WASHINGTON — In riveting testimony before a congressional subcommittee investigating Toyota's massive recalls, one expert said that he has found a flaw in the electronics system of a Toyota that "would allow abnormalities to occur." The testimony is in direct opposition to Toyota's claims that electronic flaws do not cause the rapid, uncontrolled acceleration that some drivers are experiencing in Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
Dr. David Gilbert, an associate professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University, testified that the discovery of the flaw took him just three and a half hours. He said he made the discovery on a 2010 Toyota Tundra. "My initial findings question the integrity and consistency of Toyota," Gilbert said. "My preliminary findings have shown there is a large amount of leniency in the programming of fail-safe strategies that will allow certain abnormalities to occur."
Upon further questioning from lawmakers about how much he spent and what material he used to make the finding, Gilbert said, "With equipment I had on hand, basically, very little." He added: "I made the decision to investigate sudden unintended acceleration. I did not expect the system to be easily fooled, [but] I made a startling discovery."
Gilbert's testimony came just minutes after dramatic testimony from Rhonda Smith, a retired social worker from Tennessee who experienced sudden unintended acceleration in her Lexus ES 350 on October 12, 2006. Lawmakers described her testimony as "harrowing."
Smith said her Lexus was speeding at 100 mph down the highway, even though she put both feet on the brakes and tried to fix the situation by throwing the car into Reverse, among other things. "I prayed for God to help me," she said. She said "neither Toyota nor NHTSA" took her seriously when she reported the incident.
"Shame on you, Toyota, for being so greedy," Smith said. "Shame on you, NHTSA, for not doing your job."
Another expert, Sean Kane, the president and founder of Safety Research & Strategies, said: "We've concluded that neither Toyota nor NHTSA has identified all the causes of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. That concerns us greatly."
Kane said nearly half of 2,600 reported complaints "fall outside of any recall whatsoever."
He attributed the problem to "loss of fail-safe modes.
"The system will not detect an error, so no diagnostic trouble code is found," Kane said. "Once this has happened, you've loaded the gun. Toyota's fail-safe parameters are broad. Vehicles can react to sensor errors in ways that are inconsistent to consumer complaints." He called for additional research.
Inside Line says: Experts and consumers weigh in on Toyota's massive recalls, often contradicting the statements of the Japanese automaker. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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riquin says:
06:58 PM, 02/24/2010
I started developing software systems when I was 16 years old; I am 65 years old and still continue architecting software systems. Development of software systems where a "bug" may cause injury or death are very difficult for the architect, the safeguards, redundancies, the testing, the re-testing the peer review, QA, etc. but at the end you are still the person responsible for it. That is why when I develop one of those, the system does not go full production until I say so (do not care the amount of pressure) after checking and re-checking all the things that could go wrong and praying to the Almighty to give me all the knowledge necessary to fully perform my task as architect.
arock says:
06:08 PM, 02/24/2010
I feel really sorry for the people who died and people who are affected, it is really unfortunate to die this way.
Any manufacturing company would produce few defective products, it is highly impossible to make a 100% perfect product, this is just not for the automobile industry, this is for any other manufacturing industry. One who reduces the recurrance of these defects is a good one. Toyota is doing business in the US for 50 Years.How can a company who does business for 50 Years without a major incident just all of a sudden recall 8 million products. Doesn't this make us to think that there is something fishy, is this because they outnumber all the companies in sales?, more people abandoning local makes? Selling more cars during CASH FOR CLUNKERS program? no one knows the answers only time will tell. Just one thing I wanted to tell other car companies, Compete with merit, compete with quality product, make better cars than what TOYOTA makes, every one who abandoned you will return back to you and will never leave you for ever.
svt_man says:
05:40 PM, 02/24/2010
@ jpt51: Give me a break! You cannot judge the character of an individual by the party they are part of. It doesn't matter if you are talking about Republicans or Democrats - both have had bad apples over the years.
Both parties also have good people who care about helping the country - but they are always limited by people who are out to promote their own agendas. I judge a person by what they have done or what they stand for, not what party they are from ...
svt_man says:
05:33 PM, 02/24/2010
@icecubefosho - the tranny would not fall out on the Toyota because Toyota spent time to program their software to ignore a reverse gear change while in forward motion. Their software locks it out. Their software, however, does not override a brake pedal touch when you are on the throttle. I guess they had too many people who liked power braking vehicles?
gezzer says:
05:06 PM, 02/24/2010
I've been doing this thing called auto repair too long. I had the "honor" of being a service manager at an Audi dealership during Audi's crucifixation by the Feds and 60 Minutes program. This deal with Toyota has all the same patterns going on.
In 1983 Audi revamped the 5000 with a radical body design. It became VERY trendy. Ford copied it for the Tarus/Sable line. I'll tell you right here and now.....the 83/84 5000 line was a warm steaming pile! Audi realized that there was an"issue" with idle control modules. They had a habit off sticking the idle at 3000rpm from time to time. If you put the car into gaer (auto trans.equpped) and your foot was'nt on the brake, life got exciting. They addressed this. Parts were changed and things got right. Well as the cars evolved various other malidies came up. People got mad. Then the cow manure hit that air moving device. 60 Minutes taped 3hours of info. at the Orangeburg NY headquaters of Audi U.S. Out of this they used less than ten minutes of the taped info. and basicly ripped Audi anew . They were the talk of the water cooler for weeks on end .
The feds. then came on board and had hearings on ......are you ready.....UNINTENDED ACCELERATION! A women who drove her son into. the back wall of a garage with her Audi was brought forth and delivered a well rehersed sobbing speech. Sound familier yet? Out of all this came the shift interlock. That standard piece that makes you hold the brake pedal down to shift your car into gear. BTW, Audi did this "recall" on their own BEFORE it became goverment mandated.
Granted , the 5000 had more "issues" than sould be in any thing,much less a car. Don't get me wrong. I'm not condeming the cars of any manufacturer. They respond to market driven demands like anybody else who sells things. They screw up! They do some really brilliant stuff! AND...AND sometimes they do the two together. However, when a few weeks before Toyotas "problems", not a hoot was mentioned about sticking pedals or acellerator issues. Only that they were the number one car maker on the planet. THEN..only after this...did all this crap start. I'm sorry. When the media puts a bullseye on yah.....yur done,toast and the lawyers jump in.
Ratings and money are the only things that are gonna come out of this mess. The pity is alot of good people are going to get shafted by this whitch hunt .
BTW, remeber the women who hit her kid with her Audi. Two years later is was found that she was cranked over the seat trying to deliver justice to her other child in the back seat. Her foot slid off the brake pedal and jammed the gas pedal to the floor sending her car into her son.
I'll close with this. In our state when you apply for a motorycle license, one of the questions on the written test stands out. "What is the proper action if the throttle stcks on you motorcycle?"
What do think the right answer is? Hint,it's not call a lawyer on yur cell phone!
angry_mushroom says:
03:28 PM, 02/24/2010
@jonthecarguy...
Ah right the window switch recall.
This Smith character on the other hand sounds like a dunce. I don't know about anyone here, but shifting a car into reverse should stop the car in quite a spectacular fashion. I'm pretty sure that shifting into neutral would work better though. As for both feet on the brakes? What about the e-brake? She didn't mention anything about that. I'm beginning to feel sorry for Toyota.
southbaysurfer says:
01:06 PM, 02/24/2010
I currently own a 09 Lexus GX 470, 08 F350 Diesel, and a 05 Chevy 3500. I can finally understand why I have so many prius's speeding around and cutting me off and then slamming on there brakes in front of my large 1 ton vehicles. THERE F&^%ing throttles are stuck!!!!!!!!!! I say get all the damn things off the road or teach there drivers what its like to drive a real truck and how damn annoying it is that they have no consideration for a larger vehicles stopping distance! Whats the point of a hybrid anyways when these people drive around like there Mario Andreddi in a mini tin can?
old_cars_rock says:
12:26 PM, 02/24/2010
Although I sympathise with anybody who is stuck in an accelerating Toyota, any driver, including Ms. Smith, should know how to properly react in that situation and other emergency situations.
As for the electrical problems, Toyota should just ditch the electronic throttle and use a mechanical throttle linkage. Electro-magnetic interference does not effect a mechanical throttle, Toyota.
johnturner1 says:
10:25 AM, 02/24/2010
That Rhonda Smith seems like she's making this story up. She says that both the normal brakes and the emergency brakes were applied, yet the car was somehow able to get up to 100 mph. Oh and I love how she keeps talking about God and how he "interviened" to slow her car down. Maybe God was trying to tell her something when he made her Lexus unintentionally accelerate?
richie5767 says:
09:55 AM, 02/24/2010
That girl is probably getting paid to ruin toyota/lexus. This is so American cars can gain #1 spot because run by GM government. How can you go in reverse when its accelerated at 100mph. Maybe she accidently put both her feet on the accelerator. You can always turn off a car by just holding the push button start or e-brakes.