board. Suprisingly, the main automotive battery pack in the belly of the the Prius hybrid car is not interconnected with the small traditional car battery under the hood.

I don't know if this engineering decision was sound or stupid.

Airplanes have multiple fuel tanks and they are interconnected, so the left wing tank can crossfeed the right-wing engine(s) and vica versa. This is a safety measure, but also a hazard.

An atlantic Airbus A330 flight very nearly crashed and people almost got eaten by sharks when one engine developed a fuel leak and the flight computer kept feeding it from both tanks and the plane soon ran dry. The only reason they made it to an airstrip at Canaries was a route detour which put them near enough to soar in. It was pure chance, extreme luck and some gliding skill by the pilots.

The Prius situation is not nearly that dramatic, but resource interconnect should still be provided. Maybe a brain-dead turnknob under the dash secured with tripwire, which the user can manually activate if he/she really badly needs to connect the batteries.