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Toyotas Suddenly Accelerate; Owners Up In Arms
cyclocommuter writes "Some Toyota owners are up in arms as they suspect that accidents have been caused by some kind of glitch in the electronic computer system used in Toyotas that controls the throttle. Refusing to accept the explanation of Toyota and the federal government (it involves the driver's-side floor mat), hundreds of Toyota owners are in rebellion after a series of accidents caused by what they call 'runaway cars.' Four people have died." The article notes: "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has done six separate investigations of such acceleration surges in Toyotas since 2003 and found no defect in Toyota's electronics."
I have to say that the decline in manual transmission driving has really diminished people's driving abilities. It's one thing that the there's an acceleration issue. It's another thing to not consider putting the car in neutral when something like this is encountered.
And again, nothing was ever found to be wrong with the cars. Seems most of the drivers were used to American cars, and the Audi had both brake and accelerator a little to the right of the more typical position. They were pressing the accelerator instead of the brake. Fact is, in almost all commonly available cars, if you stand on the brake and on the accelerator simultaneously, the car will go nowhere. For events to have happened as described, you'd need the simultaneous failure of two unrelated systems, which both healed themselves miraculously after the event. Additionally, same as last time, there are a few unfortunate cases followed by a deluge of similar claims. I wonder why...
I'd think not. It's called "drive by wire" technology. I bought an '09 Civic and the thing has a sensor attached to the gas pedal instead of the traditional wire directly to a butterfly valve. I read somewhere that if the PCM didn't think things were right, there's a failsafe "limp home" mode that trips the throttle plate to some slightly higher than idle position and disconnects the pedal and any other controls. One of the sales guys who I met in the process of buying this car insisted that the computer controlled throttle makes it more responsive and safer. Throttle by wire IMO, is fucking with the KISS rule.
I had this same problem with a 1989 Jeep Cherokee in 2000. People died because of similar problems. On the internet and in court, Jeep claimed it was user error. The problem is people don't know enough about their cars to diagnose it, but it turned out to be the Throttle Position Sensor. Which would randomly rev the engine to 4000 RPM's instead of the idle of ~900 when you put it into gear. Yes, absolutely unpredictably. It was not easily duplicated for a mechanic, because when the TPS first started to go bad, it was very infrequent.
The problem is your normal routine is start the car and put it into gear almost immediately. The engine takes more time to rev noticeably past idle speed, at which time you're already moving and lost control of the car. Jeep claimed this was an unreasonable explanation, because they had an engineer sit in the car, depress the brake, put the car into gear, and then rev the engine and be unable to overpower the brakes. I found this only to be true if I were standing on the brakes, something I wasn't in practice to do, from a stop. It also overlooked the problem that once you let the car start moving, getting it stopped again was extremely difficult.
So everyone always assumes there are enough idiots out there for it to be driver error, but it happened to me, so I never trust any of the car manufacturers when this problem creeps up which it does fairly often. Also, it seems like extremely poor engineering on the manufacturer's part to fail to acknowledge this possible avenue of failure. Seems more like they are just covering their asses to avoid culpability.
I was in college at the time, and this is probably one of the more valuable lessons I've ever learned in engineering and something I think would be valuable in software engineering also. Never, ever dismiss complaining customers as morons just because its the simplest explanation especially regarding a safety issue. People actually put up with a lot. More often than not, when people complain and it is difficult to do so, there is merit to the complaint. A proper investigation is required, and a open mind, and wide imagination help determine the failure states.
Throttle by wire IMO, is fucking with the KISS rule.
To propose that somehow mechanical cables are safer because they are simpler is severely flawed.
Have you every seen how easy it is to get a mechanical throttle to get stuck? Also in a wreck the cable the throttle can become pinched, stuck at full throttle not fun. Look at the back of street/strip drag car they have emergency kill switch on the back bumper for this reason, along with wanting to kill the fuel pump.
A mechanical throttle lacks any safety controls. A simple cable is in fact simple, but it is a stupid cable.
Twice I have seen a mechanical fail.
90s Camaro SS , guy had dropped about 10k in the motor only to have the throttle get stuck, redline, broken valves.
My Saturn has become stuck more than once when it is cold, never caused an accident.
Just because you drive car,bought a car, doesn't give you divine insight on how a car works, and somehow your experience brings insight to the conversation.Spend a little time working on/ modifying a car and you will quickly discover; mechanical cables suck ass to put in and are more prone to failure!
"Mechanical and hydraulic systems are much better understood."
Computer aren't exactly a new-fangled technology, and most cars built after the 70's or so have had some form of by-wire throttle control (I'm speaking, of course, of electronically controlled anti-lock brake systems which, while not fully by-wire, include a by-wire system alongside the mechanical one). I always find it amazing how people can talk about computer controlled systems are not being 'not well understood' in this day and age. Not well programmed, perhaps (though the analog there would be poorly fabricated parts, a problem that was dealt with much as poorly coded systems are being dealt with now-a-days), but not well understood? Really?
This isn't a new technology, it's been around for a while in one form or another. Sure it's less mature than conventional hydraulic, but hydraulic are much less mature than banging two sticks together, doesn't make the sticks better than hydraulic. I think my signature sums it up quite nicely, just because drive-by-wire is something relatively new (50yrs of use) and hydraulic something relatively old doesn't make one better or worse than the other, that depends on how they function. If you want to compare the two systems that way be my guest, but just stating that drive-by-wire is worse because it's newer is hogwash.
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
F-22, F-35, Boeing - flown by professionals
Premium class auto driven by morons
Two different things. Different environments and different safety measures