NASA says Toyota unintended-acceleration not electronic issue
The Toyota unintended-acceleration recall scandal is famous around the world now, although it seems as if the Americans actually did anything about it. The U.S. Department of Transportation enlisted the help of NASA scientists, the same ones responsible for the American space programme, to have a look at the issues and software within Toyota and Lexus cars to see if the excessive unintended-acceleration claims had any electronic basis, as claimed by some. The engineers could not find anything pointing to an electronic problem.
The NASA investigation pointed to the same causes hightlighted by Toyota before. Instances of unintended acceleration were caused by sticky pedals, floor-mat interference and, of course, stupid people pressing the accelerator instead of the brake pedal in a panic. Allusions to an electronic fault making cars acelerate on their own, as once suggested by Apple’s other founder, the unknown Steve Wozniak, are apparently unfounded. Steve Jobs’ former sidekick suggested his Toyota Prius accelerated by itself on cruise-control every once in a while, and made it a media frenzy.
In other news, Toyota has decided to open its first new Japanese manufacturing facility in nearly 20 years. Dubbed the “Miyagi” factory, it will build the new Yaris and is designed to cut energy demands, speed up production by using parallel assembly lines rather than nose-to-tail, and reduce build time by 35%, all in a bid to cut costs as the soaring value of the Yen is making their Japanese-built cars more expensive. So cost-cutting in still in force at the company, but they are doing it in a different way, likely while concentrating even more on quality than ever before.
Comments
Asad A.
Hmm, hey NASA, care to look into that leaning Prado problem?! 😀
Aarav
hahaha! NASA is responsible for th space program, not the toyota investigation program 😛
royer
let them prove they can go back to moon once again…Toyota is too complicated for them…
dragracer567
Looks like Americans are worse than Indians.
Rahul Jones
NASA is on crisis that they do not have any rockets to play with. So, they choosed Toyota which is the same once the pedal gets stuck…. 😛
And they are talking as if Toyota is not responsible for the pedal getting stuck, it is us.
vivek
that said, i do agree with the part where people themselves jam the accelerator pedal instead of brakes by mistake during panic situations, out of sheer confusion! has happened to a couple of people i know..
Rahul Jones
I guess it mainly happens to drivers who newly learned in automatic transmission. I haven’t found anyone who learned in manual do this (CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG).
Well, Thank God it hasn’t happened to me anytime which vehicle I drove from the least spacious commercial pickup till the most comfortable I drove the G55.
Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury
In America, a driving test consists of taking a left turn and a right turn, and that’s it usually. You even have to bring your own car to the test! No lessons needed. Also, many “unintended acceleraion” accidents in the U.S. are by old people, like 70 or 80 years old, which we don’t have here because most get kicked out after 60.
Asad A.
^ In Dubai, driving schools dont teach you proper driving, they train you to pass the test.
Rahul Jones
Old private driving schools was the best.
prado the super hero
the quality of toyota cars is falling off a cliff… the new camry smells funny and is of inferior built quality than the camry….
bring back the jap build cresssida and crown!!!
vivek
those are legends man…seriously 🙂 …wish they were still there with the same rock solid build, performance and reliability!
BKJ
lolz, just pray they give the new FT-86 concept the green light.
Maybe they can gain some much lost influence in the tuner industry.
Aditya
I guess they shifted focus from cars to making giant robots or something …. ;P