Remember when the press was focused on Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem? With it being out of the news for the past year, you might think that the problem has been solved, after being attributed to a stuck accelerator and defective floor mats. Well, Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would like you to believe that, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
The last time unintended acceleration was in the news, it was at the conclusion of the safety administration's investigation, when it reported that it could find no evidence of unintended acceleration being caused by faulty electronics, as many independent experts had speculated. Of course, testing a dozen cars and trying to replicate what is a low-probability, random occurrence, does not prove that the problem does not still exist, even though Toyota and the safety administration implied that to be the case.
Unfortunately, the problem has not gone away. According to Safety Research & Strategies, a safety research consulting company that works with lawyers representing those who have experienced unintended acceleration, 368 incidents involving Toyota vehicles were reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration between June 1, 2011, and July 17, 2012.
Thirty-six of the complaints involved vehicles that had at least one unintended acceleration recall performed prior to the incident. Ninety-five suffered injuries, but fortunately there were no deaths.
As an owner of a Toyota Highlander that was recalled for car mat replacements, and with more than 35 years of design engineering experience, I examined my car prior to and after the recall. The modification was inconsequential and had no effect on the problem. Both before and after, the mat was far from the accelerator pedal. As I had written at the time, I considered the recall as part of the charade that was being conducted by Toyota with the complicity of the safety administration to sweep the problem under the rug, no pun intended.
If you have any question about these two entities being open and forthcoming about this issue, you need only look at the experience of Timothy Scott, 41, of Sarasota, Fla., that occurred on Dec. 2, 2010, reported by Safety Research & Strategies.
“Mr. Scott was driving at less than 15 mph, before braking to make a turn into his apartment complex, when he noticed that his vehicle was not slowing. Scott applied the brakes with all of his strength, but the engine was 'screaming,' as he later described it, the tachometer was approaching 'red-line.' Scott was able to slow his vehicle and shift it out of gear. He attempted to re-start his 2007 Lexus twice, but the engine continued to race. When Mr. Scott exited his vehicle, he immediately checked to be sure the floor mats were still secured by the anchors; he found nothing obstructing the accelerator pedal.
“The Lexus dealership initially blamed the floor mat, even though the floor mats in Scott’s vehicle had not been recalled and were fully secured. Toyota then sent a team of engineers to inspect the vehicle, who concluded that dislodged molding from the center console jammed the accelerator, a scenario Mr. Scott adamantly denied. … The pedal would have had to have been depressed significantly down and the trim panel dislodged in order for the pedal to catch — which Scott said couldn’t have happened because he inspected his accelerator pedal immediately after he stopped the vehicle and found that nothing was obstructing it. Further, he was traveling at a low speed prior to the incident and had only slightly applied the accelerator pedal — not far enough to catch the trim panel — even if it was dislodged. Three weeks later, Toyota offered to buy the entire vehicle from Mr. Scott — a rare and unusual offer from the automaker — rather than simply fix a piece of plastic molding.
“A field team from NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation looked into the Scott incident, generating photos, videos and other documents. The investigators never examined the Scott vehicle. It was already repurchased and in Toyota’s possession. Instead, agency investigators examined some other Toyota and Lexus models. The buyback and Scott’s account of the incident ought to have raised some eyebrows at NHTSA about whether the trim panel was to blame. But, in the wake of the recall, the agency declined to press it any further. No formal investigation was launched.”
Now, it seems to me that if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were really interested in solving the unintended acceleration problem, it would want to examine Scott’s car, and not allow Toyota to take it back without seeing it.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood continues to stick with his pronouncement that “the verdict is in” and “there is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period.” Any scientist or engineer would say such a statement is not true, because there’s no way to prove that, particularly when other causes they attribute the problem to don’t stand scrutiny.
I recently spoke, off the record, with a former senior research engineer at the Toyota Info Technology Center in Silicon Valley. He told me that it was his belief, and that of many of his professional colleagues, that the problem of unintended acceleration is not related to car mats or mechanical linkages, but is likely due to random electrical interference from one or more of the circuits that controls acceleration. He pointed out that there are many microprocessors in an automobile and the electronics are performing multiple tasks at any one time, so it would be hard to find the specific combination of events that causes the electronic throttle to activate.
And why do I bring this subject up again? Because Toyota’s explanations have never made any sense and because most engineers, safety experts and auto mechanics also find it nonsensical.
But more importantly, it's because the deaths of local residents, California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, his wife and teenage daughter, resulted from unintended acceleration so graphically described in a 911 call during the moments leading up to the crash.
Will more deaths have to occur before our media and our government take notice? Check out safetyresearch.net for ongoing reports.
Baker is the author of "From Concept to Consumer" published by Financial Times Press and available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other booksellers. He has developed and marketed consumer and computer products for Polaroid, Apple, Seiko and others; holds 30 patents; and is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Baker can be heard on KOGO AM the first Sunday of each month. Send comments to phil.baker@sddt.com. Comments may be published as Letters to the Editor. Baker's blog is blog.philipgbaker.com, and his website is philipgbaker.com.
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