What's Wrong With This Picture: Toyota Owners And Their Floormats Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

An anonymous Toyota Tech sent us these recent images of a 2008 Prius and its highly questionable pedal-floormat interface. Did nobody tell this guy that Toyota has had some problems with floormat pedal interference, and that there had been a recall? Did he somehow miss the months-long media frenzy? This is yet more proof that there is literally no way to completely prevent unintended acceleration, even if the problem has been identified and a recall has been issued. Remember folks, when it comes to cars only you can keep you safe.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Sandy A Sandy A on Jul 23, 2010

    No doubt that some people are idiots and other simply make mistakes. That has always been true even with mechanical throttle control. However, when it comes to electronic throttle control it isn't necessarily just the floor mats. See: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727704.800-toyota-too-soon-to-blame-drivers-for-problems.html "But the fault detection system is not foolproof, according to Todd Hubing, a vehicle electronics researcher at Clemson University in Greenville, South Carolina. This month, Hubing told a US National Academy of Sciences committee investigating SUA that when his team fired radio waves at laboratory test vehicles travelling at a steady speed, they accelerated. These incidents were not picked up by the fault detection system, possibly because the radio waves affected both sensors equally, Hubing says." And: http://www2.wspa.com/news/2010/jul/21/clemson-professor-studies-unintended-acceleration--ar-607687/

    • SomeDude SomeDude on Jul 23, 2010

      Well, the researchers at Clemson should better start looking for a "redundant" source of funding...

  • JimC JimC on Jul 23, 2010

    Toyota doesn't need to knock on his door at 2am. Darwin will knock on it soon enough and though painful we as a society will be better for it. Remember, it's better to rip the bandaid off quickly instead of slowly.

  • Oberkanone My grid hurts!Good luck with installing charger locations at leased locations with aging infrastructure. Perhaps USPS would have better start modernizing it's Post offices to meet future needs. Of course, USPS has no money for anything.
  • Dukeisduke If it's going to be a turbo 4-cylinder like the new Tacoma, I'll pass.BTW, I see lots of Tacomas on the road (mine is a 2013), but I haven't seen any 4th-gen trucks yet.
  • Oberkanone Expect 4Runner to combine best aspects of new Land Cruiser and new Tacoma and this is what I expect from 2025 4Runner.Toyota is REALLY on it's best game recently. Tacoma and Land Cruiser are examples of this.
  • ArialATOMV8 All I hope is that the 4Runner stays rugged and reliable.
  • Arthur Dailey Good. Whatever upsets the Chinese government is fine with me. And yes they are probably monitoring this thread/site.
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