> My last car had the check engine light on from years 3 to 15, when I sold it. The reason was a faulty sensor but the actual mechanics were sound

Some Nissan models used to have a fun version of this where the check engine light came on to notify you about a problem with... the check engine light. It was a bug, obviously, but not a sensor wrongly detecting a fault. Rather, the car's only way of saying "if something goes wrong the check engine light might not activate" was to activate the check engine light.

Whatever the underlying issue, I assume software, replacing sensors didn't work and resetting the light would only last for a few hundred miles. It was effectively impossible to keep the light working, so the mechanic-recommended fix was to just disable it.

> so the mechanic-recommended fix was to just disable it.

Which can make it impossible to pass state emissions/safety testing, because they expect to see all the lights turn on at power-up.

The trick is to rewire the light to some other light instead ;)

Hitchhiking and realtime carpooling is not the same experience. Former is random car, random passenger; latter is known car, random passenger.

Not really. I don't have the ability to choose which car I ride in with Uberpool. I have limited ability to choose what car I ride in when I carpool the normal way via Bay Area casual carpool stops (I can refuse to get in the next car in line, and that's about it). And, in either of those scenarios, the most important factor (the driver) is essentially random as well.

My Jaguar will throw a Check Engine for Fuel Cap Insufficiently Tightened.

any vehicle with an evap system will. it's an emissions thing

The rubber on the cap eventually cracks as well. I wonder if Vaseline or something would make it young again.

That can't be a very expensive part to replace. May as well do it.

I agree. Worth a try. Worst case scenario, I’m out $15.

Please see my edit regarding known deaths resulting from improperly inflated tires.

> That light will pop for reasons ranging from synchronization issues

Yes that exactly correct. It's based on an engineering principle called fail-safe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-safe

When the light is on, you have no assurance that the tires are properly inflated. Period. If the TPMS light is off, you can be well-assured that tires are inflated properly.

Yes, the system is finicky (by design). Yes the system can be costly to maintain (I do it myself it's it expensive and time-consuming). These are the responsibilities one must take on if they wish to be transporting the public.

>When the light is on, you have no assurance that the tires are properly inflated

I mean, you could always, you know, check. With a tire pressure gauge. Like on every car ever that didn't have this TP thingy. Honestly, you don't even need to do that - if the tire is low enough to be a safety risk, it will be visibly flat.

Would you down-rate an Uber just for not having this sensor at all?

TPMS is a US requirement. I drive a Canadian car that detects if the tire speeds have gone out of sync and reports if there’s an anomaly.

Doesn’t always work for gradual pressure loss, and doesn’t tell me which tire, but that’s what the gauge is for.