TOYOTA, FLOOR MATS AND UNATTENDED ACCELERATION. FACT OR MYTH?
Unattended acceleration. That is what it is called when your car takes off and drives away by itself. When it accelerates by itself without you pressing on the gas. Toyota has been getting a lot of press on this subject during the last few months. Audi was embroiled in many legal battles during the 1980’s because of claims that it Audi 5000 model would run away from its drivers by itself.
Like many subjects that start getting a lot of articles and TV coverage, these stories sometimes get a life of their own. The truths and untruths fly around the news and fly around peoples conversations gaining momentum as they go. Is Toyota building a car like Stephen Kings “CHRISTINE”? I doubt it. Everyone is certainly afraid of a car that could accelerate on its own. But how afraid should we be?
I don’t have all the facts but I certainly do have opinion as to what has happened hear. First of all, I am a very informed Toyota mechanic. I have owned TOYOPROS for the last 29 years and repair an service toyota products every day. Prior to that I held jobs as a Toyota dealership service manage and for seven years prior I worked for Toyota USA as a field parts and service manage out of their USA main office in Torrance, California. Thus I have a background that at least gives me have some credibility.
As was shown with the Audi 5000 scare back in the 80’s , when the smoke clears and the facts came out most if not all of the Audi problems turned out to be driver errors. The scenario would be that “when I was backing out of my driveway I stepped on the brakes and the car just shot backwards at full speed and ran into my neighbors car.” A few cases like this and an overzealous media lest audi really in lawsuits and bad press about cars that took off by themselves. In fact because of perhaps some pedals that were not well positioned some drivers stepped on the gas instead of the brakes. This bad publicity almost put Audi out of the American market.
I fear that Toyota is similarly getting bad publicity from this that they do not deserve. There was a horrible crash in San Diego that killed a family of four when the Lexus (Toyota) that they were driving developed a stuck throttle and drove off at over 100 MPH. I have not heard any claims that this car took off on its own, only that the throttle became jammed and that car would not slow down. Bad as that maybe, that is a different issue then cars that accelerate away by themselves.
Floor mats 101. In the repair business I have seen hundreds of examples of “bad floor mats”. To many, the wrongs size, the wrong ones, too thick, folded in half, caught up under the pedals, miss installed, sliding around, worn out, and general other trash under foot can cause allot of problems. Your feet have a great deal to do with how you drive a car. They have an active roll to play and yet the condition of the pedals and floor area is seldom addressed. Rarely do I have a customer that asks me to check their pedals and floor area. In the case of the San Diego crash someone had put the mats from a different model of Lexus into this car and they didn’t fit correctly so they were interfering and catching on the gas pedal. A simple error at the dealer but one with huge consequences. I have seen this, but most often the service complaint is that the car has no power or won’t shift correctly because the mats are all bunched up under the pedals. For a decade or more many manufacturers including Toyota have been providing hooks, pins, or other positioning devices to retain the mats in the correct places as standard features on their vehicles. These however, only work if the correct mats are installed and the retaining hooks are attached to the mats. I’ve seen many car washes clean mats then just throw them back on the floor without attaching them to the hooks. I know it has become customary in the 21st century to blame someone else for everything. This writer believes that the driver needs to show some responsibility for their own vehicles and make sure that there is air in the tires and such details as floor mats be properly installed. The gas and go mentality is likely to get someone killed.
In the case of the San Diego wreck their is undoubtedly someone responsible and hopefully the investigation will find the negligent party. Hopefully the builder of the car won’t have to take the blame because some idiot put the wrong mats on the floor.
There is an additional issue that has been connected to this situation. The fly-by-wire electronic throttle systems that most car companies are now using. This is a good subject for another discussion. They work by the gas pedal sending a signal to the computer that says go and then the computer sends a message to the fuel injection throttle that say open this much we are going now. I have never seen one fail in such a way as to make the car accelerate on its own. The failures I have seen have been that the throttle doesn’t work at all and the system goes to its natural state off being off. It has been accused that what if the computer on its own told the throttle to go. I guess anything is possible but I don’t find that likely either. I have had many computer problems where my computers driven devices don’t respond or work. I’ll by that, but when was that last time that your computer did something on its own? Have you ever seen a computer malfunction and say type out a letter on its own or perhaps send an e-mail or go on the internet by itself? The US Governments National Highway Traffic Administration has tested these systems and has also recorded no failures of this type.
