NASA has just published its report on Toyota unintended acceleration. I haven’t seen the full report, but the summary I have read has a familiar ring. And I predict that lunatics and skeptics are going to be far more likely to believe the space agency actually landed Americans on the moon than they will be willing to accept NASA’s findings that almost all cases of unintended acceleration, starting in the 1980s with Audi and now two and a half decades later with Toyota, are the result of pedal error.
Whether it was mangling Audi transmissions to induce UA or, more recently, crossing wires that are impossible to cross to cause Toyota engines to zoom out of control, the legal profession’s eagerness to mimic the tactics of Middle Age witch hunters and the willingness of some less than scrupulous engineers to sell-out their profession are appalling.
These lawyers and their engineer /scientist collaborators are running in circles chasing non-existent electronic ghosts. It’s time to let these ghosts rest in peace.
By the way, what has happened to complaints about unintended acceleration? Attorneys and pundits might say Toyota has swept them under the carpet. But they seem to have disappeared about as quickly as they surfaced. Were they simply an example of mass hysteria, psychosis or hypnosis? Or maybe the ghosts moved on to a parallel universe, leaving the Los Angeles Times scrambling to fill another black hole with its biased reporting.
Toyota is not completely blameless here. There were incidents with faulty pedals and throttles sticking as a result of tolerance stack-up under carpets.
But this ain’t rocket science.
And it’s about time to let Toyota get back to doing what it does best: selling high-quality products to appreciative customers around the world.
My time spent at the Larz Anderson Museum has been quite fruitful so far this Summer. First, with the classic delights of British Car Day, and then with the thoroughly modern experience of getting behind the wheel of the all-new Porsche Boxster Spyder, its safe to say I’ve had my share of thrills.
That paled in comparison to what was to greet me Sunday June 20th (last Sunday). German Car Day was in full swing, and it was enormous. On the drive up to the museum, Porsche 356 roadsters could be seen darting up back roads in packs. Entering the grounds, I was greeted with the largest collection of cars ever to turn out for the German Car event (the largest single show was one of the past iterations of the Tutto Italiano, taking place August first this year). (more…)
A few years ago, if you asked a car guy to respond with the first word that came to mind when I mentioned Continental, the answer would have been tires. And the next five words would have been either Conti Contac performance summer tires or Conti Blizzak performance winter tires.
But no longer is the Germany-based Continental synonymous just with tires. Slowly, and somewhat under the radar screen, Continental has been reinventing itself, not a bad thing in a fast changing automotive environment. Today Continental is still renowned for its tires, but for those automotive folks who are hardwired into the “parts” sides of the business, Continental has emerged as the world’s third largest automotive supplier company behind Bosch and Magna. In some segments of the fast food business parts is parts, but not in the automotive business. Suppliers are the lifeblood of the industry. Today, every automotive manufacturer—Ford, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, you name it—is highly dependent upon suppliers for much of the hard and software in every one of its vehicles. Literally hundreds of suppliers, some with well known names such as Lear, Johnson Controls, Bosch and Delphi, and unknowns (except for auto industry insiders making their living designing, engineering, costing and manufacturing vehicles) such as NTN (axle bearings), Brose (electric seat adjustment), and Rehau (rear spoiler) work closely with their auto company partners, helping them create many of the literally hundreds of primary and subsystems required in every vehicle: airbags, brakes, gauge clusters, tires, seats, shock absorbers, steering wheels, transmissions, ECMS . . . the list is endless. No auto company possesses all of the internal capabilities to design, engineer develop, test and manufacture an automobile today. Thus the need for specialists such as Continental. (more…)
