Science Panel Holds First Gathering on Unintended Acceleration Research
By Bill Visnic June 30, 2010One of the few definitive results of the unintended acceleration crisis earlier this year that had 
Toyota Motor Corp.'s top executives testifying in the nation's capital was a mandate from Congress for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to form an independent scientific panel to study the unintended acceleration phenomenon.
In Washington Wednesday, that panel - the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Electronic Vehicle Controls and Unintended Acceleration - is having its first meeting to tell the public how that's going.
The National Academy of Sciences committee charged by NHTSA to study the UA phenomenon is seeded with top-tier engineers, scientists and researchers with day jobs that range from physics professor to accident reconstruction.
In an early address to the committee and the public, NHTSA administrator David Strickland stressed the research is not limited solely to Toyota-made vehicles and that NHTSA has had UA reports for vehicles from every automaker and has collected them for decades.
Strickland said that while there are two known physical causes potentially at the root of UA cases - floormats that "trap" the accelerator pedal and the sticking throttle that Toyota recalled in millions of its vehicles worldwide - the National Academy of Sciences committee is charged with investigating potential electronic causes or human factors.
In the Congressional hearings, NHTSA's resources and expertise to evaluate complex automotive electronic systems were questioned - one reason for the formation of the National Academy's research committee.
"We must do everything possible to understand if there are vulnerabilities in these (electronic control) systems," Strickland said at the meeting today. He added that the scientists and engineers are not looking only at electronically controlled throttles, but other electronically-controlled or -augmented vehicle systems.
Strickland said the research committee also will be studying:
- Human factors that could be contributing to UA reports
- The best practices of other sectors, such as the aerospace industry, to evaluate and understand safety issues and known safety concerns
- Research methodologies of the past that may limit the ability to understand transient, intermittent or "rare" events that do not leave a clear trail or definitive evidence.
NHTSA wants the committee's work to culminate in a scientific report that finds the probable causes for the recent spike in UA reports and incidents - and also generates possible remedies.
Photos
1 - NHTSA Administrator David Strickland outlined what committee must study. (Photo by NHTSA)
2 - Scientists hold first meeting to explore causes and cures for unintended acceleration. (Photo by Edmunds.com's Bill Visnic)
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