PDF file of the official CHP report on the Sikes affair

The CHP incident report is not supposed to be a comprehensive analysis of what occurred. It is a report of the officer's observations and witness statements. Note how the report draws no conclusions.

IMO, all the statement in question is saying is that the data doesn't show accelerator applications. It is known that there is a sensor, but it is unknown if the vehicle records the output in any way. The statement is therefore ambiguous.

 

Exactly, if this was a scam - it would likely have been premeditated.

If it looks like a duck, ..........

 

Just because we believe the officer is wrong doesn't mean we're calling him a liar. Fortunately, being wrong isn't lying. The confessionals would be VERY busy.

 

If Mr. Sikes was involved in a monster hoax about his runaway Prius (and most of us here think he was), then I'll bet that his HR and BP and outward behaviors would have been affected since he knew that he was commiting a crime right in front of the police and the whole world. He would feel a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure he didn't screw up his plan and get discovered right on the spot. Wouldn't a criminal who is robbing a bank have off-scale vital signs and behavior?

 

After reading the CHP report I have a slightly different opinion. The CHP officer really believes that he was in a state of panic and tried to stop the car. Could be that the car really had runaway acceleration and that Sikes saw this as an opportunity to possibly cash in but was not prepared since he was looking at this window of opportunity. Thus he refused to turn the car off or to neutral and only hits the brakes to cause damage not to stop the car. Then realizes that he may be caught, becomes anxious and nervous, thus the signs of stress. Had this been premeditated he would have been less stressed, having thought it out more clearly. Recent evidence of more runaways--about 105 since the recalls--tells me that something is going on and it would behoove Toyota to get to the bottom of it ASAP by good engineering work. This may explain all the contridictions. How else can the accelerator pedal or throttle plate stick? How are the circuits routed in the computer? Any chance for conflicts? ETC.

 

Means little if they're psychological or copycats. The "syringe in the Pepsi can" incident resulted in at least 52 reports of tampering in at least 23 states before the whole thing died down.

pepsi

 

Remember in Toyota video, if you apply anything more then a very light brake would kill the throttle. I don't know why he can apply 254 times of braking without triggering a single log of the throttle been kill. Anyone can help to test it out how much brake would kill the throttle.

 

I don't know about the video, but someone posted here that the brake override kicks in when the brake pedal is depressed more than 50%. That seems like a significant amount of throw before the throttle is killed.

 

Will the pedal travel increased after the brake pads used up? Since the brake was also collected by wire, I guess not, am I correct?

 

The brakes are self-adjusting - as the pads wear down the slack is taken up and you wouldn't feel it in the pedal.

 

I know you weren't saying he was lying, but we've heard a lot from those who say that saying he was wrong is calling him a liar. And that's a pet peeve of mine.

Even after reading the report, I am unconvinced by Mr. Sikes. I do think it's possible that it got to be a lot bigger deal than he planned. I think he was just looking for a new car from Toyota like he told one of our members in an email. Then it kind of went out of control...

 

He told someone in an email he was looking for a new car from toyota? Could someone post that email message? I'd like to see what he said.

 

It is, but it's not hard to make it happen. When I've tested it, it was easy to get the override to kick in. In an emergency, you would expect the driver to stomp on the brakes, not toy with them, otherwise it hardly counts as an emergency.

Making the override too sensitive would cause it's own set of problems, causing unexpected loss of power for some drivers.

Tom

 

I don't think these necessarily need to be faked. If I were pulling this as a scam, I'd have these symptoms too -- over fears of error or getting caught. So I mark this as a neutral indicator, not + or -.

 

You might take note that he said the throttle remained open, not that the accelerator was held down.

 

Even the slightest level of pressure on the brake pedal will activate the braking system provided the brake light switch closes. Once the skid control computer detects the brake lights being on it immediately begins the braking sequence.

First, the skid control computer looks at the brake fluid pressure sensor and the brake pedal stroke sensor to determine the level of braking the driver is "requesting". Then the skid control computer sends a message to the HSD (Hybrid Synergy Drive) system computer: " I need 123HP of braking force, how much of that can you supply using regen..??

Once the HSD control computer responds the skid control computer will open the individual wheel manifold pressure ports to pass master cylinder pressure to the calipers.

Note that should the HSD control computer respond to the query with: "I'll use regen to provide 100% of that force" then no hydraulic brake pressure will be ported to any wheel regardless of how hard the driver depresses the brake pedal.

In the Sikes case there was little or no frictional/hydraulic braking because the HSD control computer was out to lunch, too busy continuously executing the cruise control "set/accel" functionality.

Disconnect the brake light switch, go WOT and then depress the brake pedal with no effect on the throttle opening. But we know the brake lights were working which MUST mean the HSD control computer had crawled down that cruise control rathole.

 

Translation? So you're of the opinion that Sikes's frictional braking actually failed because of a glitch, and it was providing regen braking? Yet, even with regen braking, the car didn't slow?