Luxury car manufacturer Jaguar has recalled over 17,500 vehicles following the discovery of a fault in the engine management control software on its diesel X-type range.

The fault meant that cruise control could only be turned off by switching off the engine. It affects cars made between 2006 and 2010. Drivers who return their cars will get a software update to fix the problem, Jaguar said.

The company wrote to its customers late last week, warning that the cruise control cannot be disengaged in the “normal manner” in some circumstances.  The software in question was developed in house, and the problem was spotted by one of Jaguar’s employees, the company said.
 
“This potential problem was spotted by one of our employees. No customer has been affected and there had been no accidents or injuries,” a Jaguar spokesman told the Telegraph.

In February 2010, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota was forced to recall 400,000 of its Prius hydrid cars after a software glitch that affected brake performance was discovered. Both episodes reveal how software quality testing is paramount for embedded systems in equipment as potentially dangerous as cars.

Agile software development methodologies, which espouse constant and frequent testing, are based on the Lean manufacturing processes developed by Toyota in the 1980s. However, according to a blog post written by Swedish IT consultant Henrik Kniberg shortly after the Prius glitch emerged, Toyota has only recently began adopting Agile development.