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The Trouble with Unintended Acceleration

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:39:39 +0000

Here’s what troubles me most about the Toyota unintended acceleration fiasco: What it means for those of us who love driving. You see, there’s only one sure way to stop all the finger pointing over whether drivers, or their vehicles, are responsible for unintended acceleration incidents, and that is to mandate that all vehicle on-board computer systems record and store data that can be downloaded and analyzed in the event of a crash. But if that were to happen, it’s probably the beginning of the end for the 20th century’s most profound freedoms: the freedom of automobility.

Like the “black box” flight data recorders fitted to aircraft, modern automotive computer systems, which control everything from the fuel/air burn in the combustion chambers to the deployment of the airbags, are a potential treasure-trove of information for crash investigators. With the help of data on vehicle speed, throttle position, force of brake pedal application, vehicle yaw rate, impact force — all routine stuff for automotive computer systems these days — investigators would be able to identify the cause of most automobile crashes with relative ease.

In the current environment I’m sure automakers would welcome it. “There but for the grace of God” is how several execs from rival car companies have characterized the hysteria surrounding the alleged unintended acceleration incidents in Toyotas to me. As the Audi fiasco of the early 80s demonstrated, once the notion someone’s car can suddenly accelerate out of control for no reason takes hold among American consumers (and curiously, the phenomenon appears to be a uniquely American one) there’s little logic or reason can do to combat it. Did the driver have their foot on the brake, as they claimed, or on the gas? An automotive “black box” would be the ultimate independent arbitrator, able to determine exactly what happened.

A mandatory automotive black box system could help made our roads safer, less stressful in many other ways, too. Imagine the police being able to download data to determine whether any laws were broken that might have contributed to a crash. Was the driver speeding? Did they blow through a red light? Did they swerve suddenly? Proving guilt or negligence, particularly in fatal crashes, would be a whole lot easier. Insurance companies would be able to offer genuine discounts to drivers whose black box data proved they were safe and responsible; roads agencies would be able to more accurately determine crash “black spots”; the EPA could even award eco-bonuses to drivers whose black box data showed they regularly drove with a feather-foot on the gas.

Throw GPS positioning into the mix — a system like GM’s OnStar, for example — and cities could combat traffic congestion by charging drivers to use crowded roads during peak hours, mailing them the bill once a month, or deducting it directly from their bank account. Teen drivers could be monitored to ensure they’re not driving during times where they’re most likely to be killed, such as between 3 p.m. and midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Speeders could be caught and fined in real time, regardless of whether a cop was on the scene or not.

Safe, calm roads populated by responsible drivers driving responsibly. Sounds like automotive utopia. As long as you don’t actually like cars. Or enjoy driving them.

The problem is while the majority of Americans drive, most are not drivers. Unlike those of you who share our passion for automobiles and automobile culture, driving is merely something they do to get from A to B; a task they care little about, and want to be as physically and mentally undemanding as possible, leaving them able to yak on the phone or slurp a Starbucks as they bowl along the freeway at 70 mph. It says a lot about driving in America today that the domestic auto industry’s most recent innovation is the cupholder. With one-fifth of the nation’s meals now reportedly consumed in automobiles, the in-car microwave oven can’t be too far away…

Regardless of who’s ultimately proven right or wrong, the fallout from the Toyota unintended acceleration fiasco could convince automakers and legislators — for very different reasons — that the only way to avoid a repeat occurrence is to more closely regulate how automobiles are used. And the regulatory framework they’ll default to is the one that works for the majority of road users: The people who’d rather be emailing friends or watching TV or chowing down on processed corn as they get from A to B than think for one moment about the art and science of driving. We’ll get the cars and the roads and the laws and the enforcement that ensure the lowest common denominator drivers cannot possibly injure themselves, or anyone else. We’ll get …transportation. Boring, dull, homogeneous transportation. But, hey, at least we’ll all be safe.

The automobile is truly the machine that changed the world. For all its faults, all its failures, all its unfulfilled promises, it has given us a freedom of mobility beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors; the freedom to go where we want, when we want. But there is no freedom without responsibility, and if we’re not prepared to accept some of the responsibility that comes with owning and driving an automobile, then maybe we don’t deserve all the freedom it gives us.

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My Own Schadenfreude on the Toyota Unintended Acceleration Issue

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:42:07 +0000

Forget what General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda or Hyundai might think about the tremendous fall of Toyota’s reputation amidst poorly installed floor mats and
electronic gremlins in regenerative braking and power steering systems. I’m
enjoying my own Schadenfreude these days, and it’s directed toward Thomas L.
Friedman.

You’ll remember Friedman as the Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist who suggested, a couple of years before GM filed for bankruptcy, that Toyota should buy the American automaker and put it out of its misery. Friedman displayed a bit of Schadenfreude himself when he began that column with these words: “I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person?”

Well, no. Just horribly uninformed. Later, Friedman feigned surprise when, in late 2007, Toyota joined its American brethren in opposing a 35-mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard.

Heavens to Deming! Toyota is as profit-hungry as the company it should have usurped.

Neither history nor The New York Times has recorded, so far, whether our
second-favorite Pulitzer winner now is dreaming of Toyota going bankrupt and being bought out by Geely, Spyker or Brembo.

What the whole Toyota fiasco has proved is what we’ve been preaching for some time; that the difference in quality and reliability between the best and worst cars sold is much thinner than it has ever been. That even Toyota, which has been the go-to brand to recommend to friends who want reliable, if bland, transportation, is not immune to the potential problems from accelerated use of new electrical gizmos. That Toyota, like GM and all the rest, will act in its best economic interests every time.

The story of Toyota’s slide also taught the mainstream press something the
automotive press has known for some time; that the automaker’s U.S. management is here just to build, sell and market cars and trucks. The “big” decisions always come from Japan. And Toyota, coming from a country with a much more laissez-faire attitude toward its industries and a much less aggressive press, has long had a habit of fixing problems on the down-low rather than giving in to massive recalls. Its biggest problem isn’t the tragic Lexus ES 350 crash in San Diego, nor testimony before Congress by a woman who practically claimed her Lexus was possessed, like something from a Stephen King novel.

Toyota’s biggest problem is that its Prius has been affected. Several owners claim their cars have surged past 100 mph. This is the altruistically designed green model, the car deservedly praised for its advanced technology, with an image perfectly captured in a “South Park” episode in which the car is called the
“Toyhonda Pious.”

At the same time, we’ve reached a turning point in this saga. Toyota is attempting to use science to fight back unintended acceleration claims. Jalopnik‘s Matt Hardigree has done an exceptional job of reporting on how ABC faked the “sudden acceleration” demonstration of a Toyota Camry, and how James Sikes’ runaway Prius is suspect.

Sikes, of Carlsbad, California (is San Diego County to unintended Toyota
acceleration what South Florida is to Weekly World News stories?) is the owner of Adultswinglife LLC, which owns, as the name implies, adult websites (itself not an indictment of Sikes’ veracity). He recently filed for personal bankruptcy and had missed five payments on his hybrid Toyota, Jalopnik reports.

He eagerly takes an interview in a local television news story, claiming his Prius’
throttle pedal stuck while passing a car on the expressway. A California Highway Patrol officer drove up next to him and told Sikes to put the car in neutral “to no effect.” Sikes hit the brakes and the parking brake with the CHP easing his patrol car’s rear bumper ahead of the Prius’ front bumper, just in case.

Too bad there wasn’t time to get an L.A. news chopper out there to cover Sikes’
drive, O.J. Simpson-style.

At least Sikes was more believable about the Prius’ surge — to 94 mph, not 108 or 109 mph, as others have claimed of their hybrid Toyotas. I’m more convinced than ever that the vast majority of these incidents come from American drivers who could barely handle a car with automatic transmission, power steering and brakes before they started using mobile phones.

And I admit we have a bit of myopia about this matter, in our little corner of the
journalism profession. I don’t know of any automotive journalists who have
experienced any kind of unintended acceleration in any brand of car over the years. We don’t understand how any car or truck’s brakes can’t overcome an engine’s power.

And we’re used to driving vehicles to extremes; accelerating, braking and cornering much closer to limits than the average driver. The vast majority of motoring journalists have had at least some experience driving road cars on racetracks. So it’s hard to comprehend how a sticky throttle pedal could turn into the car “speeding out of control” to any driver not used to full ABS stops or 1.0-g cornering. Add to that your image of the average Prius driver. Maybe that’s why they’re so fuel-efficient — most Pruises drivers would rather tuck their cars into the garage than risk pulling out into traffic.

Yes, it’s part of the “dumbing down” of American drivers, who expect automakers to make their cars save them from certain death when they change two lanes on the freeway, sans turn signals, while text-messaging friends and family. To be sure, Japanese and South Korean drivers probably aren’t much different, although Western European drivers surely are. German automakers still grudgingly add more and bigger cupholders for their U.S. imports than for home market cars.

The most tangible sign, though, that Toyota may be approaching an Audi-like
turnaround of its unintended acceleration problem comes not from the nightly news programs, but from late-night talk show hosts. Thursday night, David Letterman, who has had nearly as much fun on “The Late Show” with Toyota as he has had with Jay Leno’s return to “The Tonight Show” introduced a mock Akio Toyoda and his mock apology to American consumers.

“Akio’s” apology turned into this admonishment: “Americans drive like frightened kitties.”

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Toyota: Sudden acceleration test unrealistic

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:16:30 +0000

Toyota: Sudden acceleration test unrealistic
Toyota is rejecting a university professor’s test that claims to show that electronic throttle systems on Toyota cars could cause unintended acceleration saying the test was simply not realistic.