Owner can set off sudden acceleration in a Toyota (Don't try this athome!)

Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times,
usually in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at
between 65 and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it. But it has never
happened in his wife's 2004 Toyota Camry.

Full article at:
http://www.freep.com/article/2010020.../2010368/1331/

john wrote:
> Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
> experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times,
> usually in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at
> between 65 and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it. But it has never
> happened in his wife's 2004 Toyota Camry.
>
> Full article at:
> http://www.freep.com/article/2010020.../2010368/1331/


On this evening's network news, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reported
the same misbehavior in his 2010 Prius.

I Googled the article, scary:

"Wozniak said he was surprised several months ago when his 2010 Toyota
Prius started accelerating on its own -- to as much as 97 mph -- when
he used cruise control to increase the vehicle's speed. He said he had
to tap the brakes to stop the car from accelerating.

Wozniak, 59, wanted to alert Toyota Motor Corp. and the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration to the possible safety issue,
but he grew frustrated when he was unable to reach someone who would
listen. A local dealership did not respond to his concerns, he said."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,3057333.story


On Feb 2, 5:10*pm, Not Me > wrote:
>
> On this evening's network news, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reported
> the same misbehavior in his 2010 Prius.

Wow, even with a $34,000 Prius.


"Not Me" > wrote in message
t...
> john wrote:
>> Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
>> experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times,
>> usually in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at
>> between 65 and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it. But it has never
>> happened in his wife's 2004 Toyota Camry.
>>
>> Full article at:
>> http://www.freep.com/article/2010020.../2010368/1331/
>
>
> On this evening's network news, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reported
> the same misbehavior in his 2010 Prius.

"Wozniak is famous for collecting technology he likes, including Segways,
iPhones and Priuses. "No product is perfect," he said. "I would buy another
one."

He should know, he is an Apple co-founder


"john" > wrote in message
...
I Googled the article, scary:

"Wozniak said he was surprised several months ago when his 2010 Toyota
Prius started accelerating on its own -- to as much as 97 mph -- when
he used cruise control to increase the vehicle's speed. He said he had
to tap the brakes to stop the car from accelerating.

Wozniak, 59, wanted to alert Toyota Motor Corp. and the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration to the possible safety issue,
but he grew frustrated when he was unable to reach someone who would
listen. A local dealership did not respond to his concerns, he said."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,3057333.story


On Feb 2, 5:10 pm, Not Me > wrote:
>
> On this evening's network news, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reported
> the same misbehavior in his 2010 Prius.

"Mike Hunter" <Mikehunt2@lycos,com> wrote in
:

> "Wozniak is famous for collecting technology he likes, including
> Segways, iPhones and Priuses. "No product is perfect," he said. "I
> would buy another one."
>
> He should know, he is an Apple co-founder
>
>
He's more than that, He *invented* the apple computer single-handedly. Both
of their first products I think. The Apple 1 and II.Look up his name and
Captain Crunch if you want to see what he did for fun before that.

On Feb 2, 7:00*pm, john > wrote:
> Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
> experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times,
> usually in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at
> between 65 and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it. But it has never
> happened in his wife's 2004 Toyota Camry.
>
> Full article at:http://www.freep.com/article/2010020.../2010368/1331/

Dunno.. Unless the cruise is drastically increasing the speed
to a level over what the cruise is set at, sounds fairly normal.
I don't know about the new versions, but I know my 05 Corolla
is very aggressive at regaining speed if it drops below the set speed.
So if you had it set at say, 70mph, and then disconnected it and
let the speed drop to say 60 and then reset it, it will punch the
throttle pretty good to get back up to speed. In the case of the
Corolla, it will often downshift. Many times two gears down.
I'll see this if I'm going up a grade and the speed keeps dropping
off. There is actually no need to downshift at all in most cases,
but the programming tells it to do it. And this programming is
coming from the aggressive cruise control, not the throttle per say.
I bet the downshifting is why he saw the drastic rpm increase.

If I go up a hill and it downshifts, if I disconnect the cruise, it
instantly shifts back to high gear. This quirk annoys the heck
out of me, but I do not consider it a defect. It's just the way they
programmed it. My cure is to manually apply the gas going up
steep grades and override the cruise. That way it doesn't slow
down below set speed and want to punch it and downshift.

So really that story means nothing to me, unless the guy can
state that the speed runs way past the set speed. There is
no mention of the final speed it gets up to. When normal, it
will quickly up shift and throttle down quite near the set speed.
It will not drastically overrun it.
But with a resume like he's talking about, it's quite normal
to feel like speed racer just sat in the seat on your lap. :/
Or at least I know it is on some models like mine..
It's not a defect. It's just overly aggressive at throttling up
when it senses too low a speed, because it was too slow at
slowly throttling up to keep the same speed on the grade like it
really should be doing.

Now if his is taking off and wanting to do 100 mph, yep,
Houston we would have a problem.. :/

On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:30 -0800, john wrote:

>
> Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
> experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times, usually
> in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at between 65
> and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it.

Wow. Earth shaking revelation there, johhny!

You don't really know a lot about cars, do you? OF COURSE there's a
'surge', dimwit! You've cancelled the cruise and then reengaged it.
It's going to 'surge' back to the set point, and may actually go a little
over before settling down.

Thanks for proving you're actually as stupid as we thought you were.

"john" > wrote in message
...
> Chuck Eaton, a retired industrial engineer in Greer, S.C., said he has
> experienced a surge in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma three or four times,
> usually in warmer weather, when he deactivates the cruise control at
> between 65 and 70 m.p.h., then quickly resets it. But it has never
> happened in his wife's 2004 Toyota Camry.


I have noted an agressive acceleration in both my cars under the same
circumstances, but it is NOT an uncontrollable runaway acceleration.
It is just the nature of the beast.

I guess Toyota could reprogram that situation, but in my case it is not
a problem at all.

"fred" > wrote in message
...
> "Mike Hunter" <Mikehunt2@lycos,com> wrote in
> :
>
>> "Wozniak is famous for collecting technology he likes, including
>> Segways, iPhones and Priuses. "No product is perfect," he said. "I
>> would buy another one."
>>
>> He should know, he is an Apple co-founder
>>
>>
> He's more than that, He *invented* the apple computer single-handedly.
> Both
> of their first products I think. The Apple 1 and II.Look up his name and
> Captain Crunch if you want to see what he did for fun before that.

Segways HAVE to be about the most pretentious product imaginable. They just
LOOK arrogant with a Capital A.


>