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Toyota lost the lawsuit on their development processes and firmware design. As far as I know, no specific bug that would cause unintended acceleration was ever

Toyota lost the lawsuit on their development processes and firmware design. As far as I know, no specific bug that would cause unintended acceleration was ever found.

elfchief 4y ago
IIRC, they did identify a bit that if it were flipped in a certain way at a certain time, would lead to the struck throttle condition, and were able to successfully replicate the stuck throttle condition by 'manually' flipping that bit. So they never reproduced the problem in the field, but they could force a condition that would cause it -- and for a one-in-a-million thing like a cosmic ray bit flip, that seems like a reasonable methodology. (and was only a problem because they didn't handle critical variables correctly, by having mirrors of the values that could be compared to protect against various types of corruption)
- buescher 4y ago
  Koopman is the real deal. Big fan of the RTX-2000 here, and his embedded software book is excellent. But my recollection is that he and Barr found no such particular bit - the argument was, if one task failed, which could be due to any number of potential bugs, perhaps just one bit getting flipped, the unintended acceleration could happen. The material from Barr is worth reading too (google it), and if you want some amusement: https://www.embedded.com/why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-toyota-verdict/ https://www.embedded.com/why-every-embedded-software-develop... https://www.embedded.com/a-rebuttal-to-why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-toyota-verdict/ https://www.embedded.com/a-rebuttal-to-why-every-embedded-so...
bsder 4y ago
> Toyota lost the lawsuit on their development processes and firmware design. As far as I know, no specific bug that would cause unintended acceleration was ever found. I truly believe that it was human factors and not a computer failure. I've been in similar situations and had a acquaintance drive through a wall because of human factors. In our case, the parking lot was relatively flat but had a drainage channel at the front. So, you could put your car into reverse, release the brake, and your car would roll forward. Quite unnerving if you are driving a stick, but your brain processes it because you are used to rolling in the wrong direction. If you are driving an automatic, you smack the accelerator, jump across way too small gap between you and a building, and bury your car trunk in an office wall. Nevertheless, I'm also quite happy that Toyota got smacked as their development process was TERRIBLE. They 100% deserved what they got even if it wasn't a computer bug.

Toyota lost the lawsuit on their development processes and firmware design. As far as I know, no specific bug that would cause unintended acceleration was ever found.

elfchief 4y ago

IIRC, they did identify a bit that if it were flipped in a certain way at a certain time, would lead to the struck throttle condition, and were able to successfully replicate the stuck throttle condition by 'manually' flipping that bit. So they never reproduced the problem in the field, but they could force a condition that would cause it -- and for a one-in-a-million thing like a cosmic ray bit flip, that seems like a reasonable methodology. (and was only a problem because they didn't handle critical variables correctly, by having mirrors of the values that could be compared to protect against various types of corruption)

buescher 4y ago
Koopman is the real deal. Big fan of the RTX-2000 here, and his embedded software book is excellent. But my recollection is that he and Barr found no such particular bit - the argument was, if one task failed, which could be due to any number of potential bugs, perhaps just one bit getting flipped, the unintended acceleration could happen. The material from Barr is worth reading too (google it), and if you want some amusement: https://www.embedded.com/why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-toyota-verdict/ https://www.embedded.com/why-every-embedded-software-develop... https://www.embedded.com/a-rebuttal-to-why-every-embedded-software-developer-should-care-about-the-toyota-verdict/ https://www.embedded.com/a-rebuttal-to-why-every-embedded-so...

bsder 4y ago

> Toyota lost the lawsuit on their development processes and firmware design. As far as I know, no specific bug that would cause unintended acceleration was ever found. I truly believe that it was human factors and not a computer failure. I've been in similar situations and had a acquaintance drive through a wall because of human factors. In our case, the parking lot was relatively flat but had a drainage channel at the front. So, you could put your car into reverse, release the brake, and your car would roll forward. Quite unnerving if you are driving a stick, but your brain processes it because you are used to rolling in the wrong direction. If you are driving an automatic, you smack the accelerator, jump across way too small gap between you and a building, and bury your car trunk in an office wall. Nevertheless, I'm also quite happy that Toyota got smacked as their development process was TERRIBLE. They 100% deserved what they got even if it wasn't a computer bug.