A month ago on March 13, 2010 I spectulated in a post Is Toyota a victim of Complexity, that electromagnetic pulses (natural or man-made) or electromagnetic interference (EMI) could affect the software in the electronic throttle control and be the cause of recent Toyota acceleration problems and not pedal designs or floor mats.
Two weeks latter, on March 27, New Scientist (see story--The bugs in your computer-on-wheels ) not only confirmed my hypothesis that the EMI not only affects the software in electronic throttle control and acceleration but reports numerous past incidents of EMI and cruise control failure, anti-lock brake failure, door lock failure, engine control module failure, power steering software failure, airbag deployment software glitches , automatic transmission software failure and most critically vehicle data bus failure-the digital network that coordinates all the electronic control units, software, sensors and actuators.
This interference could come from various random sources--the sun (solar flares) or man-made devices such as cell phones, radio transmitter towers, radar, military and emergency services' radios or even the cars' own electronic systems.
Toyota dismisses these accusations saying that there is a redundancy system-cars incorprate multiple sensors to perform each function. That excuse makes no sense to me. If EMI affects one sensor then why shouldn't it affect the backup sensor too.
So today's announcement that the auto industry plans to install brake override software to overcome unwanted acceleration offers little comfort to me since it doesn't address the root cause and will likely increase and not decrease risk and future accident rates
Walter Derzko
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