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Toyota's Speeding Malfunction
Safety analysts have found some 2,000 cases of Toyota cars—including Camry, Prius and Lexus models—accelerating without warning to speeds of up to 100 mph, according to their owners, many of whom believe the problem to be with the cars' electrical systems and not due to faulty floor mats—the official explanation given by Toyota. The car company vehemently denies that the problem lies in the vehicles' electronics, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found no defects in those systems in its six investigations, but Toyota owners remain adamant that the problem floor mats had nothing to do with the dangerous acceleration. Bulent Ezal, whose wife died in an accident in central California, says his foot was "absolutely, positively on the brake," while a 911 call from an out-of-control Lexus driven by California Highway patrol officer Mark Saylor includes Saylor's brother-in-law saying "our accelerator is stuck... there's no brakes."
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Maybe I'm be inconsiderate of the emotional trauma involved in an out-of-control vehicular experience... but if your car is cruising at 100 miles an hour, and your brakes don't work (at least, not effectively)... why not just turn the key to off? Or pop the car into neutral?
In the time it took this guy to dial 911, it seems to me that he have very easily gotten himself out of immediate danger.
Excellent points - we were taught in Driver's Ed to do both if the throttle ever got stuck. A CHP officer (the Lexus driver) should know all of these techniques.
Floor mat issues (around for more than 20 years) usually involve the mats bunching up in front so that you cannot fully depress the gas or brake pedals.
I don't think you're being inconsiderate -- I think you're being logical. Under such circumstances, though, I'm not sure how many would keep such a calm head.
Good suggestions, but they might not work because...
Did you know that the Prius does not use a key? Power is turned on/off by an electric switch when the key-fob is in the car. There is a mechanical key as a back up, but it's really only intended as a back up and when you are starting from a car that is not on.
The transmission control is not mechanical. It's an electronic display.
If there is an electrical problem, these are very serious issues that Toyota must address.
In a car with anti-lock brakes that is the exact opposite of what you want to do. That will cause the wheels to lock up and the car will flip. I know this, because I was in a car accident where that is what the driver "thought to do". I almost died. Please don't ever do that. The best plan of action in that case would be to try to dislodge the gas--if the gas being stuck is the problem. Even with the electrical system malfunction--you should tap the gas repeatedly until you are in control of the acceleration again and then slowly step on the brake. A lot of people don't think about that because the mind goes, "BRAKE!!!", but it's correct. Keep you hands on the wheel and try to guide the car to safety.
This sounds like the same crap Audi tried to pull when owners were driving through their garage doors when the car was started. Only one type of car was involved, Audi 4000 or 5000. Hard to believe drivers in any one model of car are that much more incompetent. Magically, all the idiots drive the same relatively new and expensive cars. Many cars have weird electrical systems that 'correct' driver error. Note the commercial where the car makes lane changes and another where it wakes up driver if dozing. As the engineers bypass the driver unintended consequences occur. One test pilot had a fly by wire multimillion dollar aircraft that all controls worked opposite in the Southern hemisphere. The jet flipped upside down and dove for the ground. The pilot had to turn left to go right etc to get it back to the Northern hemisphere where it returned to perfect operation. The engineers made a mistake in mathematic sign on polar coordinates that remained undetected through years of design and simulation tests. Toyota over the last few years have let technology and quality slide while focusing on BRIBING CONGRESS like most other car companies to limit regulation. The best car company will say as long as regulations are the same for everybody bring them on. We are smarter than the other guys. Recent financial collapse was the same BRIBE CONGRESS AND RUN A SCAM to make more money than a legitimate business.
some of these Lexus and Toyota models have push button start/stop, and to turn the car off when it is moving you have to press and hold the button down for 3 seconds. Maybe this is something that was never told to the owners or they never knew about.
Thanks for that info. My Lexus 460L's start button only works if your foot is on the brake. I believe you can stop the engine with your foot off the brake. The mats in my car are anchored with hooks, so I am not sure how the mats would be at fault unless you failed to attach the hooks--which is very possible if you get your car washed and they take the mats out and don't know how to reattach them. I will make sure to check that from now on.
noooooo not the Prius!!
And they all didn't put the car in neutral because but got on the phone to call 911 because .... they were too stupid? Sounds like Darwinism at work, weeding out the idiots.
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! Please tell me you're not a human being!!!! Please tell me that some run away computer virus just wrote that crap!!!!!
DID YOU NOT READ THE ARTICLE?!? A WOMAN DIED?!? HOW CAN YOU BE SO INSENSITIVE?
Whether or not you drive one of the affected vehicles or not, it is still your problem as you will be traveling the same roads as these wayward vehicles.
These days, with so many points of entry in the media for a story like this, how can one know if the problem is being adequately addressed with regards to our safety.
The spin doctors at Toyota must be working 24 hour shifts trying to contain this and prevent a massive, costly (PR & monetary) recall. If the investigations being undertaken resemble the SEC investigations of Bernie Madoff's firm we should all be steering clear of these vehicles and getting behind them on the road whenever we can.
Why is it that when I see that 6 investigations have been performed, it only makes me more nervous. Who at the investigation was protecting Toyota's interests? These days everyone is in bed with everyone else and noone wants toy rain on another's parade lest someone rain on theirs.
Has it fully sunken in America that everything is a scam, including the corner bank/fortress and it's CEO's, the Ken Lay's of Enron infamy, the Bernie Madoff's, etc. Will the real Bernie please stand up? We are so easily fooled these days into being slaughtered financially or otherwise. I thought we as Americans were supposed to be a smart bunch. Obviously not. Viva America!!!
I truly can't believe how ridiculous all of the above commentators allow themselves to get. The cars were out of control!!!!! Hellooo, even if you manage to somehow turn off the engine at 100 mph, what control can you have over the car with a blocked steering? We all know that's what happens when the engine is suddenly turned off, the steering gets impossible to manage and it blocks, thereby probably even flipping over the car. So, to all these fabulous people with their "perfect" little inane solutions to a genuine disaster, I say: Be Quiet!! The only thing we can do when we hear something like this, is to feel very sorry for the victims of these runaway cars, and insist that the car company conduct even more extensive tests to get to the core of the problem. Two thousand incidents, are way too many for it to be floor mats!!!
Putting the car in neutral hurts nothing. Except your speed.
Please reply if you're interested in having a civil, educated conversation on the matter. If you're going to start getting defensive and calling people names, please keep it to yourself.
Why should we even be talking about all these counter measures, when the problems are being caused by, supposedly, very well built cars of a reputable car company? The whole reason people buy Toyotas, is not to ever have to think about problems like these!!! This is a very serious problem, that is being handled as if it's just a minor inconvenience. It is outrageous and totally unacceptable that Toyota is being let off the hook so easily. We demand serious answers right NOW!!!!!!!
Exactly, most cars have speed sensitive power steering anyway, which means that at highway speeds there is no power boost at all so turning off the ignition would not affect the steering response. Just don't try turning a speed sensitive power steering vehicle at 5 mph with the ignition off, that's where it would be very difficult.
Imagine if this was GM or Ford with this problem. The story from everyone would be "oh here we go again, of course, its SO unreliable".
Instead, with Toyota, everyone is talking about how its probably the owners fault because its a Toyota. Having had Toyotas in the past (before I switched to American cars) I can attest to the rather poor build quality and spotty safety features of these cars. I had a 1991 Toyota Corolla (8 years old at the time) and the axel snapped on it causing me to swirve wildly on the freeway hitting the divider several times. I marked that up to being a fluke until I bought a 2003 Celica. In that car my brakes didn't register when doing a freeway turn in Las Vegas (where they have very quick turns on offramps) and hit the divider going around 15 miles per hour. That 15 MPH collision was enough to TOTAL my Celica because it was apparently made of plastic (instead of just looking like it was made of plastic which I assumed was the case).
I will never buy another Toyota again and have found American cars to be infinately more solid and well built (at least the ones I have bought after 2005 when the Celica broke a 2006 G6 and a 2010 Equinox). The cars are made of solid materials, the interiors don't look like they're from 1993 and I never feel like my car is getting away from me.
I don't know why so many people are stuck in the past with Toyota (they USED to be good reliable cars in the 90s) just like they are stuck in the past with American car companies (the Ford Pinto type safety problems were over 30 years ago). American cars aren't just the patriotic choice these days, they're the right one too.
If Toyota keeps insisting it's the owner's fault, then we have no other choice but to boycott Toyota!!!! Let's just stop buying Toyotas, until they give us a reasonable, well researched and proven explanation for this disaster!!!
Although the parent Co. is in Japan, but, who's to say the affected vehicles were not built in the good ole USA?
Wherever they were made, who cares?, all that matters is that they fix the problem faster than immediately!!!!!
The Prius is only made in Japan, thus if it effects the Prius it is a failure of Japanese build quality in a Japanese car made in Japan.
Nice attempt to deflect the abject failure of Toyota onto American workers though, appreciated as always.
When I saw this story I had a case of d骡 vu. Something similar happened to me so I did a search through my journals and found the entry that I made regarding a weekend rental of a Toyota Pathfinder. The rental took place March 7 to 9, 1997. From my journal: "When I returned the truck, they knocked off a day from the rental since the truck had the predilection (on two occasions) to start accelerating uncontrollably; luckily I was stopped and had my foot on the brake at the time." I've rented several Toyota models since then but that (luckily) never replicated itself.
All I can tell these two thousand victims, is to demand answers and solutions very quickly and that if they are not forthcoming, that they should sue Toyota vigorously, since we all know that the only thing these humongous companies respond to, is multi million dollar lawsuits!!!!
Maybe your feet are too big and catching both pedals at the same time.
The GM corporation had this problem for years.Cadillac cars
had been accelerating without warning for years.It is one of the worst things that can happen to a person.Also,these GM cars ( cadillacs ) will stop in the middle of the freeway while
you are driving the car at 70 mph.Who knows how many
thousands of people already died.All because the greedy GM
CEO's.The whole transportation industry is a fraud.We should
had been driving electric cars since years ago.But the wealthy
corporations ( gasoline companies,gasoline car companies )
decided to screw the USA taxpayer;Stay away from cadillacs
they are lemons and way overpriced.
Texas has the worst public transportations for the USA citizens.Trains should go from city to city taking passangers
at a low cost.But,because most of the Texas politicians are
crooks.Specialy the republicans,the citizens have to be buying
gasoline wasting money and destroying the environment.We need to nationalize the transportation system.Right now the
only entities allowed to use trains in Texas are the wealthy
corporations.It is a real fraud.
Thank you.
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