amused by news coverage of toyota.
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From: Harry K on 13 Feb 2010 12:31 On Feb 12, 11:50 pm, "Daniel W. Rouse Jr." <dwrous...(a)nethere.comNOSPAM> wrote: > "Brent" <tetraethylleadREMOVET...(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message > > news:hl5hsd$v33$2(a)news.eternal-september.org... > > > > > Suddenly, all the toyota recalls are news... > > > it's like they figured out toyota has recalls too. > > More like it appears that issues that were reported and very likely deferred > for several years in some cases---probably something like not reproducible > or corner-case/edge case/limited exposure--are finally getting their well > deserved attention. Too bad it took a fatality to actually demand that much > immediate action. > > Oh, and there was also one news story in the past few days about a cruise > control issue with another Toyota vehicle that seemed to report very similar > symptoms reportedly seen by witnesses of the fatal Lexus incident (vehicle > lurching back and forth, then taking off, brakes glowing red from prolonged > braking--except the driver in that other story got the vehicle to stop). I > need to find the link to that story, but the other vehicle was not a Lexus > if I recall correctly, it might have been a Prius. I had been wondering all along about the 'stuck throttle' bit. All thre reports are about cars suddenly accelerating. That is not a symptom of a stuck throttle unless the driver already _is_ accelerating. Harry K
From: Daniel W. Rouse Jr. on 13 Feb 2010 15:48 "John Lucas" <johnl(a)gshores.net> wrote in message news:450dn5hc19mrum1ond3qcta81o3k487spv(a)4ax.com... > On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:46:37 +0000 (UTC), Brent > <tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >> >>Suddenly, all the toyota recalls are news... >> >>it's like they figured out toyota has recalls too. >> > Seems as if the media ignores that the Pontiac Vibe is also on the > accelerator recall list. For some reason, they don't call enough attention that the Vibe is more of less a rebranded Toyota Matrix.
From: Daniel W. Rouse Jr. on 13 Feb 2010 15:54 "Harry K" <turnkey4099(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:29e07211-684a-40d1-a6fb-31357747b18e(a)l12g2000prg.googlegroups.com... On Feb 12, 11:50 pm, "Daniel W. Rouse Jr." <dwrous...(a)nethere.comNOSPAM> wrote: > "Brent" <tetraethylleadREMOVET...(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message > > news:hl5hsd$v33$2(a)news.eternal-september.org... > > > > > Suddenly, all the toyota recalls are news... > > > it's like they figured out toyota has recalls too. > > More like it appears that issues that were reported and very likely > deferred > for several years in some cases---probably something like not reproducible > or corner-case/edge case/limited exposure--are finally getting their well > deserved attention. Too bad it took a fatality to actually demand that > much > immediate action. > > Oh, and there was also one news story in the past few days about a cruise > control issue with another Toyota vehicle that seemed to report very > similar > symptoms reportedly seen by witnesses of the fatal Lexus incident (vehicle > lurching back and forth, then taking off, brakes glowing red from > prolonged > braking--except the driver in that other story got the vehicle to stop). I > need to find the link to that story, but the other vehicle was not a Lexus > if I recall correctly, it might have been a Prius. I had been wondering all along about the 'stuck throttle' bit. All thre reports are about cars suddenly accelerating. That is not a symptom of a stuck throttle unless the driver already _is_ accelerating. * Or unless the pedal suddenly drops all the way to the floor. I had that happen many years ago, when driving an older model Chevrolet Caprice Classic car. Engage cruise at 35mph or higher, something was wrong with the cruise control module or something because the pedal dropped all the way to the floor and only pressing the brake pedal to cancel cruise control stopped the acceleration. Obviously, I stopped using the cruise control when I reproduce the problem 3 times at 3 different speeds. This was also long before the days of electronic cruise control and throttle by wire. Of course, that doesn't mean that the Toyota problems are all cruise control or all throttle related--there may even be multiple problems involved since some electronics also control other electronics.
From: Daniel W. Rouse Jr. on 13 Feb 2010 16:24 "Scott in SoCal" <scottenaztlan(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message news:ojodn5h3ibo6637as9j09g49ud6onlbalv(a)4ax.com... > Last time on rec.autos.driving, "Daniel W. Rouse Jr." > <dwrousejr(a)nethere.comNOSPAM> said: > >>Oh, and there was also one news story in the past few days about a cruise >>control issue with another Toyota vehicle that seemed to report very >>similar >>symptoms reportedly seen by witnesses of the fatal Lexus incident (vehicle >>lurching back and forth, then taking off, brakes glowing red from >>prolonged >>braking--except the driver in that other story got the vehicle to stop). > > How did he manage to stop it? By throwing it into neutral and/or > turning off the ignition, I'll wager... I found the links to the Prius cruise control story and a similar issue brought up in the Lexus crash. Here they are, along with the relevant quoted excerpts. Prius owners blame wild rides on cruise control http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/11/prius.cruise.control/index.html [begin quoted text] 'I was just praying' Grover Walton repeatedly slammed on the brakes of his 2008 Toyota Prius on a road trip to visit his granddaughters in South Carolina last October. The car lurched back and forth, and gained speed. "I can't get the cruise control off," he said to his wife, who was in the back seat. Barbara Walton looked up from playing Scrabble on her laptop. She figured her husband's lousy driving was to blame. Yet the hybrid kept zipping along the wet four-lane highway in tight traffic. "I was just praying he could get the car stopped," she told CNN iReport. Waltons' ask: Are we driving a death trap? Grover Walton rode the brakes and looked for the best place to pull over. He turned onto a dirt road and popped the car into neutral. When the car stopped, the two front brakes "had a red glow to them," he said. "My wife was panicking. She didn't know if she should take the stuff out of the car or what." The incident began, he said, when he hit the "resume" button on his cruise control, thinking he'd speed back up to around 63 mph. The car got up to 75 mph. Herb Kuehn of Battle Creek, Michigan, said the same thing happened to him in 2005 on a two-lane highway. He said he tried to resume cruise control at 58 mph. "Instead, it just fully accelerated and kept going," Kuehn said. He frantically pushed the power button. It didn't respond. The car wouldn't shift into neutral. His last hope: mashing on the brakes as hard as he could while speeding at 76 mph. The car came to a stop on the shoulder of the road. An overwhelming battery smell wafted through the inside of the car, he said. [end quoted text] Prior driver of Lexus says pedal stuck http://web.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/04/report-loaner-car-in-fatal-crash-had-earlier/ [begin quoted text] One witness reported that she was driving north on state Route 125 at Grossmont College Drive when she saw a white Lexus going about 45 to 50 mph with its emergency flashers on, "surging like it was out of gas." She passed the car, then saw in her rearview mirror that it was pulling over to the right shoulder and lost sight of it. Seconds later, the car zoomed past her. "I've never seen a car go that fast," she told investigators. Another witness described the speeding sedan as a "white blur." [end quoted text]
From: Brent on 13 Feb 2010 21:58
On 2010-02-14, Scott in SoCal <scottenaztlan(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Last time on rec.autos.driving, "Daniel W. Rouse Jr." ><dwrousejr(a)nethere.comNOSPAM> said: > >>I had been wondering all along about the 'stuck throttle' bit. All >>thre reports are about cars suddenly accelerating. That is not a >>symptom of a stuck throttle unless the driver already _is_ >>accelerating. > > Don't forget, we are hearing these reports through the Mainstream > Media filter. This filter distorts, dumbs down, and fails to > understand just about anything of a technical nature. > > Bottom line, they are not reliable sources for technical details like > "sudden onset" vs. "unwanted continuation" of acceleration. Because of > the whole Audi thing back in the 80s, the term "unintended > acceleration" has become a general catch-all for all of these > different failure modes. As Scott may have noticed in another newsgroup I've followed some of the technical breakdowns available on the web. The pedal design has some issues. However, all said and done, right now I am leaning towards a software and/or electrical fault. For some reason companies tend to place the blame on something mechanical when ever possible. (I've had my share of finding mechanical solutions to electrical and software problems) Mechanically that 'stuck pedal' couldn't be severely stuck. Nothing a good hit with one's foot would jar loose. At least that's what the 'fix' seems to indicate to me. |