Toyota Recalls: Deeper Engineering Implications

Some good points there.
It does beg the question (in these days of supposedly striving for fuel economy) why would fuel still be injected into the engine when the brakes are applied (even if the throttle is stuck wide open)?
Anyone heard of 'fail safe'?
I do realise that it's easy to make smart smart comments after an event..and my software isn't error free (mind, you don't rely on it at 90mph...)

Del

Fail safe is the ignition switch many of these cars have a push on push off type switch and the public is very slow to change if your use to turning a key to shut the engine off in a panic you will not push the button DO NOT take away the throttle when I apply the brake if you think this is OK take a REAL drivers training class you will learn that to snap the throttle or fuel off when braking changes the dynamics of the vehicle way to harshly for high speed manuvering watch a road course event its called heel toe braking STOP dumbing down cars in the name of safety it only makes for poor drivers you can not save us from our self

I know that, and obviously it would be after say quarter a second of hard braking or some such, with an apropriate algorithm..
And how many 'ordinary' motorists ever heel and toe? In fact how many people who have heard of it can actually do it?
Anyhow I didn't say snap the fuel or throttle off, things can be done gently...

I'm sure if you want to play rally driver you can get a suitable vehicle and somewhere to play.

I don't want cars dumbed down in theory but I'm sure ABS has saved many lives and the sooner we have cars that stop people tailgating at 90mph the sooner more lives will be saved.
Del

I used to own an MGTD back in New York and would participate in sports car rallies. "Heel and Toe" was a technique I never could master. I guess the pedals were not in the right position. I could double clutch without any trouble, but combining the two was not to be.

The best response to a stuck throttle is to shift the tranny into Neutral. In this way, the vehicle will maintain power steering and brakes.

What? Ever take a grammar class?

I noticed a couple of implied but not stated engineering points in this excellent EETimes article. One of the pivotal reasons that these outlier failure modes cannot be tested for during prototype development comes from differences in assembly techniques. The highly skilled prototype teams are appropriately trained to notice difficulties in assembly to improve the final product's assembly. But because this critical staff is so well qualified and motivated, very subtle imperfections in the material used may never be consciously eliminated from the prototype, yet still be eliminated from the prototypes.

Another implied reason that outlier failure modes are so difficult to predict stems from the need to now include the myriad of very unlikely scenarios. Each individual scenario itself is so unlikely that actively mitigating any individual problem will likely meet the wrath from management and peers for wasting resources and efforts. Yet the large number of different possibilities nearly guarantees one of the unlikely scenarios will become a problem.

So it is true, if you don't put the right amount of sugar in the proverbial "Mrs Murphy's" tea, she will leave her jam sandwich under the carpet ....... and you will end up with a sticky accelerator!