Toyota - Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash

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Thu 8 Oct 2009 18:06
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - edlithgow
Though the investigation is not complete, a carpet jamming the accelerator pedal is the "official" explanation from Toyota for this accident, in which a Lexus accelerated uncontrollably and killed all four occupants. I don't find this explanation convincing, and I am not alone in that.

I have had throttle jamming incidents in two cars. Both the incidents were easily dealt with, and I am not an expert driver.

The driver of this car was a California Highway Patrol veteran, surely an expert driver, yet he was unable to stop or gain control of the car in the time it took for one of his passengers to make what sounds like quite a long 911 call. (The recording available on the web is apparently 50 seconds long)

This implies that the engine could not be shut off, the gearbox could not be put in neutral, the brakes were not effective, and the emergency brake did not work. Though I am not familiar with the Lexus, it is very hard to see how all these functions could be disabled by a carpet.

I?ve seen speculation on the internet that this was a general failure of an integrated drive-by-wire electronic control system, and (though I don?t know the Lexus systems) on the face of it this seems a much more convincing explanation. Since that could be a public relations disaster for Toyota, and perhaps for the industry in general, its perhaps not surprising they would prefer to blame a carpet.

I?ve seen no reports in the ?official? media questioning Toyota?s explanation. I guess Woodward and Birnstein have retired.
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Thu 8 Oct 2009 18:12
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - TheOilBurner
You may well be on to something there. I read the report when the recall for the mats was announced and I wasn't convinced that sounded right either.

Certainly, if there is still a problem, it'll soon surface once this mat re-call is complete and that cannot be used as an excuse again.

Unless, of course, in the process of bringing the cars back in for the mat fix, something else was done too...
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Thu 8 Oct 2009 18:24
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - Bill Payer
This was already discussed here: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=78946&...e
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Thu 8 Oct 2009 18:45
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - Hamsafar
It sounds like he knew 'too much'.
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Thu 8 Oct 2009 19:06
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - Lud
I find the drive-by-wire failure theory a bit hard to swallow.

Of course almost anything is possible these days. If apparently intelligent people think coolant temperature and oil pressure information redundant in today's cars, why stop there?

Just as the computer knows better than you, and will serve your convenience by suddenly telling you to stop driving immediately and take your car to the nearest main dealer (thus presenting you with the first of the secondary difficulties that will blight your life for an open-ended period) - obviously far better than allowing you to notice that something seems to be amiss while the car is still running -, so it probably knows better than you when it is time to turn the engine off. If it acts up by ignoring your attempts to shut it off until you crash, it probably has its reasons. It's a computer you know. They know stuff.
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Thu 8 Oct 2009 19:20
Suspicious Californian Lexus Crash - Pugugly
There is a recent discussion on this - this thread will be moved there shortly.
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