Cosmic Rays may be Causing Unintended Acceleration in Toyotas

[cali]

Like a story line straight out of a George Lucas film, reports are surfacing that cosmic rays may be responsible for the dangerous cases of unintended acceleration that have spurred the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles.

“Before you dismiss the cosmic ray theory, consider that the issue has been known since the 1950s, and airplane and spacecraft manufacturers design in safeguards that triple-check all data as a defense from such interference from space,” writes Autoblog. “Later, in the 1970s, researchers found that small amounts of this radiation does indeed make it down to the surface and can cause problems with small electronics like cell phones and computers.”

The possibility was brought to light by a “concerned scientist” who sent an email to the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA). The message, which is published in full on Jalopnik, reads: “For reasons I am unable to disclose, I am anonymously submitting several publically available scientific papers that discuss the possibility of cosmic rays disrupting electronics at sea level, essentially flipping a bit from one to zero, or vice versa. This phenomenon is a ‘soft’ error that is not detectable except through redundant electronic and communication systems. The scientific community refers to such occurrences as ‘Single Event Upsets,’ or SEUs.” The scientist goes on to state, “The reason SEUs are now relevant to the automotive industry is because electronics have gotten smaller and the required voltage levels have dropped significantly, therefore making electronics more susceptible to cosmic radiation…”

Toyota, however, denies that SEUs are to blame for reported cases of unintended acceleration. According to the Detroit Free Press: “Toyota staunchly defends its electronics, saying they were designed for ‘absolute reliability.’ Responding to the Free Press, Toyota said its systems ‘are not the same as typical consumer electronics. The durability, size, susceptibility and specifications of the automotive electronics make them robust against this type of interference.’”

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http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/100317-Cosmic-Rays-may-be-Causing-Unintended-Acceleration-in-Toyotas/

[arcadian]

1. Maximum Overdrive

Stephen King predicted this!!!1!!

[951-Riverside]

2. I'm thinking corporate sabotage

I wonder if Toyota has hired a firm to review the coding for their vehicles. Its possible certain cars were maliciously programmed to accelerate randomly when certain conditions were met.

[ladjf]

3. Or, controlled by random remote devices. It would be difficult to

detect. Not too likely, but "remotely" possible. nt/

[Romulox]

10. I've heard that they generally use your *fillings* to control your acceleration.

You know what you need to do!

[tridim]

4. Could be sensors in the road too.

Just due to general RF interference.

[itsrobert]

5. Poor design and quality control

by Toyota. Place blame at Toyota. That's where it needs to be.

[LeftHander]

6. Tin Foil blocks cosmic rays...

I know...the entire inside of the house is coated with foil to stop alien remote mind control. People who don't use tin foil will become socialist commie liberals...

[progressoid]

11. My computer never fails because it is wrapped in tin foil.

But it's really hard to see the screen.

[jmowreader]

12. You know, you might have something there...

Except you're approaching it from the wrong end of the political spectrum.

During the post-World War II housing boom, many houses in the northern part of the US were insulated with "foil backed" fiberglass insulation. They took a piece of kraft paper and glued, using asphalt, a fiberglass batt to one side and a sheet of aluminum foil to the other. Not only did it reflect heat back into the structure, but it had the effect of wrapping the home in a giant tinfoil shield.

In the South, they thought insulation was unnecessary, so many houses weren't insulated at all. "It doesn't get cold enough down here to waste money on insulation!" (A guy I worked with named Jack Harrington had to tear into a perimeter wall of his home. There was 5/8" drywall on the inside, blackboard sheathing on the outside and nothing between.)

The rise of foil-backed insulation parallels the rise of progressive legislation such as the Great Society. The decline of foil-backed insulation parallels the rise of the Moral Majority, prolifers, teabaggers and Fox News.

So...it's all Owens-Corning's fault.

[Xithras]

7. LOL! I have an MSEE, and this is nuts.

Can cosmic rays flip bits? Sure, it happens all the time, and I've had to deal with its aftereffects before. I guarantee that everyone reading this, at some point, has had a program or computer crash because of cosmic ray interference. It's not something we can do anything about, so most people ignore it. Still, any first year EE student can explain what they are, what they do, and how to prevent them from doing serious damage.

A cosmic ray could potentially flip a bit and cause a computer to react in a way that it isn't designed to, but it wouldn't be able to maintain that altered state beyond a few femtoseconds without doing permanent damage to the computer. That WOULD be permanently detectable. If the energy transfer were enough to take the whole computer offline, the car would likely just shut down as the computer stopped feeding coherent commands to the ignition module. Why doesn't that happen? Because modern electronics, and especially automotive electronics which must continually work in adverse conditions, are redundant enough to survive an event like that without error.

Cosmic rays are no joke, and there's a very seriously researched theory that they're responsible for a sizable percentage of human cancers, but it's extremely improbable that they're the cause here. If they were the cause, I'd have to ask one question: Why do cosmic rays hate Toyota so much, and why aren't they targeting other car computers too?

[damntexdem]

8. Carmaker arrays? Yeah, that's credible.

;-)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. I blame the mercury in vaccines.