Toyotas safe.

[Gob]

'No electronic link' to Toyota acceleration complaints

A US investigation into Toyota safety problems has found no electronic flaws to explain complaints about unintended acceleration.

The 10-month probe, ordered by the US Congress, followed recalls of millions of Toyota vehicles in 2009 and 2010.

Part of the investigation, published in August, suggested driver error might have played a part in many incidents.

Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, reported a 39% drop in quarterly profits on Tuesday.

The company recalled more than 12 million vehicles globally in 2009 and 2010 for various problems including faulty floor mats, sticky accelerator pedals, braking software glitches and steering malfunctions.

Questions had been raised over whether software-driven throttles had played a role in unintended acceleration complaints.

But US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement on Tuesday: "There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas."

Mechanical flaws that were fixed in previous recalls appeared to be behind the problems with unintended acceleration, US officials said.

"We feel that Toyota vehicles are safe to drive," Mr LaHood stated

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12394220

[Sean]

Well that's a relief!

[dales]

OOOOPS!

Hit the accelerator instead of the brake.

Same old stuff that plagued the Audi in the '80's.

These people should be forced to take public transportation, they are too stupid to be let loose on public roads.

[Crackpot]

Actually the report said nothing was found not that there was'nt a problem.

[Scooter]

They said any of the problems caused were mechanical, not electronio. Given that they tested the electronics 1000 ways from Sunday it's hard to believe they wouldn't have been able to reproduce a software problem if it had existed.

Look for brake override to become a standard feature.

[Crackpot]

but they also tested it out on a very limited amount of vehicles (8 iirc) Electrical problems can be very hard to track down and they can be counter intuitive to figure out. I recall a power break failure that a friend who worked as a dealer was telling me about it's cause? malfunctioning radio.

[Jarlaxle]

That's a new one...but I'm not surprised. I once spent three hours tracking down rear stereo speakers cutting out in a conversion van. Why? There was a bad connection AT THE FUCKING DVD PLAYER. (I hate working on conversion vans, I hate tracking down electrical gremlins, and I really hate dealing with aftermarket add-on crap...that van was the fucking hat-trick.)

[Crackpot]

Apparently the radio was sending out a faulty signal to the computer that it interpreted was a constant "ABS off" signal.

[Jarlaxle]

That's weird. Shit like that is why I no longer wrench for a living!

[dales]

Apparently the radio was sending out a faulty signal to the computer that it interpreted was a constant "ABS off" signal.

Weird.

Every car radio I've ever come across is shielded in metal to prevent RFI.

[Crackpot]

It wasn't RFI they are both wired into the computer.

[dgs49]

I believe a possible flaw was found in the design of the floormats and a possible interference with the free movement of the throttle pedal.

I have no doubt that they concluded absolutely that no electronic flaw could have resulted in uncontrolled acceleration. In the transit business they do similar kinds of testing all the time. In fact, safety related systems must be "fail-safe," which means, they CANNOT fail in any manner that would result in an unsafe condition or phenomenon.

The tort bar is mainly at fault here. Regardless of any real or imagined flaw in the car, it will always be possible to convince a jury that the fault lies with the large, foreign, "rich" manufacturer of the car.