Customer Requirements

Three automotive engineers sat down for dinner a few weeks ago. (Contrary to what you may think, this is not the beginning of a joke.) We discussed customer requirements. My friend shared that her customer wanted their product (a steering gear system) to perform in the following scenario.

Let’s say, there’s a man who lives in the Swiss Alps. One day during winter, the temperature goes down to -40ºC (colder than the traditional -25 or -35 that most car companies spec to). He goes to his truck, straps on a snow plow to the front (makes the truck even more front-heavy), starts the truck (yeah right, like the battery will work) and without letting it warm up (WTF? Who doesn’t let their car warm up when it's cold?), begins driving it down a mountain (not a driveway or a hill) on a snowy curving mountain road. He’s slaloming down the road when a moose jumps out in front of him. Our customer wants the driver to be able to avoid hitting the moose.

I think there are more important things to worry about.