The government has directed researchers at NASA and the National Academy of Sciences to figure out what causes "unintended acceleration" of cars. NASA's effort, to be completed by the end of summer, will join with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in assessing electronic interference as a possible cause in incidents. Everything from software faults to electromagnetic radiation to cosmic rays are to be addressed. The NAS effort, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is a broader one, probing "not just Toyota, but all vehicles, and not just sudden acceleration, but all electronic controls across the industry." It is expected to take about 15 months to complete.
Total cost for both investigations is estimated at $3 million. The last major effort along these lines came in 1989, when government attention focused on another case of "unintended acceleration," that one involving . NHTSA concluded that the problem was one of driver error, the accelerator being depressed in lieu of the brake pedal.
Toyota's response to these new governmental investigations is a positive one: "These studies are just the kind of science-based examination we have been calling for. Bringing some sunshine to this subject is bound to separate fact from fiction, which will be good for Toyota, the industry and the motoring public."
A fact to consider: Toyota and other of the world's automakers possess considerable expertise in matters of electromagnetic interference. Standards set by SAE International and the International Standards Organization define parameters such as FM broadcast interference, cell phone interference and more general radiated magnetic interference. SAE J551, J1113-24; ISO 11451, ISO 11452 are examples. These in turn give rise to national and international regulations defining immunity to such interference. Automakers respond typically with broad margins of safety.
As an example, the EU's ECE-R10 regulation requires vehicle immunity to high-frequency interference (think cell phone communication) as potent as 30 volts/meter. Toyota—and no doubt other automakers—sets its internal development target at 200 v/m.
Some fictions to consider: One highly publicized runaway has since been attributed by police to pedal error—the driver's foot on the accelerator, not the brake. In another, onboard data recovery suggested that the driver depressed accelerator and brake alternately at least 250 times in the 23-mile incident.
What a promising idea: separating fact from fiction.