Corporate Shills and Apologists (Blaming Toyota Drivers)
There appears to be a national campaign to blame Toyota drivers for sudden acceleration and runaway cars. This should really anger everyone, especially owners of Toyotas. by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Monday, March 15, 2010
News media and other idiots are clearly working hard to create a public perception that it is not defective Toyota vehicles that are running away because of sudden, uncontrolled acceleration. No, to believe the countless stories being hyped, we are supposed to blame Toyota drivers, especially older ones who are the problem. What nonsense!
I have no doubt that there are countless PR people, consultants and attorneys working hard on Toyota's behalf to reduce the richly deserved disillusionment with Toyota and its ludicrous attempts to fault floor mats and brake pedals rather than a much more complex and mysterious problem with their electronic control systems.
Enormous media attention was given to tests on a Prius vehicle belonging to San Diego resident James Sikes, 61. These tests last week were conducted by people from Toyota and the next to useless National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Technicians could not duplicate what Sikes experienced. Actually, all they tried to duplicate was the inability to stop the car when both acceleration and braking were produced. In fact, the car was stopped. So what? What they could not create was the core problem: unwanted sudden acceleration. Their tests proved nothing.
It is particularly relevant that a number of runaway Toyota incidents have occurred months apart on the same vehicles. This means that these cars could behave perfectly normally nearly all the time, but that sudden acceleration events also occur mysteriously and unpredictably. No one can duplicate these sudden acceleration events because no one, especially Toyota engineers, has a clue why these events happen. All the real evidence, though circumstantial, points to some bizarre problem with the electronic control system.
NHTSA bought the gas pedal, throttle and two onboard computers from the Sikes vehicle for $2,500. That means that there may be some hope that traditional failure analysis methods might be used to find out through exhaustive testing and analysis exactly what is really going on. Something that Toyota has not done. If there is a highly complex defect in, perhaps, a semiconductor chip, for example, that only manifests itself under certain conditions, then really sophisticated examination might find it.
But it is a sick sign of corporate corruption that some members of Congress and so many in the mainstream media (that benefit from considerable Toyota advertising) so eagerly look for opportunities to blame Toyota drivers. Are we really to believe that so many indisputable runaway Toyotas result from elderly drivers pushing hard on their gas pedals rather than their brakes? Nonsense!
And let us not be misdirected away from the core sudden acceleration problem and distracted by attempts to focus attention on why drivers cannot easily stop their runaway cars. In some cars, for example, getting a car into neutral also depends on the same electronics control system as just about everything else, including acceleration. The brake materials on the Sikes car were, indeed, totally burned up. So, he really did try like hell to stop his car. Do we really think that just because he is in serious debt that he also pressed hard on his gas pedal to get it going over 90 mph? Nonsense!
If Toyota is working hard to blame drivers rather than take responsibility for their runaway cars, then there is even more reason to condemn the company.
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Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2010-03-15 17:01:22
As a long-time Toyota owner, I too am dismayed by what's been emerging about Toyota's handling of the sudden acceleration issues. At first, I really thought it might be driver error. I once hit the brake and accelerator pedal of a Ford Ranger we have, without realizing it. My right foot is a size 14, and it caught both pedals at once. Fortunately, I was able to keep the truck from taking off, but it did scare me until I realized what was going on. I've often wished all car makers would give us more space between the pedals.
However, when I hear a report about a man flying down the highway because he can't slow his car down, despite the efforts of a California Highway Patrolman pacing him, trying to give him tips on how to stop the car, all to no avail, then I begin to wonder. I personally doubt that we're dealing with "shills" here. That's an overstatement. Instead, I think we're dealing with a company that is so proud of their outstanding record (before all this) that they simply can't believe there can be such a bizarre flaw in their systems.
What I will say about Toyota management is that they've botched the whole thing from a PR point-of-view. When you're under fire like this, the last thing you do is deny that it's happening or even real. Yet, that's the nature of the reports that keep emerging. What Toyota should be doing, instead, is to stick to one line: "We don't know what's causing these events to happen, but we are determined to figure it out."
I find it is extremely easy to place the transmission lever to neutral while driving. Additionally, Prius’ have a transmission braking position to limit speed while driving downhill for long periods. It’s very similar to truck engine brakes and/or downshifting to a low gear. He could have also turned the power switch off as long as he was traveling straight. Three options available to help him stop, but this guy apparently didn’t try any of them. I wonder why?
Posted By: Ross Williams
Date: 2010-04-02 12:21:11
...this guy apparently didn’t try any of them. I wonder why?
If he had stopped he couldn't have sued.
While it is very possible that electronics [read: software which controls servo-motors and takes vehicular control away from the operator] can very easily have programming errors in it, it is also very, very, very, very, very likely that individual humans are going to take advantage of the landscape and cheat just a little bit to their own benefit.
With every legitimate issue there are notoriety-seekers. The arsenic-laced tylenol scare saw dozens of people doctoring their own medicine cabinet for the purpose of scamming the manufacturer. Every time someone [legitimately] finds a mouse or a bug in a can of soda or a fast food lunch, there's a half dozen more popping up around the country where the mouse was bought from a pet store and inserted after the can was opened. Let's not even try to recall the human thumb.
If anyone legitimately believes that every complaint of priest abuse is sound, there's a jar of snake oil with your name on it. Do you want it super-sized?
And that's only if the issue is legitimate. It may not be.
The Audi-500 [or was it 5000?] "sudden acceleration" issue was, in short, panic-induced horseshit on the part of Audi owners who were too proud to admit that they could do something as mindless as mistake the gas for the brake. One driver makes a headline, another Audi owner says, "Y'know? the same kinda thing happened to me..." and gets two column inches of his own, some hack journalist [is there any other kind?] puts 2 and 2 together and gets 22 and asks Audi "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" and pretty soon Audi has a "technical problem" that is defined by having idiots as customers.
Could there be a ROM/PROM coding issue in the Toyota computer? Of course there could. If technicians with or without a connection to Toyota can find it, there's your answer. If technicians with a connection to Toyota do not find it, however, it does not mean they are hiding it; if technicians without a connection to Toyota do not find it, it means that Toyota owners probably owned Audis 15 years ago.
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