Category Archives: UnintendedAcceleration

Report: Toyota admits black box bug can give false speed readings

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Filed under: Recalls , Safety , Technology , Toyota Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota executive vice president in charge of research and development, has confirmed that a software glitch has caused the company’s event data recorder readers to misinterpret speeds during accidents. According to Automotive News , the executive admits that his company had previously underscored the fact that it couldn’t say whether or not there was a problem with the black boxes themselves. The software bug in the readers came to light during the manufacturer’s investigation into instances of unintended acceleration . Even so, Uchiyamda (above, left) says that there’s no reason to doubt the rest of the readings from the EDRs

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Report: Toyota admits black box bug can give false speed readings

Catfight! IIHS criticizes NHTSA for losing focus on driver safety

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Filed under: Government/Legal , Safety The insurance industry-funded Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is calling out its governmental counterpart, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for distracting drivers from genuine safety concerns. Consumer Reports cites a release penned by IIHS president Adrian Lund as saying that unintended acceleration and distracted driving have drawn focus away from other threats, thanks largely to the efforts of NHTSA and the national media. Instead of focusing on runaway sedans and texting teens, Lund says that we should really be worried about speeding drivers and running red lights.

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Catfight! IIHS criticizes NHTSA for losing focus on driver safety

Report: Man convicted in fatal crash set free with Toyota sudden acceleration appeal

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Filed under: Budget , Sedan , Government/Legal , Toyota Koua Fong Lee, the man who was convicted in 2006 of killing three people when his Toyota Camry struck a vehicle at a stoplight, has been acquitted of any crime. Lee served a total of two-and-a-half years in prison after his defense attorney failed to adequately show that he had been applying the brake on his vehicle the whole time. In the wake of a number of unintended acceleration claims on similar Toyota vehicles and increasing outcry for his release (including a big ABC News feature ), Lee’s case was reopened. In four days of testimony, his new counsel had a series of drivers who had experience unintended acceleration in their Toyotas take the stand.

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Report: Man convicted in fatal crash set free with Toyota sudden acceleration appeal

Japanese inventor makes gas and brake one pedal

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Filed under: Safety , Technology The interface between human and machine are often as much art as they are science. A prime example is the way automobiles are controlled, in particular acceleration and braking. While nearly all vehicles over the last several decades have used a pair of adjacent foot pedals to manage those operations (with a shrinking proportion using a third for manual clutches), a third setup hasn’t gained any traction in the marketplace.

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Japanese inventor makes gas and brake one pedal

Report: Toyota was aware of unintended acceleration claims by 2003, says lawsuit

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Filed under: Government/Legal , Safety , Toyota According to The Washington Post , attorneys working on a class-action lawsuit against Toyota claim that the company has known about issues of unintended acceleration in its vehicles since as early as 2003. The lawyers have reportedly discovered a field report written seven years ago by a technician that outlined an instance of unintended acceleration. The report allegedly called for immediate action due to how dangerous the problem could become and expressed concern about the potential frequency of the issue.

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Report: Toyota was aware of unintended acceleration claims by 2003, says lawsuit

Report: Feds block Toyota ‘unintended acceleration’ doc release

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Filed under: Government/Legal , Safety , Toyota A new report from the The Wall Street Journal claims that the Department of Transportation is blocking the release of National Highway Transportation Safety Administration findings on the Toyota unintended acceleration issues. According to the article, NHTSA has compiled all the relevant information and written a report on its findings, but George Pearson, the former head of the agency’s recall division, says that he was told that the Transportation Department doesn’t want the information released. Why?

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Report: Feds block Toyota ‘unintended acceleration’ doc release