Toyota says software glitch can give faulty speed readings

[DainBramaged]

Source: Automotive News (subscription only)

A top Toyota executive says the crash data boxes in its vehicles are reliable but a bug in the software that reads the information can provide inaccurate vehicle speeds.

The disclosure comes as the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration continues its investigation into unintended acceleration of Toyota models.

“Toyota has acknowledged previously that the event data recorders are not accurate,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, executive vice president in charge of research and development. “We have been able to determine that there is no defect in the event data recorders.”

But, “we have found that there was a software bug in the event data recorder readers that download data. The bug had to do with data that indicated speed,” he said. The issue was discovered this past spring and has since been corrected.




Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100914/OEM/100919951/1424

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Toyota has acknowledged previously that the event data recorders are not accurate


Really? I wonder why?????? Who re-programmed them during what service visit???

[snooper2]

1. reading comprehension issue?

I know you really love to bash Toyota but you can do better than this...

Previously they thought the recorders had a problem--
Next
They did more research-
Next
Discovered that the readers of the data recorder had the issue
Next
Fixed the issue with the readers...


Here's a linky for you

http://www.theteacherscorner.net/lesson-plans/reading/

[tabatha]

3. ???

[Kolesar]

5. Toyota now has plausible deniability for their previous lies about driver error

Now they can craft another story as they try to back pedal out of their previous statements.

[DainBramaged]

6. Every month, the stories change, and I've kept a record of my posts in my journal

Toyota is doing EVERYTHING possible to limit liability in the suits by those who have lost loved ones to their lies. And those that defend them here may as well reveal themselves to be members of another political party. Because the dead cannot speak for themselves, it is unfortunate the living try to sully their reputations.

[tabatha]

2. Bugs in software

have caused a number of problems. I seem to remember

- the test of a cruise missile failed

- some medical equipment overdosed radiation?

- there are more that don't come to mind right now

software is tricky to test.

On edit - here are some failures:

http://www5.in.tum.de/~huckle/bugse.html

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2010/transparent-medical-devices.html

* In 1982 a Lockheed F-117 aircraft was crashed because of a software bug. The software interchanged the "yaw rudder" with "pitch elevator".
* Because of a code number mix-up, in September 1994, three parking offenders in Bayreuth, Germany got charged with "preparation of a war".
* In 1985 in a assembly hall of General Motors all the black cars were assembled without the windscreen. Why? Because a Robot couldn't recognize the "Black" color.
* The "shutdown melody" of the Siemens S65 mobile was so loud when the battery was faint, some even got hearing damages.
* In1996 a Prototype of the Ariane 5 rocket of the European space agency was destroyed because they used the software from Ariane 4 rocket.
* 1985 - 1986 few patients were killed in a hospital in USA because the medicine dose was calculated wrongly.
* In 1962 NASA lost their 80 Million Dollar "Mariner 1" because of a missing "hyphen" in the program code.
* Because of a "prefix" error in a F-16 Attack Aircraft, it turns upside down every time it flew over the equator.

[DURHAM D]

4. Come on Toyota -

Its not a bug - its a feature.

[kirby]

7. Insurance companies...

This is the same inaccurate data that insurance companies would like to have access to in order to tie your insurance rates to your speeds. The same inaccurate data that law enforcement would use as evidence against you.

[DainBramaged]

8. Toyota, the white bread of the automotive industry

their demographic is as old as Buick's.

[Omaha Steve]

9. Thank you for posting my old friend

You beat me to it. Sorry I duped your post. And it was the black box that was used to defend Toyota in 53 Unintended Acceleration cases.

K&R!