Almost a week after Toyota reassessed its recall notice of almost 4M vehicles, it was found that maybe there was a little more to their floormat theory. But wait...let's step back a bit...enter dream sequence and the faint musical stylings of Duran Duran drift in. I am sitting behind the wheel of an Audi 5000S. Great vehicle with German prowess, Quattro all-wheel drive, and a bad case of unintended acceleration! Pulling into a garage, the 5000S takes off like a shot, damaging the parking structure and injuring the driver. Valets have declined to park the 5000S for fear of injuring themselves and others citing unintended acceleration. In the smoothest of PR moves, Audi cited operator error and those mysterious floormats. And what was the result? It took a little over 15 years for Audi to recover from bad press, the possibility of flawed design, and the suffering of those injured by a perceived automotive mishap.Much has been done to safeguard against this possible occurrence. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche utilize throttle-by-wire or drive-by-wire. Instead of having a mechanical throttle body with the necessary cabling, the throttle is electronically controlled by the accelerator pedal. After Audi's debacle, the German automakers implemented a smart pedal. Whether or not the accelerator is intentionally or unintentionally depressed, by stepping on the brake, the accelerator disengages. In this respect, it is similar to disengaging the cruise control when the brake pedal is depressed. The development of the smart pedal is crucial to the safety of an accelerator malfunction.
Now enter Toyota. Touted with safety features and economy of design, Toyota employs the
drive-by-wire system, but there is a catch. Deemed too costly, Toyota decided to turn a blind eye to the hard-learned lesson of Audi and took a pass on installing a smart pedal. The result, unintended acceleration. Now with recalls underway and dealers not fully prepared to implement the multi-visit repair, the Toyota driving consumer is afraid to take their beloved out on the road. Kudos to Toyota for being forced to make the recall...
And speaking of forced, where is Fritz? Herr Henderson is no more. Relinquishing the reins at GM, Ed Whitacre once again steps in to save the "we will pay back those billions in bailout money" day. Fritz, a career GM man, was deemed ineffective, having asked that management refrain from calling him an interim CEO, as that nomenclature would undermine his authority. The authority to lose money and play the corporate fall guy? No
worries Fritz, mud is your name. And keeping in the GM tradition, former Buick guy (though recently seen in a crumpled Cadillac Escalade), Tiger Woods, has made apologies for his indiscretion, questionable driving skills, questionable romantic associations, Caller ID, and mostly, apologies for the Buick Skylark.
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