Toyota Gaining Credibility as No Braking Found in Prius Crash
By Michelle Krebs March 23, 2010The tide of public perception may be turning in favor of Toyota Motor Sales USA after 
investigation of a highly publicized crash of a Prius hybrid electric vehicle in Harrison, New York, last week demonstrated the driver -- who claimed the car accelerated unintentionally -- was flooring the accelerator rather than the brake pedal.
The case follows that of Prius driver James Sikes earlier this month in which Sikes claimed his Prius took him on a minutes-long, 90-mph-plus unintentionally accelerated ride on a San Diego freeway. As with the latest New York report of unintended acceleration, investigation by Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) refuted Sikes' claim that prolonged heavy application of the brake pedal would not slow his car.
Investigators determined Sikes had not applied the brakes in a prolonged fashion on his allegedly runaway Prius -- instead, he repeatedly applied and released the brakes some 250 times during the incident.
Now, as quickly as doubt surged about the safety of Toyota's electronically controlled throttles or the software that governs the engine-management computer that controls them, it appears Toyota could be just as swiftly validated in its steadfast position there has been nothing wrong with the mechanism of the throttles or the electronics and software that control them.
In effect, the Sikes incident and the latest Prius crash in New York, in which the driver insisted she was applying the brakes as the car drove into a wall, are lending credence to the possibility that the sudden rash of claims of unintended acceleration in various Toyota vehicles are in fact cases of driver error.
Toyota, in fact, seems to be growing increasingly confident in espousing its position that causes of these accidents and reports could be manifest -- but are not caused by mysterious faults of equipment or software. In a statement about the New York Prius crash, Toyota expressed sympathy for all involved in accidents involving Toyota vehicles, but also offered a number of probable causes, all of which involve driver mistakes or confusion.
"As always, it is important to remember that many of the complaints in the NHTSA database, for any manufacturer, lack sufficient detail that could help identify the cause of an accident or, in some cases, even the specific vehicle involved," Toyota said in a statement.
"Furthermore, instances of unintended acceleration can be caused by many factors and they are not all sudden or sustained," the statement continued. "The category is very broad, affects all major automakers, and can include issues involving pedal entrapment, pedal misapplication, transmission surges and driver reaction to normal engine speed control variations when cruise control or air-conditioning systems are in use." -- Bill Visnic, senior editor
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Click here to comment on this entry.It's encouraging to see that logic and facts are finally starting to prevail, instead of the media hype that's more oriented around selling the story instead of reaching the truth. This is the same thing that happened to Audi 23 years ago, which almost caused them to leave the U.S. market.
In other words, the experts have concluded that in the cases above as well as the majority of others, the unintended or sudden acceleration was caused by an overheated moron chip located in the operator.
I find it both sad and alarming that people this clueless are out on America's roadways.
I think the Toyota Prius recall is world's number one recall & i hope this will be the big example for other auto maker company who will like to launch the plug-in cars in future.
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The Toyota Prius was one of the best model & from the date of launching Toyota was enjoyed amazing sales but at the end this model is failed because of technical problem. This kind of defective technology will create bad effect in the mind of users. In US i think more than 100000 car was recalled.
http://www.supertruckcenter.com
The Toyota Prius was one of the best model & from the date of launching Toyota was enjoyed amazing sales but at the end this model is failed because of technical problem. This kind of defective technology will create bad effect in the mind of users. In US i think more than 100000 car was recalled.
http://www.supertruckcenter.com
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