No Wonder They Beat The U.S. Team!

After they beat the U.S. women's hockey team, the team Canada celebrated in the rink with beer and cigars.  This explains how they beat the U.S. team--they are actually men!  News story here. Actually, the medal ceremony for women's hockey was very nice, as the mostly Canadian crowd changed USA! USA! after the American team was awarded the silver medal.  It was generous, considering that the Canadians had been beaten in men's hockey...

In Defense of ETC Part 2; Professor Gilbert's Test

In his testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Professor David W. Gilbert described how he was able to induce unintended acceleration in a Toyota ETC system.  You can read his remarks here. Gilbert was hired by Safety Research Strategies, a "safety advocacy" group which is primarily a research and consulting firm for trial lawyers and plaintiffs. Gilbert's testing discovered a hole in Toyota's diagnostics for their ETC system.  To fool...

Rep Burton: "Why are the pedals different?"

Rep Burton (R-Ind): "Why are the two pedals different?" (Actually holding up pedals)Toyoda: "Sometimes suppliers design the pedal and Toyota approves them, and we used two different suppliers".  ...

Toyoda: "Customer misuse is a factor"

Oops.  Toyoda just stated that one of four aspects of the runaway acceleration problem is "customer misuse".  He's going to catch hell for that, later!...

Toyota ETC Videos

Edmunds' Inside Line blog has posted a 17 minute long video from Toyota which explains in some detail how their ETC system works.  It is at a layman's level, so you don't need an engineering degree to understand what they are showing. Link...

In Defense of ETC Part 1

When I get a chance to review Prof. Gilbert's report on how he fooled Toyota's Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) system, I will post comments.For now, I'd like to take a few lines to defend ETC in concept. ETC has some significant advantages over mechanical throttle linkages.Fuel economy: actual throttle flow can be optimized based on operating conditions, and pedal position is used to infer driver intent.  For example, someone with a shaky...

Toyota's Lentz Weeps

Toyota USA's Lentz, relating how his 30 year old brother was killed in a car accident, got teary eyed while answering a question for Rep. Rush (D-Ill)....

Why Stuck Throttles Are So Dangerous: Loss Of Vacuum

Something that hasn't been discussed widely is the role of engine vacuum in the unintended acceleration issue.The reason that you only have one chance to brake a car which is experiencing a stuck throttle or unintended acceleration is that at wide-open-throttle, the engine is not generating any manifold vacuum.   Without manifold vacuum, on most cars, the hydraulic brake booster will ingest air as the brakes are applied.  Pumping the...

Rep. Buyer Defends Toyota

Rep Steven Buyer (R-Ind) is coming to the defense of Toyota.  Which makes sense, the Subaru plant which builds Toyotas is in his district.  He points out that work by Prof. Gilbert is commissioned by an "advocacy" organization which is being funded by trial lawyer. ...

Toyota: Gilbert's Test "Sabotage"

Toyota's lawyers told the House Oversight Committee members that the test that Prof. Gilbert did to the Toyota electronic system was "sabotage".  Professor Gilbert is testifying that the short circuit he introduced could happen in real life....

Gilbert: Toyota Electronic Throttle Diagnostics Poor

The gist of Professor Gilbert's testimony to the House Oversight Committee is that Toyota's electronic throttle sensing system is poor, in that the redundant signals are insufficiently different from one another, so that the diagnostic system can be fooled into thinking that a short circuit between them is a driver request for wide-open throttle, and not a fault state. He also just testified that other automakers would catch the fault that he induced...

Texting While Driving = Death

The new issue of Autoweek sports a graphic and effective full page ad, to warn of the dangers of texting and driving.See it for yourself here....

Canada Beating US at Olympics! (Per Capita)

This isn't automotive, but being an engineer, I have to say something.There is a lot chatter and ink flying about how the U.S. is beating Canada in the winter Olympics medal count.But not really. Canada is outplaying us if you normalize the data.  Who cares about total medal counts?  Better measures are in residents/medal and GPD/medal.Let's compare some countries using Wikipedia's demographic information and current medal count: U.S.A:...

Future Collectible Cars

Over at Jalopnik, Matt H. asks, "What's the best cheap future collector car?"My answer: something like a Mustang GT, or Chevrolet Camaro, or Dodge Challenger, running a V8.  Even a Pontiac G8. Because when NHTSA, EPA, and CARB's CO2 and fuel economy regulations kick in full bore, only rich guys will be able to afford a good fashioned American V8.  Naturally aspirated, big displacement, big torque....

Geocache Challenge Update: WINNER!

We have a winner!Reader Francis found the goods today, and sent along a cell phone pic to prove it. He correctly identified the secret word, and also, the old Sierra Nevada beer bottle someone left near the tree tru...

Geocache Challenge Update 3: Corrected

I went back to check the cache today, and it was still there. I did notice though that the GPS location was somewhat different from when I originally measured it.The new (and hopefully correct) GPS location of the prize is N42*33.547, W83*12.596Also, more hints about where it is:Follow the right side of the field, to where you can see the power transformer.Follow the path until it comes to a "T".The prize is hidden behind a large fallen log about...

Shooting Down Mosquitos

A research group called Intellectual Ventures Lab has built a working prototype of a machine which detects, identifies, and shoots down mosquitos in flight.  Amazing....

Geocache Challenge Update

I got an email from a guy who went to the park looking for the TopGear goodies, but couldn't find them. Last I checked, the stuff was still there, as of Sunday. I'll check again this weekend.Here's a hint: the cache is within a 15' radius of the T shaped intersection which forms the last waypoint. It isn't buried, but it is not in "plain view" from the tra...

The True Danica

I'm not following Danica Patrick much, but there is a neat interview with her in Vanity Fair, here. If somehow, inexplicably, you do win tomorrow, promise us that you'll moon the other racers and scream, "Suck it, losers!" (Laughs.) I think it'd be really funny if I started winning all the time and became really annoyingly girly and put on lipstick before every race and started wearing heels and stuff like that. I probably can't back any of...

Subaru CVT

Scott Burgess writing at the Detroit News (article here) reviews the Subaru Legacy with CVT.Really, the only way to sanely drive the Legacy Limited is with the paddle shifters. If you don't use them and leave the car in automatic mode, it's confusing and uncomfortable. When you launch the vehicle, its revs tend to jump and then stay too high. Because the shift points are gone, something feels off -- though the Legacy is performing exactly the...

The AutoProphet GeoCache Challenge, Week 2

No one has claimed my TopGear DVD geocache prize, so we are on to week 2. As far as I know, it is still there (I will check on it later today).The coordinates are listed in the original post, he...

The Truth About Tango

Winding Road has a write-up of the Commuter Cars Tango T600 electric car, which was available for test-drives at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.What WR doesn't bother telling us is that the Tango is not really a production vehicle.  It is sold as a kit.  After you plunk down your $108,000, you get a shipment of a rolling chassis.  Followed later by a shipment of missing parts that you can bolt on yourself, or have one of the Commuter Cars...

Transportation Secretary: "Stop Driving Recalled Toyotas"

According to Reuters', Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood told the House Appropriations Committee on Transportation:LaHood says his advice to owners is to "stop driving it. Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it."Wow.  LaHood needs to be more careful what he says--he could cause some real public relations problems, for himself and for Toyota. While sticky throttle pedals are a serious problem, the failure mode...

Rocket Sled Man Fails Darwin Award Attempt

In the Oakland Press this morning, a 62 year old Independence Township man almost killed himself in glorious drunk fashion.  After consuming "unknown quantities of alcohol", he strapped on a motorcycle muffler which he had stuffed full of gunpowder, match-heads, and gasoline.  He also put on a motorcycle helmet and a cape.  Then he had a friend light his fuse, and started down the hill on a plastic orange sled, no doubt after saying...

The Toyota Pedal Fix

If you go to Toyota's media site, you can see this graphic which shows the change they are making in their pedal.The toothy thing is a pedal feedback mechanism which uses friction to give the pedal a certain amount of resistance at the end of its travel.What Toyota is doing is putting a shim in behind the pedal arm, to limit its travel. Which means that unless they reprogram their ECU to interpret...