New Toyotas will have non-stick accelerators

[DainBramaged]

All new Toyotas will include an electronic device to stop their accelerators sticking, the company's New Zealand boss said yesterday.

Chief executive Alistair Davis said the device, which cuts petrol to the throttle as soon as the brake is applied, would be introduced with the next new model, due for release next year.

Though it would not be welcomed by the boyracer community, which likes to smoke its tyres, more conservative motorists would welcome the added safety feature, he said.

"For the majority of people, they would rather know that if they touch the brake, it's going to stop the car."

The add-on was likely to make just a "minuscule" difference to the price.

The New Zealand division has recalled 321 vehicles since the beginning of this year - 61 Avensis Wagons for a sticky accelerator and 260 Prius for a brake software upgrade.

Of the 61 Avensis vehicles, 28 were customer recalls, Mr Davis said. The rest are in stock, and will be refitted over time.

The customer fix-ups, which involve fitting a machined metal "shim" to prevent the accelerator sticking, were due to be completed today.

The Prius recall affects 260 privately owned vehicles, and requires the uploading of a software "patch", a procedure that takes about 15 minutes.

That recall is expected to be completed by early next month.

Mr Davis said that although a recall often led to a short-term loss of confidence in a brand, Toyota's overseas problems had not yet had much impact on the New Zealand car-buying public.

His comments came just hours after Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda appeared before a United States congressional committee to answer questions about Toyota products sold in the United States.

He told the committee he intended to reorganise the company to streamline all quality decisions.

Rapid expansion in recent years had resulted in lower quality which had affected some models, he said, particularly in North America.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10628579



Hmmmm, does this mean they ACKNOWLEDGE they have a software problem????

[Brickbat]

1. Interesting. Sounds like a neat feature!

[Statistical]

2. "The add-on was likely to make just a "minuscule" difference to the price."

Seems strange then that all cars haven't done this for year.

You got two inputs.
Gas & Brake. Brake should be higher priority than gas.

If you press Gas you Go.
If you press Break you Stop.
If you press both then Brake overrides Gas.

Wny wouldn't all cars operate this way? Anyone see a downside?

[Romulox]

3. That's how it works on Gran Turismo for the PS3. Maybe they and Toyota should collaborate?

:shrug:

[backscatter712]

4. Most cars already have this device.

It wouldn't have really been necessary if we were dealing with a mechanical throttle - they're decently reliable, but because they went to a throttle-by-wire, where the gas pedal simply provides an input to a computer that controls the throttle, now we're talking about a case where a firmware bug in this mechanism causes Bad Things to happen.

So yeah, this mechanism's absolutely necessary.

[Statistical]

8. Do most cars have this? I tried it out on my wifes chevy and my Honda and neither worked that way.

Granted a sample size of 2 vehicles isn't significant. I have never heard on any card that ignores gas pedal if brake is pushed. In hindsight it seems like a no brainer.

Can anyone confirm a make model that operates like this?

Electronic throttle control is virtually a requirement now so more and more will be using it in the future. It improves gas mileage When you slam on gas pedal a mechanical throttle can allow to much gas into the mixture. The gas is then partially unburnt thus less effective energy from a cold start. With electronic throttle it limits the amounts of gas and sets the fuel slope to what is optimized by engine for that balance between performance and efficiency.

[Romulox]

10. I don't think a mechanical throttle will ever work like that....

:shrug:

[Statistical]

11. However the ever increasing demands for higher mpg ratings means

a mechanical throttle will go the way of carburetor within a generation.

Every car brand (not just Toyota) uses Electronic Throttle Controls (ETC) on at least some models in recent years.

I was just wondering if any of them implement a "Brake = No Gas" fail-safe.
In hindsight it seems really foolish not to.

It doesn't even have to be something in "software". A switch/relay in brake pedal assembly that overrides the electronic throttle would be a hardware/firmware solution to acts a a backup to the increasing reliance on software in every aspect of car control.

[Romulox]

12. I was just commenting on why your Honda, Chevy don't work that way--they have mechanical throttles

(most likely).

[Statistical]

13. Ah I missed that. I am not sure about the Chevy but I know my Ridgeline has an ETC.

Only reason I know it is because first year Ridgelines had defective ETC which when they failed simply stopped the vehicle. Press gas pedal = no go.

They are pretty common across all brands in newer vehicles.

Just Google
(brand name) Electronic Throttle
or
(brand name) ETC

So Honda hasn't had any uncontrolled acceleration problems (yet) with their ETC but if one ever developed there is no override.
If I press gas and brake the throttle responds.

I just find it weird that no engineer at no company said....
"Hmm lets pretend the ETC fails and car accelerates. How could we stop that? Well user will hit breaks right? So make sensor in brakes send a kill signal to ETC."
I guess it is one of those hindsight things but it seems so obvious after the fact.

On Edit: looks like my wife's 2006 Chevy Impala has an ETC also.

[LiberalFighter]

5. I thought they were going to add Pam to reduce stickiness.

[Romulox]

6. If they were proud of their shim solution, they would've showed it on the TV... nt

[LiberalFighter]

9. Maybe they are going to make a ShamWow type commercial?

[DainBramaged]

14. LOLOL

:rofl:

[Javaman]

7. I thought the head line was from the Onion concerning Teflon peddles. nt