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 foot can be "smoothed out". 
• Mechanical simplicity, weight, and cost: Using ETC means you can get rid of the idle air control valve, throttle cable, and cruise control actuator.  Fewer things to break.
  
• Robustness: ETC systems have built in algorithms for unusual conditions.  For example, the throttle plate can be shaken very quickly by the motor, as an "ice breaker", if the throttle plate is iced.  There are no cables to bind up or corrode, no exposed return springs to break.  The system has independent CPUs which monitor the throttle plate position and pedal position 100s of times a second, with fail-safe algorithms to shut the thing down if something unexpected happens.  ETC has redundant sensors, which are used to check that the information coming into the ECUs is reliable and self-consistent.  In a mechanical throttle system, the only failsafe is the driver's foot--if the thing is stuck, you pump it and pray it gets unstuck.
  

Trial lawyers try to sow FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about "complex electronic systems", and throw out scary "what if" scenarios, to try to win cases and big money.  But engineers know that complex systems are designed, tested, and validated over many years before being released into production, and are tested for every conceivable failure.  ETC systems must be qualified under a range of temperatures and wide band electromagnetic interference testing.  Failure modes, such as cut wires, broken sensors, damaged actuators, etc. are all tested using a process called FMEA (failure mode effects analysis).  FMEA was designed by NASA as a way to think through a system's reliabilty to pin down possible ways it could break; then tests are designed to validate the system under those conditions.

Is it possible that Toyota screwed up the FMEA, or cut corners, and has a dangerous-but-rare condition with their ETC system?  It is possible.  But given the excellence of Toyota's engineering, I would be surprised. 

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 brakes will fill the booster very quickly.  Without vacuum, the brake pedal will be very hard, and it will require a huge amount of brake pedal force to stop the car.

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 "right away".

"If I would have done that on a Buick or a Honda... it would have set a DTC or code".

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: 310,000,000 people, GDP $14,400,000,000,000, 24 medals, 7.7E-8 Medals/Resident, 1.6E-12 Medals/$ GDP
Germany: 80,000,000 people, GDP $2,900,000,000,000, 18 medals, 2.3E-7 Medals/Resident, 6.2E-12 Medals/$ GDP
Norway: 4,800,000 people, GDP $257,000,000,000, 12 medals, 2.5E-6 Medals/Resident, 4.7E-11 Medals/$GDP
Canada: 34,000,000 people, GDP $1,300,000,000,000, 9 medals, 2.6E-7 Medals/Resident, 6.9E-12 Medals/$GDP
Slovenia: 2,050,000 people, GDP $54,600,000,000, 3 medals, 1.5E-6 Medals/Resident, 5.5E-11 Medals/$GDP

Per capita and per $ GPD, Canada is clearing beating the U.S.  They are winning about 3.4x the number of medals per resident, and  4.3x the number of medals per $ of GDP. 

But Norway is really cleaning up.  It is winning medals at a rate 32x the U.S., per capita, and 30x the U.S. rate per $ of GDP.

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 trunk.

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*12.596

Also, 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 20" off of the trail from the "T".

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 trail.

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 this up, because I'd feel really uncomfortable and self-conscious and I'd never follow through. But it's a funny idea.

I like her more after reading the interview... her whole bikini-girl-racer image, and the stupid dot com commercials she is doing make her seem very superficial.  The interview shows a much more interesting person.

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 way it was designed. The CVT searches for the most efficient engine speed to produce the power it needs -- this is one of the reasons CVTs provide better gas mileage.

Paddle shifters, faux shift points, on a CVT? 

It's Subaru's attempt to make customers feel at home.  But it's silly.  Instead of trying to fool you into thinking you are driving an automated manual gearbox, automakers should take the time to educate consumers about the benefits of CVTs.  And if the unit whines, or the engine revs high longer than people are used to, perhaps what is needed is better noise management.  Once people get used to the idea of CVTs, they won't be annoyed at their feel.

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of the dual clutch automated manual designs.  They have very good efficiency, and avoid some of the serviceability questions of CVTs.  And they can have "real" paddle shifters.

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, here.

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 guys come out and install for you.

And if you live outside of the Spokane, WA area, where do you go if you need your Tango serviced?  I assume you will have to have a Commuter Cars rep fly out to you.

There is currently one street legal, mass produced, electric-only vehicle in the U.S., and that is the Tesla Roadster.  Everything else is, at this point, either vapor-ware or a toy.

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 is rare, and completely controllable if the driver pays attention and keeps a cool head.

To repeat:

1) Press brakes firmly
2) Put the gear selector in N
3) Pull over

If 2) is a problem for some reason, you can turn off the motor.

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 something like "Hey guys! Watch this!"

It did not end well.  But, he didn't quite make it onto the Darwin Awards--he's in the hospital.

Link.

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 the new position as WOT (wide open throttle), customers won't ever be able to get to WOT--instead they'll top out at 97% or whatever the new maximum travel point corresponds to.

So in addition to installing "precision cut steel", I would expect Toyota to also have to spend a few minutes on each car to reprogram the throttle pedal calibration curves. Unless, of course, the extra few percent of travel isn't needed.

The Autoprophet Geocache Challenge (SOLVED)

Update: SOLVED! We have a winner.

To promote the new season of Top Gear, BBC America sent me some stuff to give away to my readers. They didn't say how I had to do it, so instead of a boring lottery, I have decided to do a geocache.
The Top Gear swag is hidden inside a brown cardboard box, wrapped up in a plastic bag to keep it dry. The prize includes a 2010 Top Gear calendar, a "Stig" coffee mug, and best of all, the complete season 11 and season 12 DVD sets, 6 discs in all.

The Rules:

• The first person who finds the stuff keeps it.
• If you find the booty, please send me an email at TheAutoProphet"at"gmail.com and let me know that you got it. Please mention the secret word (included with the prize).
  
• If no one finds it in two (2) weeks, I will give the whole pile to the Salvation Army for charity
• Extra points: find the bottle of beer that someone left behind (not me) near my cache.
  

The Location:

The goods are located in Oakland County, MI, in a little known municipal park. The box will not be buried, but will be mildly camouflaged.

The cache is not far from the trail, you don't have to do much bush-wacking.

Now, GO GO GO!

Apple iPad

I have been reading about the newly revealed Apple iPad, and I am thinking, "do not want".  Here's why:

• No on-board memory card slot
• No Adobe Flash support
• Closed OS--all apps must come from Apple store
• No camera--this thing should be able to do Skype out of the box
• No on-board USB ports
• No multi-tasking

This is because Apple decided to make the iPad basically an over-sized IPod Touch, not a shrunken Macbook.  Myself, I'd be more interested in a scaled-down Macbook.

I predict this will be a disappointment for Apple, until they fix some of these flaws.  Most people who would be interested in an iPad already have an iPhone, they won't see a compelling reason to get one.

The Fluid Flush Scam

A family member took her compact SUV for its 100,000 mile service recently, and the service manager attacked her with the dreaded "fluid flush gauntlet".  He showed her samples of her transmission oil, power steering oil, brake fluid, and coolant, and tried to sell her about $500 worth of fluid flushes.  He also tried to convince her to change out her rear differential fluid, which is rather expensive, because it comes from nearly extinct whales.

This is a scam.  It is pure profit for the shop.

You should not get any fluid changed on your car that is not recommended by the owner's manual, unless you have special circumstances.  More on those below.

She checked her owner's manual, and while the transmission fluid and coolant were recommended, there was no mention of power steering fluid, rear differential, or brake fluid.

And here's why: all three of these systems are sealed.  In the power steering and brake fluid systems, the fluids are primarily hydraulic working fluids, although they do have some lubrication functions.  If the systems are still well sealed, and are working properly, you may not need to touch them for more than 150,000 miles.

Part of the trick is to show you that the fluids are "dirty".  This is scary, but not necessarily meaningful.  I asked a guy I know, who is involved in the design of power steering systems.  He told me that power steering fluid picks up carbon black from the hoses, and that you can't really tell a 5,000 mile fluid from a 50,000 mile fluid based on color.  His professional advice was, "don't touch it unless you are getting noise from the system or hard steering".  And if you don't want to change it, he recommended using a turkey baster to remove as much from the reservoir as you can, replacing the rest with clean fluid.  "The flushes the service places sell are junk!" he said,"A waste of money."

So when should you change your fluids?

If the owner's manual says it is time to do it, or if something is wrong, or clearly contaminated.  If large particles are obvious in your fluid reservoir, or if there is water in the oil, or if the system has failed in some way, or is making strange noises. 

Cool Cover Song

Wow, I like.  5FDP does "Bad Company".

"I was born, a shotgun in my hand"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTn6qciodo

Toyota Wins Crown Of Shame

I think we can all now agree that Toyota has won the crown of "most severe quality issue" from the previous champions, Ford and Firestone.  Toyota is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this, both directly and indirectly.  Directly, through replacement costs, and lost sales while the plants are down, and indirectly through their damaged quality reputation. 

P.S.A.: Pregnant Women Should ALWAYS Wear Seatbelts

Yesterday, a pregnant woman and her unborn child died on I-94 in metro Detroit.  From the Detroit Free Press:

A 23-year-old pregnant woman died in a car crash on I-94 on Tuesday morning, along with her baby, who was ripped from her body along the freeway.

Shardae Homesly of Detroit was not wearing a seat belt as she rode in the front seat of her SUV, driven by her fiancé, Michigan State Police Sgt. Linda Mys said.

The couple were heading westbound near Morang on Detroit's east side shortly before 11:45 a.m. The fiancé, whose name wasn't released, swerved to avoid hitting a van that began merging into the SUV's path in the far-right lane.

Think about that for a moment.  The baby was "ripped from her body". 

Some pregnant women refuse to wear seatbelts because they are worried that it will "hurt the baby". 

Forget that.  If you are unrestrained, and get in an accident, you and your baby could die. 

The safe way for pregnant women to wear seatbelts is to raise the shoulder belt slightly, so that it crosses the chest above the belly, and to pull the lap belt down a little so it crosses over the hips below the belly. 

Eggs On Windshields: Urban Legend

I got a chain email the other day, warning about a new carjacking tactic. Bad guys would throw eggs at a persons windshield, and then follow them. The person would supposedly have to stop, because windshield wipers would smear the egg around and make it impossible to see.

According to Snopes, this is pure urban legend. Link.

Chevy Volt Driven!

Finally, GM has allowed someone in the press to drive a Chevy Volt with the gas engine enabled and write about it.   Paul E. at DetroitBureau writes,

In normal mode, Volt delivered reasonable acceleration, launching from 0 to 60 in what we estimated to be around 10 seconds.  But switched to Sport mode we got an unexpected jolt.  Electric motors deliver maximum wheel-spinning torque the moment they start to turn, and with Volt, that translates into a very sporty launch feel and 0 to 60 times of about two seconds quicker.

Farah had intentionally given our prototype Volt just a limited charge, just enough so that we could experience the vehicle on battery power then have it automatically transition to extended-range mode – a fancy way of saying its inline-four-cylinder internal combustion engine fired up.  The transition was all but seamless and even with the engine running, the cabin remained surprisingly quiet.

Good news--the gas engine is quiet when recharging the batteries, even in Michigan winter conditions.

You can read the whole thing here.

Oh, and 100 points if you can find the typo, with which Eisenstein accidentally demotes the Volt to a Mitsubishi product.

McFly's Hyundai eBay Nightmare

User "McFly" of Hyundai fan site Gencoupe.com won a used Genesis coupe on eBay in an non-reserve auction for $16,000.  The dealer, Glenn Hyundai of Lexington KY, screwed up and forgot to put a reserve price on the car, which is worth closer to $19,000.  Since the auction is supposed to be a legally binding contract, McFly called and tried to finish the deal.   However, the dealer refused to sell the car at the eBay price.

McFly is giving the dealer hell, doing wide ranging internet publicity, approaching news outlet, as well as his state's vehicle sales commission to get justice.  You can read the whole mess here.

Politics

THANK YOU MASSACHUSETTS!

CFL Dissapointment

I have been using the spiral-type CFL bulbs in a few places at home, such as in the basement. But recently I broke one of these off by knocking something into it. I replaced it with a new fully encased bulb from GE, which has the flourescent tube and electronics encased in a round glass bulb, looking very much like an over-sized traditional lightbulb.

I'm not happy with this product at all. It takes a very long time to warm up and come up to full brightness, so long that you really notice it. When it is cold, and you first turn it on, it is very dim and gives off a small amount of purplish light.

After about 1min or so it is bright, which seems like an eternity.

I wish VU1 would hurry up with their claimed "next best thing" ESL bulb.

On Comment Spam

A quick note to all you comment spammers who keep dribbling your business all over my blog. I watch the comments, and when I see spam, it is deleted.

So don't bother, you are just wasting your time.

U.S. News: Ford To Fix Toyota Pedals

Oops.

"Of course, this only works for new vehicles," grumbles Motor Authority. "Existing vehicles subject to the recall have only the accelerator pedal replacement as a solution." Ford is set to outfit these vehicles with reshaped accelerator peddles and replace their floor mats.

Jalopnik's Many Faces

Jalopnik, on the 2009 Car Of The Year Award winning Hyundai Genesis:

There was an audible "Wooohhhh" sound when they announced the Hyundai Genesis as the 2009 North American Car Of The Year moments ago, marking the first win and nomination for a Korean automaker.

The Genesis benefited from the new factor as well as the fact one of the other nominations, the Ford Flex, is barely a car and based on a familiar platform. As much as we were holding out for the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, we hope, like a pre-Departed Martin Scorsese, they're just happy to be nominated. Score one for the Koreans. You can read our Hyundai Genesis review for our impressions.

Unlike other award ceremonies, we'd point out, the NACTOY is an actual contest with real journalists nominating and voting for the vehicles so this isn't just a headline grabber.

Jalopnik, on 2010 TOTY winner, Ford Transit Connect:

While a Chevy PR staffer yelled "F***!" in the crowd, the Ford Transit Connect, the Traverse-besting little-commercial-van-that-could, picks up North American Truck Of The Year. The Ford Fusion Hybrid, predictably, picks up Car Of The Year. We're predictably bored.

Frankly, we're nonplussed by Ford picking up both awards. NACTOY's a joke — picked by insiders for insiders. In fact, if the award weren't handed out at the Detroit Auto Show by the head of the Detroit Auto Show it wouldn't be worth a damn thing.

Not that we're complaining — we love the Transit Connect and the Ford Fusion Hybrid's an impressive beige car disguised as a Game Boy — but seriously, the award's not worthwhile to anyone but the marketing folks.

So, which is it, Jalopnik?  Is the COTY/TOTY thing a joke or not?

Top Gear GIve-Away

If you are a fan of the BBC's Top Gear program (which I am, I watch mostly on YouTube), the new season begins January 25th on BBC America.

Here, for example, is Top Gear's hilarious review of the Spyker C8 sportscar


"There are two Hollands... one where everyone goes on holiday in a caravan, and there are tulips, and you've got the other, which is full of drunk Lilliputians, vomiting on Philipino girls"

As part of their promotion, BBC will be giving away DVDs of the show's previous two seasons at http://www.bbcamerica.com/topgear.

Bizarre Audi Commercial

If only Hitler had tired to gas Jews with VW powered clean diesels!

This commercial is in such poor taste, is is shocking.

Ward's 10 Best Engines

Ward's has published their list of the 10 best engines (article here). They have given extra weight to efficiency, I think, considering the overall small displacement (average 2.73L) and large number of diesels, turbos, and hybrids on the list.

7 companies made the list, VW, BMW, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Subaru, and Toyota. Some big names are missing--nothing from Nissan or Honda here. No Mercedes. Chrysler's Phoenix didn't make it in time for this year's list, maybe Chrysler can make next year's? Maybe Fiat's Multi-air, next time?

This year's winners and the applications tested:

• 2.0L TFSI Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Audi A4)
• 3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi S4)
• 3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (BMW 335d)
• 2.5L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Ford Fusion Hybrid)
• 3.5L EcoBoost Turbocharged DOHC V-6 (Ford Taurus SHO)
• 2.4L Ecotec DOHC I-4 (Chevrolet Equinox)
• 4.6L Tau DOHC V-8 (Hyundai Genesis)
• 2.5L Turbocharged DOHC H-4 (Subaru Legacy 2.5GT)
• 1.8L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Toyota Prius)
• 2.0L SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel (Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI)

Video: Corvette Clutch Burn-Out.

Oops. That wasn't the tires smoking!


Corvette Burnout Fail Destroys Clutch - Watch more Funny Videos

Electric PT Cruiser Nightmare

When you are trying to be bleeding edge, sometimes you bleed.

Blogger Barret Lyon, who writes at Verbophobia, tried to buy a plug-in electric conversion PT Cruiser, being sold by a startup company.

My lawyer and I hired a superstar electrical engineering expert named Art MacCarley, Ph.D., PE., who happens to be the Department Chair of the Electrical Engineering department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Dr. MacCarley drove to my house and spent the entire day meticulously going through the car.

...

Art put it very politely, but basically he was saying that college students could have built this car better than EV Innovations ( a publicly traded company). Attached to this article is the full report written by Dr. MacCarley.

It turned out so bad that he wound up suing them under the Lemon Law, and settling out of court at a loss of $20,000.

This underscores the point that making reliable, affordable, safe, and refined cars of any type (gas or electric) is an extremely tricky business.

Don't be in a hurry. When the good stuff gets here, you'll know it. In the meantime, drive a nice gas-electric hybrid, if you must have an electrified car.