On Thu, 2010-07-15 at 09:21 -0400, Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Vitaliy wrote:
> > "The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data
> > recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents
> > blamed on sudden acceleration and found that the throttles were wide
> > open and the brakes weren't engaged at the time of the crash, people
> > familiar with the findings said.
> 
> But then you have to believe the same computer that might be at fault in the
> first place.  

Nope.

The "black box" in most cars is a separate box from the ECU (it's
usually the ABS controller, completely separate, often located under the
drivers seat).

The sensors then are "suspect". While it's possible the throttle sensor
was reporting incorrectly, it is very doubtful that in EVERY case both
the throttle sensor and brake sensor were wrong (incorrect "no brake,
full throttle" readings).

> Suppose the problem is that the accellerator pedal (it's a
> long way from the throttle these days) position is misreported, and the rest
> of the vehicle was doing what it was supposed to?

Then why wasn't the brake depressed? If your car starts racing the FIRST
instinct of pretty much every driver is press the brake, preliminary
evidence shows that in almost EVERY crash (I think one was the odd one
out) the evidence states both WOT and no brake, a classic "hitting the
wrong pedal" mistake.

This is all consistent with a multitude of prior incidents where people
simply press the wrong pedal (my mothers car was hit by a person backing
into a spot who hit the wrong pedal, mounted a curb, went across a grass
lawn, travelled about 50 feet and smacked into the back of my moms car;
and no, this car didn't have a computer controlled throttle).

TTYL

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