Wozniak cites 'scary' 2010 Prius acceleration problem

I'd say it's a large subset of the total population. :madgrin:

 

I don't really have a comment on Steve's alleged problem. If it is something that is happening and he can replicate it then maybe his high profile announcement will lead to a resolution....but his description of what is happening is pretty vague and given as much scrutiny as The Prius is exposed to in this very site, I've seen very few complaints about any problem with the cruise control and acceleration. Honestly I'm just curious as to what he is talking about. Toyota has already sold a ton of the 2010 Prius and by my knowledge Steve is the only one complaining. I'd really like to know what "scary" acceleration he is talking about.

Also I guess I have to say, Ugh...Poor Toyota. One of their biggest sellers and one that hasn't been part of the accelerator pedal recall but now it get's this stigma attached because of Wozniak?

If it's really a problem, then as always discover and fix. BUT man, what horrible timing to release publicly, a personal observation. The media will jump all over his comment.

It's like Toyota is trying to fight a huge forest fire of negative publicity and Steve is over in the corner lighting bushes on fire.

 

Interesting. The earlier, NHW11 cruise control consists of a series of resistors with momentary contact switches to enter different values. I haven't looked at the ZVW30 but now I'm wondering if both the NHW20 and ZVW30 are using the same setup and either have some resistor value drift or cr*p in the gap of the switches.

I'll check my maintenance manual for the ZVW30 but I don't think it covers the cruise control switches. I haven't ordered the electrical schematics, yet.

Does anyone with the NHW20 manual set know how the cruise control stalk signals are encoded?

Bob Wilson

 

What's alleged!? He's heading for either a coronary, or a stroke, not to mention having to shop at the big & portly store. He's an important 'idea' man and it'd be a shame to see hime die early and ... oh wait ... you were talking about .... never mind



.

 

In the NHW20, the cruise control switch signals go directly to the Hybrid Vehicle ECU. The cruise control is handled by the HV ECU and the Skid Control ECU (for the cancel function from the stoplight switch).

 

Its going to be interesting to see where it goes from here.

 

That's just cold. Honestly if it's a problem and his announcement leads to it being fixed then all Prius owners and Toyota owe him a debt of thanks.

Just that this was one of the first headlines I read today and I just had to think....what horrible timing for Toyota.

With a little further digging it does appear that Steve has potentially uncovered a flaw. Seems like he is talking about acceleration with cruise control at speeds above 80mph.

I don't think this is going to affect many Prius owners in day to day driving but if it is a flaw Kudos to Steve.

 

Just be careful. Maybe that is why Wozniak was hesitant to be too descriptive at first. Imagine how many Prius owners are going to want to hit the freeway and go 80mph plus and "test" this theory.

 

I don't think 85 mph speed is legal on any public highways in the US... Hope that not too many 2010 PriusChat members get speeding tickets tonight, as they test the bug pointed out by Steve Wozniak...

 

It'll be interesting to see the Prius/Toyota fanboys and the Apple fanboys battle it out.

 

The highest speed limits in the US is in Texas. Parts of Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 in West Texas has a maximum daytime speed limit of 80mph. So where exactly is Woz driving with a legal speed limit of 85mph?

 

Probably his driveway.

Tom

 

Hey, still be careful. The problem with freeways is that the "Trained Professionals" often meet the Untrained Idiots.

 

Exactly what I thought when I first read his comment. So I think what we've learned is you don't want to use the Prius Cruise Control on the German Autobahn.

 

Don't mess with the Woz.

 

Well, he was (deliberately?) evasive in the first two comments about his problem, which suggests he's doing this more for attention than because the problem is serious - maybe he's hoping to get invited to be on "Dancing with the Stars"...
When he finally does provide details, he describes a situation where the CC would try to accellerate slowly/smoothly to a new speed, but if you keep hitting it, will accellerate hard. Perhaps there is a genuine problem when the CC crosses a certain speed threshold, but it seems nearly as likely that he's holding it too long and it is interpreting that as "go really fast, now!".

 

Illustrating exactly why it pays to purchase any model car at least 3 years after its initial introduction, so that the inevitable flaws and operational anomalies have been detected and corrected.