Could recent recalls be a back door covert attempt to ban all hybrids?

Actually, I think that Toyota wants to get out of the hybrid business. The recalls and especially the episode in San Diego where the CHP responded to a Prius experiencing sudden acceleration is setting the stage for Toyota to exit the hybrid business. Then they can focus on building cars again and let all of the other manufacturers who have jumped on the hybrid bandwagon get sucked into the cesspool of building hybrids that have all of these electronic problems. Do you know how much it costs to EMI harden a computer system?

 

i like how you think evilshin

 

Conspiracy theories over the SUA/Toyota in the US seems to be growing day by day.

This sudden over-exposure/hype by US media seems to be turning Toyota into a victim. Based on recent Gallup survey, it may actually backfire when all these recent "accidents" gets explained away in terms of "Godly intervention" and in such close successive events.

 

But ... but ... but ...

Most of Toyota's current recalls and alleged problems are in NON-hybrids.

 

I think you responded to the sarcastic comment. But you are right on about this having nothing to do with hybrids.

 

It could be related to proximity to magnetic north. EMI is a strange beast. One minute it is there and the next it is not....

Or, perhaps something was changed in the manufacturing process. Here is a little bit of devil's advocacy to make the point: Lets say that the ECU/Throttle Control was packaged in a metal box for the years 2004 - 2008. Then some industrious bean counter realized that the metal boxes could be substituted for plastic ones for a unit cost savings of $5. At $5 x 500,000 production units, the bean counter earned his annual bonus as well as his bosses annual bonus (maybe even his bosses bosses annual bonus). If the same ECU/Throttle Control unit is used throughout the Toyota production, then the bean counter earned the bonuses all the way up the food chain to Toyoda-san himself. Heck, the bean counter probably was flown to Toyota City for a sit down inspirational tea ceremony with Toyoda-san before being presented as the annual profit-performance champion (or whatever they call their ceremony for cutting the most costs).

There is where your reasoning is potentially faulty. You don't know what Toyota has learned from 3 generations of manufacturing hybrids. They could have run into the sudden acceleration issue in the 1st generation cars, tried once to solve it in the 2nd Gen cars and tried once more to solve it in the 3rd Gen cars. Finally, after three attempts, they said screw it; we are going to suck in the rest of the idiots that think hybrids are the way to go and let them burn through the cash that they can't afford to burn through. Ultimately, they will fail, and we will have an 80% market share for our efforts.

That is definitely a long term outlook.

 

I hope this post is an attempt at humor.

Tom

 

With all this basicly unsupported speculation why don't you just cut open a chicken and read it's entrails?

Speculation is fine to a point but you've created an entire work of pure fiction. Based, in my personal opinion, on a lot of faulty assumptions.

 

I'm actually afraid that it wasn't.

 

He cant help it. He's malorns cousin.

 

Other than the part about proximity to magnetic north, everything else in my post is plausible.

However, the idea about reading chicken entrails is interesting. But cruel to the chicken. So I will pass.

 

When Toyota releases all of the detail on their data logging function, I will state my true intent. Until then the posts speak for themselves.

 

You think? I wonder how Toyota's sales are doing this week after the report out of San Diego? There is also a report from New York about another Prius that accelerated out of the owners driveway and smashed into a wall across the street. Nothing like a constant drumbeat of bad news to drive sales.

 

Have you ever been in a situation where you were panic-struck? Do you honestly think you would remember to do something you have never done before (but possibly read about in the owners manual 2 or more years ago)? I will give you a hint - there is a reason why police and military practice clearing a building over and over until it becomes ingrained in muscle memory. Ask paramedics who have responded to accidents where the vehicle is a total loss about the condition the victims were in if they were conscious.

Don't judge someone unless you have walked in their path before them.

 

Could it be a Sabotage using EMI?

This is an interesting point. EMI hardening a computer system. The question really is when Toyota or its suppliers design and test there electronic throttle system, what is the environment condition they test it for. What is the spec on the level of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) that the electronic computer systems in a Prius can tolerate before they start to fail. If the spec is just barely above the FCC limits across frequency bands than its probably not enough as in rare occasions a car may experience higher EMI than the spec. For e.g. you could be driving close to an RF testing facility where the EMI is unnaturally (and illegally) high. Hopefully since lot of auto-makers are using electronic throttles, there must be an industry-wide consensus on this spec.

Now it appears that this un-intended acceleration is happening in US far more than other countries. Hypothetically if someone has a source of EMI generator which could be used to trigger failure of electronic throttle system in a passing Prius, how would Toyota ever find this out? It would be extremely difficult unless somebody is caught in the act. This could be like the Malvo case we had a couple of years ago, but a lot subtle and well-planned.

If this is indeed the case, can Toyota be blamed for this? It all depends on whether there is an industry consensus on what is the tolerable EMI level and if Toyota is meeting the spec. Also, if there is such a spec, there should also be test-results showing what happens when EMI goes well above the spec. And actually this should be part of NHSTA safety testing procedures since electronic throttle has been around for years now. So far I have not seen anybody talking about EMI and what happens to a Toyota Prius when its subjected to high EMI well above the spec? I bet the answer would be random failures one of which is un-intended acceleration.