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Drivers Blamed For Out of Control Toyotas - Again

PolygamousRanchKid writes "An intensive 10 month investigation into possible causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota cars found no fault with the automaker's electronic throttle control systems, the Department of Transportation announced Tuesday." Didn't the NHTSA say essentially the same thing last July?

6 of 482 comments (clear)

  1. So now it's official. by cvtan · · Score: 5, Funny

    The cars are not perfect, but they are smarter than the drivers that own them.

    --
    Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
  2. Re:Just to clarify.. by Gohtar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Windows has detected a Gas Pedal compliant device and is attempting to find the drivers for it. Windows could not find drivers for your device, the device may not function properly until the drivers are installed.

  3. Re:wait what? by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Informative

    If it was American drivers faults, why then did we not see a rash of similar accidents with other manufacturers vehicles?

    If you had R'ed TFA, you would have R'ed this:

    "Unintended acceleration is not exclusive to Toyotas," [NHTSA deputy administrator Ron] Medford said, pointing out that two-thirds of the unintended acceleration reports the agency has received in recent years involved vehicles by other automakers.

  4. Re:Mostly true, but slightly spun summary. by arcsimm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The summary is reasonably accurate: the NHTSA noted that while those are known problems, the "vast majority" of reports were most probably caused by driver error. NASA even noted that the frequency of reports was most directly correlated to the amount of media attention the issue had received, and not at all with design changes.

    In short, this was the Audi 5000 all over again, and people need to learn how to drive instead of blaming their mistakes on their cars.

  5. Re:Just to clarify.. by angelwolf71885 · · Score: 5, Funny

    WARNING: the device " Gas Pedal " has performed a fatal operation

  6. NHTSA != Toyota by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since one of the people behind the wheel was Steve Wozniak (previous slashdot story hyperlinked here [slashdot.org]), and he said he'd actually been able to replicate unchecked acceleration by the cruise-control system, I'm not trusting Toyota.

    The results announced by the Department of Transportation were of the study conducted by the NHTSA (which, remember, fined Toyota for not responding promptly enough to the floor mat and pedal design issues) with the assistance of NASA, not by Toyota. So, whether you trust Toyota would seem to be irrelevant.

    Nor would I trust the government. They're not likely to be bringing A+ talent to the party.

    Trusting the government is, OTOH, at least relevant to the issue, since this was a government study. However, your stated basis for dismissing the government study (which amounts to "Steve Wozniak said something different, and the people working for the government are stupid") is pretty vacuous.