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There's a crucial decision the Toyota engineers made, as described by the article, which was that if the stuck accelerator was not preventing the driver from us

There's a crucial decision the Toyota engineers made, as described by the article, which was that if the stuck accelerator was not preventing the driver from using the brake and slowing the vehicle, then the stuck accelerator is acceptable (we're talking about a small number of reports) and no fix should be made. It's not easy to understand why they would make that decision. I imagine a stuck pedal is likely to cause confusion in a driver. It would take some time before a driver will process what is happening, and realize that the accel pedal is indeed stuck. It seems like surely it would cause accidents. Furthermore, it's not a tough problem to design a pedal that moves back and forth in high humidity or high temperatures that a car interior is going to see. And it's not expensive. But we're seeing this fault in isolation. The engineers are likely thinking, "Suppose we fix this problem. That's fixed, and it cost $2 per car. Now, what are the 1000 other items that could fail and cause a similar moment of confusion, of the kind that might contribute, or seem to contribute to an accident? What will it cost to fix all of them, because fixing just one doesn't solve the problem."

eridius 11y ago
But they did fix the problem. They just didn't recall the existing cars. According to the article, they fixed the pedal for subsequent models of the car. > Furthermore, it's not a tough problem to design a pedal that moves back and forth in high humidity or high temperatures that a car interior is going to see. And it's not expensive. According to the article, the problem was that the material of the pedal was unexpectedly degrading in that environment, causing it to become stuck. This isn't a matter of it being expensive to produce a better pedal, it's simply a matter of an unforeseen interaction (which would argue that it is in fact hard to design a pedal that works flawlessly in that environment). And so they fixed it on subsequent models. But fixing it on all the existing cars out there would amount to an expensive recall that seemed to be rather unnecessary. > I imagine a stuck pedal is likely to cause confusion in a driver. It would take some time before a driver will process what is happening, and realize that the accel pedal is indeed stuck. It seems like surely it would cause accidents. According to the article, at the time when the issue first cropped up, there were no known cases of an accident caused by the stuck accelerator (note: I don't know if any happened later). Furthermore, the natural reaction to "my car is unexpectedly accelerating" is to slam on the brakes. I could easily see someone panicking, but a panicking person doesn't forget that the brake pedal exists, especially since all drivers have been conditioned to understand that pressing the brake pedal is how you stop the car. Based on this, their response seems pretty straightforward. Yes, there's a relatively rare issue with a stuck accelerator, but (at least at the time) there's no known cases of this leading to an accident, and the natural response by a driver upon encountering the problem, which is to hit the brakes, is sufficient to neutralize the issue. Therefore, no expensive recall is necessary. That said, they obviously had a PR problem. And it was magnified by the media's propensity to hype up situations like this, turning it into a newsworthy story (because that gets more viewers). It seems the vast majority of incidences of unexpected acceleration were not even caused by the stuck accelerator, they were either caused by poorly-fitting third-party floor mats, or by people inadvertently pressing the accelerator when they meant to press the brake, both of which are issues that are not unique to Toyota cars (in point of fact, to the best of my knowledge, every incidence of someone unable to stop the car by pressing the brake pedal was in fact pedal confusion, where they were pressing the accelerator thinking it was the brake, and therefore not caused by this defect at all). Ultimately, I think Toyota had the right engineering response, they just needed to fix their PR response. Don't let the engineers dictate communication to the customers. Understand that reality and public perception are often at odds with each other, and that public perception is just as important as reality. That's not to say that they should have issued a recall, because they shouldn't (if anything, that would have reinforced public perception that the cars were dangerous). But they should have realized that they needed to communicate with the public in a different fashion.

eridius 11y ago

But they did fix the problem. They just didn't recall the existing cars. According to the article, they fixed the pedal for subsequent models of the car. > Furthermore, it's not a tough problem to design a pedal that moves back and forth in high humidity or high temperatures that a car interior is going to see. And it's not expensive. According to the article, the problem was that the material of the pedal was unexpectedly degrading in that environment, causing it to become stuck. This isn't a matter of it being expensive to produce a better pedal, it's simply a matter of an unforeseen interaction (which would argue that it is in fact hard to design a pedal that works flawlessly in that environment). And so they fixed it on subsequent models. But fixing it on all the existing cars out there would amount to an expensive recall that seemed to be rather unnecessary. > I imagine a stuck pedal is likely to cause confusion in a driver. It would take some time before a driver will process what is happening, and realize that the accel pedal is indeed stuck. It seems like surely it would cause accidents. According to the article, at the time when the issue first cropped up, there were no known cases of an accident caused by the stuck accelerator (note: I don't know if any happened later). Furthermore, the natural reaction to "my car is unexpectedly accelerating" is to slam on the brakes. I could easily see someone panicking, but a panicking person doesn't forget that the brake pedal exists, especially since all drivers have been conditioned to understand that pressing the brake pedal is how you stop the car. Based on this, their response seems pretty straightforward. Yes, there's a relatively rare issue with a stuck accelerator, but (at least at the time) there's no known cases of this leading to an accident, and the natural response by a driver upon encountering the problem, which is to hit the brakes, is sufficient to neutralize the issue. Therefore, no expensive recall is necessary. That said, they obviously had a PR problem. And it was magnified by the media's propensity to hype up situations like this, turning it into a newsworthy story (because that gets more viewers). It seems the vast majority of incidences of unexpected acceleration were not even caused by the stuck accelerator, they were either caused by poorly-fitting third-party floor mats, or by people inadvertently pressing the accelerator when they meant to press the brake, both of which are issues that are not unique to Toyota cars (in point of fact, to the best of my knowledge, every incidence of someone unable to stop the car by pressing the brake pedal was in fact pedal confusion, where they were pressing the accelerator thinking it was the brake, and therefore not caused by this defect at all). Ultimately, I think Toyota had the right engineering response, they just needed to fix their PR response. Don't let the engineers dictate communication to the customers. Understand that reality and public perception are often at odds with each other, and that public perception is just as important as reality. That's not to say that they should have issued a recall, because they shouldn't (if anything, that would have reinforced public perception that the cars were dangerous). But they should have realized that they needed to communicate with the public in a different fashion.