Could Toyotas speed problem be located in the cruise control?
I have given some serious thought to the problem with some of Toyotas vehicles abruptly speeding up and out of control. my theory involves the vehicles cruise control. ever been in a situation, where you were using your vehicles cruise control and approached an uphill grade? your gas pedal suddenly goes to the floor in an attempt to keep your vehicle at the preset cruise speed. sometimes, a transmission will automatically downshift in order to compensate for the lost speed and this throws your vehicle into a speeding condition, to catch up. what if Toyotas cruise control was defective, even on level ground and sent a vehicle into passing gear on its own, causing the fast speed and out of control? it would interesting to know if all the Toyotas involved had cruise control on their vehicle.
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I am beginning to belive your answer. that some auto makers may be determined to knock Toyota out of the No. 1 slot it has held for years. we will see.
It sounds like the most recent report of the 2008 Prius in California was legitimately a stuck accelerator linkage. The driver floored it to pass a car, and when he backed off, the accelerator pedal didn’t come back up. But lots of drivers report sudden, unexplained acceleration. That is NOT a stuck pedal or a floor-mat problem, because the driver never depressed the pedal for it to get stuck. Those cases have to be electronic. There is a computer controlling air and gas flow to the carburetor, and that would be a likley suspect.
That is possible. There are many places in the software where there could be a problem. Toyota is investigating but they are not giving the details to NHTSA. Even when they fix the mechanical problem with the throttle pedal module you will not be sure they fixed all cases.
If I ruled the world I’d:
1) Get rid of the one touch start stop button and make it mechanical.
2) I’d demand to see the software logic.
3) I’d demand to see the last 20 seconds of sensor data stored in the computer for every car. (Black box)
4) If Toyotas really don’t have data storage they should not be permitted to sell in the US. Every other car company has it. (They are smart guys- they have it.)
5) I’d investigate, cruise control, clear flood, hybrid battery charge, efficiency curve tuning and any other function that moves the throttle without driver interaction.
6) I would have Beyonce move in with me.
Steve Wozniak reported problems with sudden acceleration in his Prius under certain conditions with the cruise control.
Later, he also explained that he believes the issue he’s seeing is different than what’s being addressed in the recalls.
I personally gotta believe there’s more to it than a partially stuck pedal. From the WSJ:
“I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny… it jumped and it just stuck there,” Mr. Sikes said at a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
“I was trying the brakes… it wasn’t stopping, it wasn’t doing anything and it just kept speeding up,” Mr. Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning.
Fyi, Car & Driver magazine performed a braking while pressing the throttle fully test:
“The results are actually quite interesting, and we will share with you that a Toyota Camry under wide open throttle can stop from 70 mph one foot shorter than a 2010 Ford Taurus under normal braking.” [emphasis mine]
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A gas-powered Camry uses different braking technology than a Prius, but that’s amazing. In nearly any normal modern production car, you should be able to stop it with the throttle wide open and transmission engaged.
Since the Prius and other hybrids use regenerative braking, something in there must be at play, too.
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