Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Technology, Toyota



Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota executive vice president in charge of research and development, has confirmed that a software glitch has caused the company's event data recorder readers to misinterpret speeds during accidents. According to Automotive News, the executive admits that his company had previously underscored the fact that it couldn't say whether or not there was a problem with the black boxes themselves. The software bug in the readers came to light during the manufacturer's investigation into instances of unintended acceleration. Even so, Uchiyamda (above, left) says that there's no reason to doubt the rest of the readings from the EDRs.

Both Toyota and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration have found that in the majority of runaway vehicle cases, driver error has been to blame, though some incidents were caused by entrapped accelerator pedals.

Despite the problem, Uchiyamada has warned against using the EDR reader defect to discredit all of the data collected by the devices, noting that the glitch has since been remedied and that the rest of the readings accurately recorded.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req. | Image: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty]
Report: Toyota admits black box bug can give false speed readings originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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