[s-cars] NAC - Another Toyota story

[Calvin Craig]

Actually, those probabilities are much more consistent, as is the behavior
if you read a lot of the posts people have made about their problems, with a
software bug that requires just the right set of timing and circumstances to
rear its ugly head.  In one of the FPGAs on one of the spacecraft I worked
on a few years ago we had a clock boundary crossing problem that occured on
average once every 800,000 commands, so 1 in 2.5 million times - not too far
off.  In addition, if you take into account all of the failures with the
accelerator "system" on the Toyotas, like a lot of complaints that the car
does not accelerate when the accelerator pedal is depressed from time to
time, it increases the odds quite a bit.  The possibility it is a sticking
accelerator or floor mats - no way in hell, I agree with the writer on this
one, way too many miles on too many mechanical assemblies with too few
variables of input.  In addition, a lot of the reports are of the car
accelerating from a position of no pedal depression - which is obviously not
a sticking pedal.
--Calvin


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of djdawson2 at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 8:58 AM
To: s-car-list at www.audifans.com; urq at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] NAC - Another Toyota story




Interesting...



The Toyota recall story you haven't heard
Wednesday, February 24, 2010


By Dr. David Eifrig in Retirement Millionaire:

In case you haven't heard, Toyota is in trouble with the Feds. But not
because of anything it did or didn't do.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding the
president of the company sit under its klieg lights and explain himself.
Committee leaders are going to bully him with the threat of legal action
until he shows up.

Politicians know they can get a lot of free press by stoking the popular
perception that Toyota somehow knew the gas pedals were "dangerous," but
installed them anyway, violating U.S. laws and regulations.

This is utter nonsense, though you can be sure the U.S. automakers are doing
everything to encourage this hysteria.

When I heard the news about the gas pedals getting stuck and causing fatal
crashes, I had to think about the probability these accidents resulted from
the use of an ill-designed component.

Consider the numbers: 34 people died in accidents blamed on the pedals.
That's a pretty small number, but maybe enough to raise some concerns...
until you realize that's the total number of fatalities since 2000.

Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles in the U.S. Assume the
owners drive those vehicles 10,000 miles a year (12,000 is probably more
accurate, but 10,000 is a conservative estimate... and a factor of 10 makes
the math simpler). That means Toyotas are logging more than 85 billion miles
a year in the U.S. - 850 billion miles during the last 10 years.

So divide 34 deaths into 850 billion miles, and the odds of a Toyota owner
having one of these accidents is one in 2.5 million... That's a random
event.

If Toyota were using faulty equipment, we would have seen thousands more
accidents and deaths.

You're more likely to get killed by lightning: 60 people died from lightning
in the U.S. just last year. Heck, I'm more likely to get a hole-in-one on
the golf course. The odds of that are only 5,000 to 1.

But statistics aside, just apply a little common sense to the question. The
allegedly defective accelerator part is made in Canada by Indiana-based CTS
Corp. Many makes and models use this same part. For example, the Pontiac
Vibe uses it. Ford sells a van in China with the component.

Why aren't we hearing about those cars? None of the drivers with American
cars that use identical parts ever experienced a stuck accelerator? It just
makes no sense.





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