Another runaway reported in New York

Sometime, you need to look beyond what US media is saying.

Tamyu confirms this in another thread. He also addressed some mis-conceptions.

 

NBC's sensational leadoff piece on Tuesday showed a Gen III in their animated depiction of "what happened" in the California incident, which of course actually involved a GII.

See, they're all evil, all these Priuses. Doesn't matter what model year they are. Prius = Runaway Car. (In NBC's worldview.)

 

PaJa, I agree with you. 34 years ago I passed a written test of (100?) multiple choice questions and drove an Examiner around the block to get a drivers license. As long as I renew on time & my check doesn't bounce the state of NJ says I'm qualified to drive any car. The license costs US$24.00 & expires after 4 years.

Is it any wonder why this country is full of poor drivers? Unfortunately some of them drive a Prius.

 

Toyota *does* do a lot of their own custom chips. They're sprinkled
all over the ECUs and the inverter electronics. Maybe the Specific
Corporate Entity "Toyota" itself doesn't actually produce the iron,
but they've certainly contracted with some fab house in a rather
tightly-knit fashion. It's not like they're buying chinese garbage
off the shelf.
.
It's also unlikely that the hybrid controller [which reads the pedal
and interprets "power demand"] would fail at the SAME TIME as the
brake controller, which is a completely separate entity and reverts
immediately to its own internal hydraulic-only functionality if it
can't talk to the hybrid controller anymore. There's where an awful
lot of this utterly fails to click.
.
_H*

 

funny how these runaway Priuses are popping up all over the place after years of nothing. is hysteria really getting out of hand?

hard to believe that nearly nothing has been reported about this until now.

 

Ya think?

My 2005 was involved in a 3-car fender-bender on I-66 west of DC last summer. Not my fault, but maybe it was RUNAWAY ACCELERATION and BRAKE FAILURE!!!

No, it wasn't that. It was DC rush-hour traffic, a sudden stop in the traffic flow, and the guy behind me following too close while I braked hard to avoid contact with the car in front of me.

In other words, it was a normal wreck that was a driver's fault. Happens thousands of times a day.

 

Toyota Owners Report Problems in Japan to No Avail - NYTimes.com

So she downshifted??? Wth?
Try the big "N".

 

As for "black box" recorders, Toyota could certainly and easily install a CAN bus snooper/recorder which would work independently of the main ECU and would continue to log data even in the event of a main ECU failure. Furthermore, by recording additional information such as state of brake pedal (possibly also on the CAN bus) one can debug and debunk once and for all these silly accusations.

Reminds me strongly of a story my biology teacher in High School used to love to tell us as we were all introduced to the microscope. If it doesn't work at first, stop, and re-trace your steps and re-read the manual. The most common reaction is, "The microscope is broken!" and his oft iterated example was a team of 3 students insisting that the microscope was broken. When he examined the microscope, it was clear that the students had mistakenly used two thick glass slides (one atop the other w/the sample inbetween) instead of using a proper, thin, glass coverslip. When things don't go right we all love to blame the machine first - even when we are the last to read the manuals or understand its working. Oh how lazy humanity has become!

 

Toyota definitely needs to get the erd data out there on accidents.

The reason we don't trust Toyota is that they have been actively fighting drivers from accessing the erds.

There is valuble information if a data recorder does not record. It means that something electrical failed. This is no excuse to not put the record out there. There is much speculation that hardware or software is at fault in these cases. Recording the data could rule this out or provide clues to what is going on. Toyota has no excuse in accident cases to refuse drivers the right to see their data. The reason there is only one lap top in the united states is toyota wants it that way.

To my friends in europe and japan, there are indeed people in all locations reporting unintended accelleration. Most toyota dealers will not even record it if it is not reproduced right away. When accidents happen the driver is often blamed right away and it only makes local news. The rash of reporting has happened since drivers found out toyota was not reporting, so reports have gone to the safety agencies that make the numbers public. I would be very suprised if the number of accidents where the cars were at fault has risen very much.

Call your toyota dealer and complain that the accident data is being hidden. If its the drivers we want to know. If its the cars we want them fixed.

 

Remember a few summers ago when everybody seemed to get bitten by a shark when they got their feet wet? There weren't any more shark attacks than other years, just a flashlight shone on the occurrence by the media, and every bite and nip went national or international. Every crash involving a Prius is going to be reported, and the driver is going to cite this as the cause. I just replaced my GII with a 2010 and couldn't feel safer in the car.

 

And man never went to the moon.

 

Example, please?

Even one single documented or reported example of this happening outside of the US?

 

There is one documented example, in the UK (see other news threads).

However that case really seems to be pedal error.

 

Norway yesterday – first runaway Prius in reported in the news. Description quite similar to the resent NY Prius. Toyotas first investigation – probably the floor mats.

 

FYP

To be accurate, it is YOU and few others negativistas that don't trust Toyota. My experience over 20 yrs of driving them is that they have all been perfect with one exception. My Prius was perfect in 2005, remains perfect at 145,000 miles in 2010 and I expect will remain perfect until I retire it somewhere near 300,000 miles, normal wear and tear excluded.

Don't pretend to speak for anyone other than yourself. If erd data rings your bell then knock yourself out. I don't care.