Steve Woczniak (sp?), cofounder of Apple, was recently featured in news reports. He has a Prius that accelerated unexpectedly, and said that he suspects software problems, rather than hardware.
Cheers, Lawry -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Vo]:Toyota's continuing troubles featured in Japanese news This is sorta off topic . . . As you would expect Toyota's technical troubles have been featured in the Japanese print and broadcast news for the past several days. This morning's headlines in the Asahi and Yomiuri are about the Prius, which has not been suspected of having problems up until now. Briefly -- The Japanese NHTSA (equivalent) now says that since May 2009 there have been 77 reported incidents of brake failure with recently manufactured Priuses in Japan. The U.S. NHTSA says there have been 102 reported incidents with Prius brakes in the U.S. (Yomiuri). Translation: "The problem is said to occur when the car is braking at slow speeds on uneven surfaces. When the wheels pass over a gap in the surface, the brakes often cease to operate momentarily. When the driver presses the brake pedal several times the brakes begin working again. Reports say this problem has caused accidents with injuries." Some experts now suspect software problems may be affecting both the acceleration and braking in several Toyota models. This was reported yesterday in the U.S. I think I recall U.S. news sources say the NTSB reports there have been ~2,000 accidents with Toyota accelerators, 800 accidents, and 20 fatalities. I found the 2,000 figure but I cannot find the other two. Here is a detailed report on Toyota's troubles, which is pretty damning: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/01toyota.html "Toyota's Slow Awakening to a Deadly Problem," January 31, 2010 - Jed
