Rod,

A new article on Toyoto's possible electronics problems appeared in the LA Times today
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fi-toyota-electronics14-2010feb14,0,5002647.story

Here's a sample....

================

Compared with mechanical problems such as floor mats and sticky gas pedals, an electronic hardware or software glitch can be difficult to find, costly to fix and would open Toyota to a new onslaught of lawsuits, these people say.

"Every car accident that took place for years will suddenly be blamed on electronics," said Ted Frank, an attorney and founder of the Center for Class Action Fairness.

And considering the fact that every Toyota vehicle sold in the U.S. since the 2007 model year has an electronic throttle, with some models using the system dating to the 2002 model year, the number of potentially affected vehicles could reach into eight figures.

"It's a big potential problem for Toyota," Frank said.

Indeed, less than 24 hours after Toyota announced its recall of the 2010 Prius and Lexus HS250h last week, at least two suits alleging economic damages to owners of the hybrids had been filed against the automaker, adding to a pile of suits related to the recalls now numbering in the dozens.

Beyond its legal liability, Toyota's relationships with its customers could be further damaged by any finding that sudden acceleration is being caused by electronics, instead of floor mats or gas pedals, some say.

"Cars are moving computers, and the electronics are the very heart of the car," said Ian Mitroff, emeritus professor of USC's Marshall School of Business and a consultant on crisis management. Unlike a mechanical problem, like a sticking pedal, the fix is not easily understood, he said.

"It's the most scary component of all," said George Hoffer, an economist at Virginia Commonwealth University who moonlights as a consultant on recalls for automakers.

===============

Bob Landman
H&L Instruments, LLC

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rod
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 4:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [tinwhiskers] Re: Toyota


On 14 Feb 2010, at 18:21, Bob Landman wrote:

> Our 1990 Mercury Sable was nicknamed "killer" as it had a sudden accelleration problem when it was new.  The dealer had to install a flight recorder so we could trigger it when we had an unintended accelleration event.  Took over a month to track it down to a defective accellerator pedal sensor.  The replacement was also bad (Ford had a rash of them apparently).
> 
> One would think the modern ECM would have that feature built in?

First, I have seen a few reports of various auto models with accelerator problems. You can take that two ways: if Toyota were on top of the game, they should have been aware and seen it coming. Otherwise, they had the same rare problem as others.

Second, the Mercury (I am never sure how "Merc" is to be interpreted, Mercury or Mercedes?) had a similar problem but perhaps due to smaller numbers, there were fewer deaths due to that problem. Luck, or something to do with American engineering?

However you look at it, the issue changes completely when electronics is involved. Little to do with tinwhiskers, though tinwhisker problems would create new and unexpected problems. The electronics angle bears some thinking about. Is it just that we expect electronics problems to be more thoroughly instrumented, documented, researched? Do we expect that electronics and software are an order or two of magnitude more complex and messy, and therefore need that much more care, which naive mechanical suppliers are not up to speed with? or do you have some better ideas?

regards,   Rod

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