Why the Feds Believe Extraterrestrial Rays Could be Messing With Toyota Vehicles

[Nibiru2012]

Now here's some food for thought!

From: DailyTech.com

3-16-2010

(Source: Warner Brothers)

Could cosmic rays be blame for unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles and crashes?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the possibility, which was raised by an industry tipster.
(Source: SuperChevy.com)
​

Could outer space be endangering Toyota's drivers?

Whether individual reports of runaway Priuses are true or not, the sheer number of complaints and accidents would indicate that many vehicles in Toyota's lineup may have deep underlying issues. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that many American drivers are unaware of all the means at their disposal to stop their vehicles.

The feds are now examining a rather wild theory -- that cosmic radiation may be causing some of Toyota's electrical issues. The feds received an anonymous tip from an industry source that Toyota's microprocessors, memory chips and software may be more sensitive to cosmic rays than its competitors, causing increased incidences of malfunctions. Such problems are commonplace with airplanes or spaceships, raising the need for extremely robust electronic designs.

Sung Chung, who runs a California testing firm, says he believes the tipster may be correct. He states, "I think it could be a real issue with Toyota. [But] nobody wants to come out and say we have issues and we need to test."

Electrical interference could help to explain the unintended acceleration afflicting 13 models across Toyota's lineup, or about 5.6 million vehicles in total. While software and hardware can compensate, to an extent for cosmic interference, cosmic rays can potentially cause the kind of unrepeatable "single event upsets" that could add up to many of the 3,000 complaints against Toyota received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2000.

William Price, who worked at a jet propulsion laboratory studying extraterrestrial electromagnetic interference (EMI) for 20 years, comments, "[It] occurs virtually anywhere. It doesn't happen in a certain locale like you would expect in an electromagnetic problem from a radio tower or something else."

A Toyota spokesperson in a brief comment to Freep.com said that Toyota's protections against extraterrestrial EMI were "robust against this type of interference" and that its vehicles featured "absolute reliability".

Toyota may not be the only one susceptible to cosmic EMI, though. Other manufacturers likely would have similar occurrences even in more reliable designs, albeit less frequently.

Cosmic EMI may turn out to be of little concern, or it may turn out to be a major problem with the increased use of in car electronics. The auto industry used to use mechanical links, but now uses electrical throttle controls to save weight and space, and make other technologies possible, such as stability control. Those benefits could come at a cost, though.


Update:
There's a lot of confusion about what "cosmic interference" or "cosmic EMI" is. "Cosmic interference" or "cosmic radiation" can mean one of two things:
First, disruption due to cosmic rays, which are primarily composed of protons (hydrogen ions), helium nuclei (alpha particles), and high energy electrons. Secondly, cosmic bodies like the sun can transmit self-propagating electromagnetic waves through the vacuum. These waves can be referred to as "cosmic EMI". Cosmic particles can also cause damage, but aren't referred to as EMI. This article is referring to both cosmic rays and cosmic electromagnetic radiation.

 

[Thrax]

Interesting fact: Of the 24 cases of unintended acceleration reported by the media wherein the age of the driver was reported or implied, the median age is 60.5 years old and one third is older than 70.

You can say it's unintended acceleration. I'll say it's old people with poor motor function.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Here's something else, which came to mind when I first heard of these incidents:

TURN OFF THE IGNITION KEY

No, it won't lock the steering wheel either.

 

[catilley1092]

The real issue is in the article, I don't know about the extraterrestrial part, but the article states that there's an increase in electronic parts. That is the major part of Toyota's downfall. I've been a Toyota owner since 1982, 28 years of ownership. My last new purchase was a 2001 Toyota Solara, I'm glad it has a manual throttle cable, and there's a hook for the driver's side floor mat to go in to keep it from sliding forward. Toyota once made a fine product, this led to pressure (from it's customers) to produce, and now. No one wants to hear "we'll have it next week". This led to an increase of production, at the sacrifice of quality. There was a day when you, without doubt, could depend on a Toyota. This will make the older models (which weren't cheap to begin with) increase in value, and the newer ones decrease. And the government, which has a 70% stake in GM, will pour gas on the fire here. Toyota's were built better when their vehicles arrived by boats. I know this firsthand. You could easily drive one for 20 years, if you took minimal care of it. Now, it's became an expensive, average car. I have spent more money on maintenance for that Solara than the last two Toyotas that I had combined. The belts and hoses lasted much longer on the pre-2000 ones. The transmission doesn't even have a filter anymore, you have to change the fluid every 30,000 miles. And they don't purge the entire system, either. They drain what's in the pan, then top it back up. Quality has been thrown completely out of the window, and this comes from a 28 year owner of them. I doubt I'll buy another one, unless they get their act together, stop dodging corporate responsibility for the deaths and injuries of it's owners, stop accusing people of making these things up (in the last incident, the cop could actually smell the brakes burning when he led the owner to safety), and overall, just stand up and take full responsibility for their actions. This includes compensating the victims without a trial taking place. This would cost them short term, but in the long run, it will pay off. "Coming clean" is the best thing Toyota can do right now, before it's too late.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Every car company has its own problems. If you switch companies, you are only switching problems. These cheaply made vehicles are created by all companies. It's simple really people want cheaper vehicles and the companies are giving the people what they want. I'm will soon be 37 and doubt very seriously I will ever witness companies making things to last. There always seems to be a week component somewhere within everything made. Making things to last would go against the idea of job security by keeping the customer purchasing products.

 

[catilley1092]

Every car company has its own problems. If you switch companies, you are only switching problems. These cheaply made vehicles are created by all companies. It's simple really people want cheaper vehicles and the companies are giving the people what they want. I'm will soon be 37 and doubt very seriously I will ever witness companies making things to last. There always seems to be a week component somewhere within everything made. Making things to last would go against the idea of job security by keeping the customer purchasing products.

I agree with you 100% on this post. Everything made today is throwaway stuff. People want the cheapest they can get, that's why Wal-Mart is thriving today. There is nothing to indicate that things will change, either.

 

[Veedaz]

Cat wrote

Everything made today is throwaway stuff. People want the cheapest they can get, that's why Wal-Mart is thriving today. There is nothing to indicate that things will change, either.

Dead right there Cat, quality is hard to get and its getting harder.

 

[draceena]

Hear! Hear!

To make things cheaper, the manufacturers sign a contract with the lowest bidder who, of course, makes things with cheaper resources and the spiraling down of quality continues.

One thing that bugged me about the dude that could not stop his car, could he not put it into Neutral? I know he was panicking and I know I would be too but then think that without the car in Drive there is zero pressure pushing on the wheels to turn...sure the car may 'rev-up' into the red but you'd at least get stopped a lot faster.

 

[catilley1092]

Hear! Hear!

To make things cheaper, the manufacturers sign a contract with the lowest bidder who, of course, makes things with cheaper resources and the spiraling down of quality continues.

One thing that bugged me about the dude that could not stop his car, could he not put it into Neutral? I know he was panicking and I know I would be too but then think that without the car in Drive there is zero pressure pushing on the wheels to turn...sure the car may 'rev-up' into the red but you'd at least get stopped a lot faster.

There were a lot of people who couldn't stop their cars, not just the one dude. Why? I wasn't there, so I don't know. Mabye he was in a state of panic. But one thing I've changed doing since this: Not using cruise control. I'm afraid it will hang, there have been reports of that happening.

 

[xrdguy]

I agree with you 100% on this post. Everything made today is throwaway stuff. People want the cheapest they can get, that's why Wal-Mart is thriving today. There is nothing to indicate that things will change, either.

Dude paying $25,000 for Coroll and more than $30,000 on average for prius is still cheap. What do u want everyone to be paying $85,000 for the cars. Cars in North America at current price is still expensive. The biggest profit cut is going in the pocket of Upper End managers, while suppliers and people working there are still trying to survive. The problem is software which control all these electronics and its because they dont test it properly.

 

[catilley1092]

xrdguy, I agree with you, I still own a Toyota that I bought new in 2001. You're right, $25 to $30 grand for a car is cheap these days. I paid over $22 grand for mine in 2001. Glad that I didn't get the ones that had all of the electronic throttle parts on it. I prefer the old fashioned manual throttle cable.