Last spring, the U.S. was up in arms over an alleged electronic malfunction in Toyota vehicles that supposedly caused the cars to accelerate uncontrollably. Lawsuits were files, court rulings were appealed, etc. The car world was generally going nuts.

Now, it turns out there was no electronic malfunction after all – NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examined 280,000 lines of Toyota software, 3,054 complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles, and several dozen individual vehicles.

“There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period.,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

NHTSA officials said the causes were the ones they suspected all along – bulky floor mats, sticky gas pedals, and driver mistakes. “We found that when a complaint alleged the brakes didn’t work, what most likely happened was pedal misapplication,” said deputy NHTSA administrator Ron Medford.

Still, the proposed solution to the problem is, oddly enough, more electronics and more regulations.  NHTSA officials say they’ll be pushing forward with three new rules for vehicles, requiring brake-override software, electronic data recorders, and new rules for keyless ignition so that people don’t get confused when they have to shut down a car by holding a button down for several seconds. NHTSA will also be studying pedal design to see whether vehicles need to be designed with podiatry standards in mind.

Tags: toyota
Categories: Stuff