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The floor mat acceleration problem may be deeper -
Detroit News article....
Detroit News article....
Misfires put Toyota's image under scrutiny
Safety advocates say acceleration issue may not be easy fix
Christine Tierney / The Detroit News
For years, Toyota Motor Corp. has investigated complaints from drivers saying their Toyota and Lexus vehicles accelerated all by themselves, and the company has identified essentially one cause. The trouble, according to Toyota, occurs when loose or ill-fitting floor mats, carpet covers or detached trim jam the gas pedal.
But after a highly publicized crash in August that killed four people when the driver lost control of a Lexus sedan, Toyota has come under intense pressure to reduce the risk of unintended acceleration.
The Japanese automaker and U.S. safety regulators are discussing changes to the gas pedal, as well as adjustments that would make it easier to stop a car that's accelerating, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 15 fatalities, including the four in August, are linked to hundreds of reports of unintended acceleration of Toyotas it has received since 2002.
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A perplexing problem
U.S. safety investigators say they receive complaints of unintended acceleration involving many brands. But some safety advocates say Toyota has received more than its share -- particularly since it adopted drive-by-wire technology 10 years ago. In cars equipped with this system, a driver stepping on the gas pedal sends an electronic signal to the throttle.
Clarence Ditlow at the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C., said its database shows that "since the late '90s, Toyota has generated more complaints on unintended acceleration than any other manufacturer."
But unlike certain defects, such as corrosion or faulty components that can easily be identified, unintended acceleration is a term that has been used to describe a wide range of occurrences and can be hard to diagnose.
There may be several causes, including driver error, say government and independent experts. There could be a problem with the brakes, acceleration or transmission. Or the electronics controlling the engine or transmission may be calibrated incorrectly.
>
Toyota rebuked by NHTSA
Complaints range from sudden surges of engine power that can be controlled by applying the brakes to more frightening instances of unintended acceleration at high speeds. That was the situation that preceded the crash in Santee, Calif., near San Diego, of a Lexus ES350 driven by Mark Saylor, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer. He and three family members were killed.
A month later, owners of eight Lexus and Toyota models were told to remove the driver-side mats, and Toyota later issued its largest-ever U.S. recall -- for 3.8 million vehicles.
Investigators looking at Toyota vehicles that crashed after alleged unintended acceleration, including the Lexus in California, found mats jammed near the gas pedal.
But this month, when Toyota cited a NHTSA document as evidence the mats were the sole cause of the problem, the agency rebuked the carmaker.
On Nov. 4, NHTSA said merely removing the mats didn't remedy the underlying defect, which it said was "related to accelerator and floor pan design."
But safety advocates say the mats and pedal configuration also don't explain all the complaints.
"The evidence continues to surface that we're dealing with more than a mechanical interface between the floor mat and the pedal," said Sean Kane, founder of Safety Research & Strategies Inc. in Rehoboth, Mass.
Kane, who has identified around 2,000 reports of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 1998, said some drivers saw dashboard lights flashing in a way that suggests an electronic glitch.
In 2002, soon after adopting drive-by-wire technology, Toyota issued a technical service bulletin to recalibrate the engine control module to prevent the vehicle from surging at certain speeds. That, Kane said, suggests that an electronic problem "is not out of the realm of possibility."
Toyota says it hasn't found such a problem. "From the reports and in our investigations, we've found no evidence of electronic glitches in the software or in the engine control system," Lyons said.
NHTSA officials also said that over more than five years of investigations, they have not found a defect in the electronic throttle.
Safety advocates say acceleration issue may not be easy fix
Christine Tierney / The Detroit News
For years, Toyota Motor Corp. has investigated complaints from drivers saying their Toyota and Lexus vehicles accelerated all by themselves, and the company has identified essentially one cause. The trouble, according to Toyota, occurs when loose or ill-fitting floor mats, carpet covers or detached trim jam the gas pedal.
But after a highly publicized crash in August that killed four people when the driver lost control of a Lexus sedan, Toyota has come under intense pressure to reduce the risk of unintended acceleration.
The Japanese automaker and U.S. safety regulators are discussing changes to the gas pedal, as well as adjustments that would make it easier to stop a car that's accelerating, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 15 fatalities, including the four in August, are linked to hundreds of reports of unintended acceleration of Toyotas it has received since 2002.
>
A perplexing problem
U.S. safety investigators say they receive complaints of unintended acceleration involving many brands. But some safety advocates say Toyota has received more than its share -- particularly since it adopted drive-by-wire technology 10 years ago. In cars equipped with this system, a driver stepping on the gas pedal sends an electronic signal to the throttle.
Clarence Ditlow at the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C., said its database shows that "since the late '90s, Toyota has generated more complaints on unintended acceleration than any other manufacturer."
But unlike certain defects, such as corrosion or faulty components that can easily be identified, unintended acceleration is a term that has been used to describe a wide range of occurrences and can be hard to diagnose.
There may be several causes, including driver error, say government and independent experts. There could be a problem with the brakes, acceleration or transmission. Or the electronics controlling the engine or transmission may be calibrated incorrectly.
>
Toyota rebuked by NHTSA
Complaints range from sudden surges of engine power that can be controlled by applying the brakes to more frightening instances of unintended acceleration at high speeds. That was the situation that preceded the crash in Santee, Calif., near San Diego, of a Lexus ES350 driven by Mark Saylor, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer. He and three family members were killed.
A month later, owners of eight Lexus and Toyota models were told to remove the driver-side mats, and Toyota later issued its largest-ever U.S. recall -- for 3.8 million vehicles.
Investigators looking at Toyota vehicles that crashed after alleged unintended acceleration, including the Lexus in California, found mats jammed near the gas pedal.
But this month, when Toyota cited a NHTSA document as evidence the mats were the sole cause of the problem, the agency rebuked the carmaker.
On Nov. 4, NHTSA said merely removing the mats didn't remedy the underlying defect, which it said was "related to accelerator and floor pan design."
But safety advocates say the mats and pedal configuration also don't explain all the complaints.
"The evidence continues to surface that we're dealing with more than a mechanical interface between the floor mat and the pedal," said Sean Kane, founder of Safety Research & Strategies Inc. in Rehoboth, Mass.
Kane, who has identified around 2,000 reports of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 1998, said some drivers saw dashboard lights flashing in a way that suggests an electronic glitch.
In 2002, soon after adopting drive-by-wire technology, Toyota issued a technical service bulletin to recalibrate the engine control module to prevent the vehicle from surging at certain speeds. That, Kane said, suggests that an electronic problem "is not out of the realm of possibility."
Toyota says it hasn't found such a problem. "From the reports and in our investigations, we've found no evidence of electronic glitches in the software or in the engine control system," Lyons said.
NHTSA officials also said that over more than five years of investigations, they have not found a defect in the electronic throttle.
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): the lower part hit the mat, got entangled, wouldn´t get up again - so you kept on accelerating. basically you had to floor it again, then it would get loose.
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