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Tag: unintended acceleration

  • Toyota Tackles Unintended Acceleration With Big Data

    Toyota Tackles Unintended Acceleration With Big Data

    According to Reuters, Toyota is applying big data in an effort to prevent unintended acceleration, especially that caused by driver error.

    It happens every decade or so: A major auto manufacturer is sued for unintended acceleration, only to have studies show that many cases are the result of driver error. It happened in the 1980s with Audi, and more recently in the 2000’s with Toyota. In each case, investigations showed that many unintended acceleration cases were caused by drivers accidentally activating the gas pedal.

    Now, Toyota has “unveiled an emergency safety system on Monday that uses big data to ignore the accelerator if it determines the driver steps on the pedal unintentionally.” Toyota is calling the feature it’s “accelerator suppression function,” and it will roll out first in Japan.

    While the company’s first-generation Safety Sense package was implemented in 2015, this new version was developed using data from its connected vehicles already on the road. Unlike Safety Sense, this version does need to encounter an obstacle to engage and activate breaking.

    Toyota’s move comes as auto makers are building increasingly intelligent vehicles that significantly improve driver safety.

  • Tesla Says No ‘Unintended Acceleration’ In Vehicles

    Tesla Says No ‘Unintended Acceleration’ In Vehicles

    Following a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall Tesla vehicles for “unintended acceleration,” Tesla has responded saying there is no evidence to support the claim.

    Brian Sparks originally filed the request on September 30, 2019 and said “it appears ​Tesla vehicles have a Sudden Unintended Acceleration Problem​ and ​Tesla must know about this problem.”

    In their response today, Tesla calls the petition “completely false” and says Sparks is a Tesla stock short-seller. CNBC confirms that Sparks “is currently shorting Tesla stock,” calling into question his motivations.

    In the meantime, after going into the technical details as to why unintended acceleration should not be possible, Tesla highlighted their ongoing cooperation with the NHTSA:

    “We are transparent with NHTSA, and routinely review customer complaints of unintended acceleration with them,” says the blog post. “Over the past several years, we discussed with NHTSA the majority of the complaints alleged in the petition. In every case we reviewed with them, the data proved the vehicle functioned properly.”