Topic: "Shame on You, Toyota"

[CatsEye68]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100223/ap_on_bi_ge/toyota_recall

WASHINGTON – The president of Toyota's U.S. operations insisted Tuesday that electronic problems did not contribute to sudden acceleration of its cars, drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers who said such a possibility should not be ruled out and from a tearful woman driver who could not stop her runaway Lexus.

Toyota's James Lentz repeated Toyota's position that stuck gas pedals in some of the company's most popular models were caused by one of two problems — misplaced floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals.

"Shame on you, Toyota," Rhonda Smith, of Sevierville, Tenn., said at a congressional hearing.
..
Lawmakers heard a brief, but riveting, description of the problem from Smith, the Tennessee woman whose Toyota-made Lexus suddenly zoomed to 100 miles per hour as she tried to get it to stop — shifting to neutral, trying to throw the car into reverse and hitting the emergency brake. Finally, her car slowed enough that she was able to pull it off the road onto the median and turn off the engine.

She told described her nightmare ride in October 2006, calling it "a near death experience." Fighting back tears, Smith told the panel "I prayed to God to help me."

"After six miles, God intervened" and slowed the car, she said. She said that nothing she had tried had worked. She said it took a long time for Toyota to respond to her complaints.
..
"We are confident that no problems exist with the electric throttle control system in our vehicles," Lentz said in prepared testimony to the House Energy and Commerce's investigative subcommittee. Lentz cited "fail-safe mechanisms" in the cars were designed to shut off or reduce engine power "in the event of a system failure."

But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, scoffed at Toyota's insistence that electronics were not a possible cause and said the company should have investigated more thoroughly.

[Shnak]

Wow... good thing God was there to save the poor lady! 

[rrocket]

Wow..and old lady that claims her car sped out of control...even after it was in neutral??  PUH-LEASE.

[ovr50]

Good thing politics is not involved in this Toyota stuff...........

[carcrazy]

Is this the same lady that was featured on one of the ABC News reports? IIRC that lady managed to take the car to a dealership and she claims the dealer witnessed the car reving by itself in the dealership parking lot (while in Neutral).
I wish the Congress would bring those people to the table.

[safristi]

....shhhssshhh........CIRQUE d'USAOIL is in Congress  progress!don't wanna disturb the ANIMALS.................



WE GOTTA GET OUTTA THIS PLACE IF IT'S THE LAST THING WE EVER DO........

[Roddy]

I really wish they wouldn't give these crackpots air time. What a waste of everyones time. Pretty soon we are going to have incompetent drivers everywhere claiming that their idiotic mistakes were due to the car malfunctioning and not their brain malfunctioning.

[johngenx]

Same story as all the UA claims.  The brakes fail at the precise moment the throttle goes wide open.  Now the transmission also locks itself into gear.  The trifecta of unintended acceleration is complete!

Of course, not everyone has God as their co-pilot.  Did she have the bumper sticker?

[dougjp]

This whole display or circus down there is so americana, with a non capitalized 'a'.   I suppose it all caught on as a national sport with Watergate. And, bonus, what about those TV ratings!!!

I guess now Ohobo will have logged my IP   

[articsteve]

Wow... good thing God was there to save the poor lady!

[Mitlov]

How do modern automatic transmissions work?  Is there still a mechanical connection to the transmission?  Or is it shift-by-wire now?

Refusing to go into neutral is downright impossible if there's a mechanical connection (there's no reason that connection would fail the same time that throttle-by-wire went nuts).  But if both shifting and throttle are electronically-controlled, I could see both going out at once if the electronics bug was pervasive enough when it set in (car version of "blue screen of death").

[articsteve]

I could see both going out at once if the electronics bug was pervasive enough when it set in

Only in your dreams. 

[Mitlov]

I could see both going out at once if the electronics bug was pervasive enough when it set in

Only in your dreams. 

Anyone want to answer my question?  Are these transmissions shift-by-wire?

[rrocket]

I could see both going out at once if the electronics bug was pervasive enough when it set in

Only in your dreams. 

Anyone want to answer my question?  Are these transmissions shift-by-wire?

Not on my car (and I'm assuming the ES350) since I've seen an IS350's tranny being dropped, and the shifter was sticking in it.  If it was truly electric, there'd be no reason for the shaft to stick out from the tranny.  I'll do more homework and find out 100% if you really want me to...


*EDIT* Hmmmm.....though I suppose even with the shaft, it could push a selenoid thereby doing an electric shift...I'll see if I can dig it up in a repair manual..

Thus far I see that only the Lexus HS250 boasts of shift by wire...

[HeliDriver]

I don't know about "shift-by-wire", but I highly doubt there's a purely mechanical connection.

Just a thought experiment, but do you think if you were cruising down the highway at 140 km/h in a modern Lexus, and decided to put the transmission lever to P,R, or even 1, that the transmission would go ahead and make the shift for you?

It seems likely to me that there would be some electric/electronic override to prevent an accidental grenading of the engine.

[rrocket]

I don't know about "shift-by-wire", but I highly doubt there's a purely mechanical connection.

Just a thought experiment, but do you think if you were cruising down the highway at 140 km/h in a modern Lexus, and decided to put the transmission lever to P,R, or even 1, that the transmission would go ahead and make the shift for you?

It seems likely to me that there would be some electric/electronic override to prevent an accidental grenading of the engine.

Yea, I'll go with that.  But what's the excuse for saying that putting it in NEUTRAL did nothing.  Total BS IMO...

[articsteve]

All todays automatics are "electronic shift", but they are not drive by wire.  The difference is night and day.  On the Prius the shifter is fake; it's all DBW.

In the ES350 park, reverse, neutral and D are direct mechanical link.  That is why in the ES350 you can redline the motor and drop it into drive with no loss in rpm.  The ECU has NO SAY in the matter!  The gears lower are electronic shift via shift motors, but the ECU does have a say.

Sorry to disappoint you Mitlov.  The witness represents 25% of the US adult population; out of her mind.  

[Mitlov]

All todays automatics are "electronic shift", but they are not drive by wire.  The difference is night and day.  On the Prius the shifter is fake; it's all DBW.

In the ES350 park, reverse, neutral and D are direct mechanical link.  That is why in the ES350 you can redline the motor and drop it into drive with no loss in rpm.  The ECU has NO SAY in the matter!  The gears lower are electronic shift via shift motors, but the ECU does have a say.

Sorry to disappoint you Mitlov.  The witness represents 25% of the US adult population; out of her mind.  

You really are incapable of answering a question without being totally unpleasant and getting up on a soapbox, aren't you?

[articsteve]

All todays automatics are "electronic shift", but they are not drive by wire.  The difference is night and day.  On the Prius the shifter is fake; it's all DBW.

In the ES350 park, reverse, neutral and D are direct mechanical link.  That is why in the ES350 you can redline the motor and drop it into drive with no loss in rpm.  The ECU has NO SAY in the matter!  The gears lower are electronic shift via shift motors, but the ECU does have a say.

Sorry to disappoint you Mitlov.  The witness represents 25% of the US adult population; out of her mind.  

You really are incapable of answering a question without being totally unpleasant and getting up on a soapbox, aren't you?

I've learned it all from you man.   

The reference was in regards to the fact that 25% of the adult population describe themselves as Christian Evangelicals a.k.a. out of their mind extremists.  Like those ppl that got caught trying to steal those Haitian kids.  Doing the GOD thing.

[Mitlov]

The reference was in regards to the fact that 25% of the adult population describe themselves as Christian Evangelicals a.k.a. out of their mind extremists.  Like those ppl that got caught trying to steal those Haitian kids.  Doing the GOD thing.

misdirection (n): a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.