Toyota Acceleration Problems Garner the Spotlight Once More
Toyota owners breathed a slight sigh of relief last week, when the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article saying the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had found operator error as the root cause of the Toyota unwanted acceleration problem. However, shortly afterward, the NHTSA nullified the WSJ news item.
NHTSA released a statement saying their engineers were continuing to investigate the problem, and had not come to any decisions yet. NASA and the National Academy of Sciences continue their individual studies as well.
Back in March, Toyota came under scrutiny for a number of accidents in which the drivers were unable to stop. The accelerator sticks in the open position. Toyota recalled 8.5 million vehicles world wide to fix the problem.
The first fix replaced driver floor mats; citing the accelerator was getting caught in the mat.
Next, they replaced gas pedal parts because accelerator wear caused it to stick. Now according to the WSJ’s anonymous sources, it could be operator error. Neither Toyota nor the NHTSA admits to being the anonymous source.
The government estimates that over the past decade about 93 people have died from unwanted acceleration while driving Toyotas, and is currently investigating about 3,000 complaints. Toyota has paid roughly $16.4 million in fines for being slow to respond to the purported problem.
In the past, vehicles used a mechanical throttle to control acceleration. Now, cars use an electronic acceleration system. The government questions if the electronic system could be at fault. The National Academy of Sciences investigation will determine if other auto manufacturers are having similar problems. The NASA investigation seeks to understand if ambient radiation or electromagnetic interference (EMI) could be crashing the electronic acceleration system.
If indeed energies external to the vehicle are causing interference, this problem could have wider ramifications. Many manufactured items have switched from mechanical control systems to electronic control systems (embedded systems). Other car systems including anti-lock brakes and traction control rely on embedded systems. Cell phones, elevators, medical devices, airplanes and the future energy grid rely on embedded systems.
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