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

Amen. Today if everyone decided to pick on Ford because their steering wheels didn't turn fast enough, all the sudden there would be complaints about people running down their wives by accident, or slamming into walls. Someone would veer across the freeway onto an off ramp at the last minute and claim that their steering wheel wouldn't turn back fast enough or some bull crap. I'm getting tons of hate on my youtube account, I'm getting people making jokes to me in real life, and people I don't even know joking about it nearby me in the parking lot. I'm not a violent person, but it's seriously making me want to kick some butt. What has happened to our society?

 

The burden of proof is not on me. I am not the one making outlandish claims.

I believe that a clown named Mr. BoJangles is behind the plot to kill the prius.
Prove me wrong please.

 

5 pages and counting.... Toyota is not helping get to a resolution, which is why we are at 5 pages. Want to bet that before the weekend is out, the thread will be past 6 pages?

Actually, when exposed to enough heat (like in the deep South), windshields can and do spontaneously shatter

Now if the windshields were to shatter on Prius cars, you might have a point that Toyota is behind a conspiracy to sucker in the rest of the manufacturers that have jumped on the hybrid bandwagon while Toyota claims the traditional car manufacturing space. Lets see, I think I read somewhere that windshields on Prius cars have shattered spontaneously in the South. Brad Pitt's Prius in New Orleans?

 

My response to the title of this thread...

Crude Oil is at about $82 per barrel right now. This just happened over the past 5 business days or so. This means that in about four weeks from now, you can add 25 cents per gallon to what you are paying right now. In Orange County and San Diego, CA, I am paying about $3.05 right now, so for me this means about $3.30 per gallon. The high prices that I don't buy from are selling at about $3.15 right now, so they will be at about $3.40 per gallon. These numbers are for 'regular' 87 octane.

If anyone is trying to ban hybrids, they will become the most hated person in America with time. What does the general public think of oil industry executives? (?)
If some congressman (lowercase because of special interest groups) starts trying to ban hybrids, he/she won't be very popular the next time (or the subsequent time) that he tries to run for office.

 

Oh boy, where do I start with this post.

....

Look at the number of manufacturers that produce hybrid-electric cars of either serial or 'full' hybrid type -

Honda
Nissan
Ford
Toyota / Lexus

then there's GM / Chevrolet and Dodge had a Durango hybrid too.

Do you think GM can begin to take down those 4 manufacturers plans to produce and sell hybrid cars?

No. Way.

I see gobs of hybrid cars every day here in the SF Bay Area -

Priuses (tons of them), Civic hybrids, Insights, Fusions, Lexus RX400h's, Camry hybrids, Altima hybrids, Highlander hybrids, even a couple Escape hybrids.

Don't worry, hybrid electric cars are going nowhere but up.

 

But Toyota could. Especially if there is a recall of the Toyota and Lexus hybrids for problems with sudden acceleration that are due to EMI frying the electronics....

Or down.

 

You just provided justification for why another participant would have an interest in the hybrids going away. Don't you think Chevron, Exxon, and the rest of their fellow travelers would break out the champagne if the Toyota and Lexus hybrids were found to be suffering from EMI problems?

 

ound:

If Toyota has a virus infecting their ECU code, they will be the laughingstock of the industry. Toyoda-san will need to change the company's name. If you think GM has to labor under the characterization of Government Motors, that is mild compared to what Toyota would have to deal with if they have a virus infecting their ECU code.

 

Hmmm. Everyone wins under this scenario - Big Oil, Toyota, even the consumer (from a safety issue). A win-win-win. Wow. It could happen.

Daaayum!

 

I think that EMI rayguns are a more likely candidate for the root cause of sudden acceleration. Or, driving by high voltage power lines.

 

This wouldn't be a virus. Virus code is called a virus because it spreads in a fashion analogous to a biological virus; from computer to computer by contact. The ECUs in cars are not connected to the outside world, nor do they run a common operating system.

The only way a malicious program can get into a car ECU is if it is put there by one of the development engineers, and then it has to be installed on each car. It can't spread on its own.

Deliberately installing malicious code is the same as an engineer saying "I think I will deliberately weaken the design of this fuel tank so that it will explode in a collision." An evil design engineer could do this to any part of an automobile, not just the software.

Tom

 

I think Toyota would find a work-around. Put a drive by wire which operates a servo, which is located far away from MG1/2 and shielded in several layers of EM shielding. If they had to go to the extreme, they could put the servo in the trunk.

I think there would be a long and drawn out court battle before electronic servos were fully banned. There would likely be a compromise of some sort. If electronic throttles were some-what banned, Toyota engineers would find a work-around of some sort that would still enable the Prius to be manufactured.

 

Technically yes, but given the tight control of proprietary code, the only reasonable way for malicious code to get installed is through one of Toyota's own engineers.

Tom

 

Seems that sudden acceleration has been associated only with the Prius. But we know several other models of Toyotas/Lexus have suffered it too.

 

Maybe GM turned the Toyota engineer? Caught him in a honey trap....

"Put this code in the ECU software release or your reputation will be worse than dirt...."

The honey trap was run out of China with GM's Chinese partners working through China's Ministry of State Security (the ultimate Private-Public partnership)....

And you thought that all the Chinese were interested in was hacking our computer networks.

 

The only difference between the US and the rest of the planet is that Mobile phones are running on different frequency bands - this could affect EMI behaviour and possibly could be a problem for one of the ECUs.
Other than that, the US has the same cars/Prius as everywhere else on the planet.
The only other difference is state-funded GM (with no hybrid in plans and building gas guzzlers with old engine tech) and lawyers. You do the math.
The market of hybrids is relatively small.
Hybrids are in any case a temporary solution - the future is full EV or something else. Even Toyota says that.