Are Toyota’s Electronic System Problems to Blame?
With Toyota’s February 2010 announcement of an electronic system upgrade for a new brake override system on certain recalled Toyota vehicles, investigators and regulators wonder if Toyota will, in fact, acknowledge electronic system problems as a cause of the SUA incidents. The brake override system feature ensures that the engine speed is reduced if the accelerator and the brake pedal are depressed simultaneously. According to Dave Gilbert, professor of the automotive technology department at Southern Illinois University, there is a flaw in Toyota’s design of the electronic acceleration system that prevents the vehicle’s onboard computer system from detecting and stopping short circuits. Professor Gilbert believes that this defect can result in sudden speed surges that are left uncorrected by the computer system. With his own investigations, Professor Gilbert detected the electronic problem in four separate vehicles, including the Tundra, Avalon, Matrix, and Lexus models. Toyota denie
