Autoblog

Toyota responds to video of Highlander ramming house [w/video]

Jeffrey N. Ross — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:29:00 EST

There are, as they say, two sides to every story, so after we posted a video on Monday showing what an owner claimed to be a case of unintended acceleration causing her Toyota Highlander to crash into a house twice, Toyota reached out to us revealing some additional information about the incident.

Following this crash, which took place back in November, Toyota had this Highlander inspected and pulled data from its Event Data Recorder (EDR), or Black Box as we've come to call it. Not only was this the first time we've seen a claim of unintended acceleration like this caught on video, but now, also a first, we have actual data showing what the vehicle itself recorded during this frightening ordeal.

Brian Lyons, Toyota Communications Manager for Safety and Quality, first gave us some information about the Highlander in question, including the fact that it was a 2012 model. The 2012 Highlander came from the factory with a brake override system, meaning it was not part of the company's initiative in 2010 to add the system to all 2011 models. Also, after looking at the data from the EDR, he said - as many of you pointed out in the comments for the previous post - that the "brake pedal was never touched." In the video, you can see that the crossover's brake lights never come on, and the EDR's data backs this up.

The data pulled from the EDR - posted in the gallery below as two images - shows the two "events," which were recorded each time the vehicle impacted the house. In the first event, the data provided by Toyota shows that 3.6 seconds before the impact, the vehicle began to slow down before speeding up to almost 15 miles per hour as it slammed into the house. In the second event, which resulted in a more violent collision with the house, the Highlander reached speeds of almost 30 mph with the engine racing at 4,400 rpm. In both images, it shows that the brake switch was in the "OFF" position the entire time, indicating that the driver was not attempting to press the brake. We asked Toyota if a faulty brake switch would cause the data to show the brake switch "off" and not allow the brake override to operate properly, and Lyons said no. Plus, there is a hard physical connection from the brake pedal to the brakes themselves, so an electrical fault couldn't have kept them from functioning.

Here's a portion of the letter that Toyota sent to the vehicle's owner after the inspection:

Your vehicle's throttle, accelerator and related components were inspected and found operating as designed, within factory specifications. No binding or obstructions were found in the throttle components. The brake system was also inspected and no problems were found.

The video is reposted below for you to watch. We reached out to the owner of the Highlander for a comment, but have yet to receive a response.

Continue reading Toyota responds to video of Highlander ramming house [w/video]

Toyota responds to video of Highlander ramming house [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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White House clears way for NHTSA to mandate vehicle black boxes

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:16:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Ford, GM, Mazda, Toyota

At present, over 90 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States today are equipped with event data recorders, more commonly known as black boxes. If the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gets its way, that already high figure will swell to a full 100 percent in short order.

Such automotive black boxes have been in existence since the 1990s, and all current Ford, General Motors, Mazda and Toyota vehicles are so equipped. NHTSA has been attempting to make these data recorders mandatory for automakers, and according to The Detroit News, the White House Office of Management Budget has just finished reviewing the proposal, clearing the way. Now NHTSA is expected to draft new legislation to make the boxes a requirement.

One problem with current black boxes is that there's no set of standards for automakers to follow when creating what bits of data are recorded, and for how long or in what format it is stored. In other words, one automaker's box is probably not compatible with its competitors.

Expect all these issues to be worked out "in the coming months," according to NHTSA spokeswoman Lynda Tran.

White House clears way for NHTSA to mandate vehicle black boxes originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In-car black box regulation still on track for September 1

Zach Bowman — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Technology

According to The Detroit News, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is set to move forward with new rules governing the standardization of data recorders on new cars. The rules will take effect on September 1 of this year.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had petitioned NHTSA to postpone the requirement until at least September 1, 2013, but the government agency rejected the appeal. The group said that manufacturers that are currently using older event data recorders may simply disable the devices to comply with the new rules since the regulations don't actually force new cars to have the black boxes. General Motors, for example, has said it will disable some event data recorder functionality on both Chevrolet Malibu and GMC Savana models.

The rules aim to standardize exactly what information EDR modules collect and the format with which the devices store the data. Manufacturers will be required to record 15 vehicle parameters. Right now, a total of 90 percent of new vehicles for sale in the U.S. have EDRs. Eventually, NHTSA expects to mandate the technology on all new vehicles. Such a mandate was originally expected to fall at some point this year, but has been repeatedly delayed by the government agency. NHTSA estimates it will cost around $24.4 million to include the recorders the remaining 10 percent of unequipped models.

In-car black box regulation still on track for September 1 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Judge cautions jurors over Toyota conduct in sudden acceleration case

Zach Bowman — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:59:00 EST

Filed under: Budget, Sedan, Etc., Government/Legal, Safety, Toyota

Judge James V. Selna has warned jurors in a wrongful death suit about suspicions surrounding Toyota. According to Inside Line, the warning comes tied to the automaker's conduct during an investigation of a 2008 Camry involved in a fatal crash allegedly caused by unintended acceleration. The single-car accident in Utah claimed the lives of the driver, Pual van Alfen, as well as one other passenger. Two passengers were also injured in the event on November 5, 2010. According to the report, two weeks later, Toyota inspected the sedan without the owner's presence or consent, including the onboard black box. Judge Selena cautioned jurors that they should treat the testimony of Toyota personnel who participated in the investigation with "greater caution than that of other witnesses."

Plaintiffs argued that without their own lawyers present during the inspection, data from the Event Data Recorder could have been changed or deleted entirely. The Judge said that while there was no evidence that Toyota did so, the fact that the automaker failed to notify the owner of the inspection casts a "cloud of suspicion" over the examination.

Judge cautions jurors over Toyota conduct in sudden acceleration case originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Senate OKs mandatory black boxes in cars for 2015, House expected to follow

Jeff Sabatini — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:31:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

It's been working its way through Congress for years, but according to Car and Driver, an event recorder mandate could soon become law. The Senate has already voted to adopt a transportation bill that would make the so-called "black boxes" mandatory by the 2015 model year. According to the report, the House of Representatives is also expected to pass a similar statute.

While the specifics of the bills are "vague" - to use C/D's words - they're also likely to change before becoming law. What probably won't, according to the report, is the standard data set that the Department of Transportation has set forth, 15 measurements that include direction of acceleration, throttle position, and time that the airbags fired, among others.

This raises the specter of government snooping, of course. The Senate version at least specifies that the data contained in the little electronic box is actually owned by the owner of the vehicle, according to the report. Johnny Law can still come around with a warrant to gain access to it, however, and first responders and paramedics would be able to do so without the warrant, provided they needed the information to respond to the emergency.

Senate OKs mandatory black boxes in cars for 2015, House expected to follow originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 May 2012 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Toyota admits black box bug can give false speed readings

Zach Bowman — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:28:00 EST

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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Report: Toyota's event data recorders have a history of problems

Zach Bowman — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:28:00 EST

Filed under: Safety, Technology, Toyota

According to a report in The Washington Post, the event data recorders the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration used to investigate claims of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles have a history of problems. In one incident, a Toyota pickup that struck a tree in a single car accident was recorded as going 177 mph - far faster than any T100 we've ever seen. A separate reading from the same device put the truck's speed at a more feasible 75 mph. The article even says that Toyota itself has warned about the reliability of data collected from the so-called black boxes by stressing that the recorders were not intended to be used as crash-reconstruction devices. In the recent past, Toyota has already been accused of being 'secretive' about providing access to their black box data.

The EDRs in question apparently also have a history of being inaccurate about more than just speed. In another case, the device onboard recorded that both passengers had their seat belts unbuckled at the time of impact when in reality, one individual was safely buckled in.

Unfortunately, government researchers have little other recourse when it comes to substantiating or refuting claims of runaway Toyota products. NHTSA just recently released a preliminary report saying that over half of the instances in which the vehicles seemed out of control were actually attributable to the driver applying the wrong pedal at the wrong time. The Washington Post has indicated that the unreliability of the EDRs leaves some question as to the validity of those findings. They may have a point. Thanks for the tip, FYI!

[Source: The Washington Post | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]

Report: Toyota's event data recorders have a history of problems originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Intel developing new automotive black box

Zach Bowman — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:35:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Technology

Big Brother really wants to get into your future vehicle. Intel is currently hard at work on the next generation of vehicle event data recorders, the infamous black boxes that Congress has clamored for since Toyota's unintended acceleration problems dominated headlines earlier this year. According to The New York Times, these new black boxes may do a lot more than just record things like vehicle speed and whether you're wearing your seatbelt. Intel's prototype will incorporate GPS and all of a vehicle's onboard cameras for real-time mapping of the road conditions.

As if that's not intrusive enough, Intel proposes that the EDRs record up to 30 seconds of interior video as well. While this level of information would likely prove helpful in determining who's at fault in an accident, there's the prickly question of who owns that information once it's stored in the vehicle. Does it belong to vehicle manufacturers as it does now? Should the government be able to lay claim to it without a warrant? Will insurance companies be able to use EDR data any way they see fit, or does it belong to the owner of the vehicle? This could get ugly, and it probably will before all's said and done.

[Source: The New York Times]

Report: Intel developing new automotive black box originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: U.S. safety bill could triple cost of automotive black boxes to $5,000

Zach Bowman — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:41:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

When word first came down that Congress was looking to mandate that all new vehicles to be sold with Event Data Recorders, we knew that the added tech was going to be pricey. According to Automotive News, if legislators have their way, the new automotive black boxes will need to be both fire resistant and waterproof. Add in a significant amount of recording time before and after an accident, and suddenly the price tag per unit could soar up to a lofty $4,000 to $5,000. Currently, the EDRs track about five seconds worth of information just before an accident, though some legislators are pushing for up to 75 seconds of recording pre-crash. Between the fire insulation and added recording time, analysts believe the devices will swell to shoebox size, also creating a new packaging issue for automakers.

And who's going to be shelling out the cash for the indestructible, mammoth recorders? The short answer is the automakers, though you can bet they won't just be soaking up the cost out of the goodness of their hearts. Odds are that $4,000-per-box price tag will be passed right along to consumers if such devices become law, so don't be surprised to see sticker prices climb if the boxes become mandatory in 2015.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

Report: U.S. safety bill could triple cost of automotive black boxes to $5,000 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 31 May 2010 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: House committee passes bill requiring black boxes, brake overide systems

Zach Bowman — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

A massive auto safety overhaul bill has made its way out of committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives for voting. According to Automotive News, the biggest changes that the bill proposes is the mandatory addition of black boxes and brake override mechanisms to all new cars and trucks. The event-data recorders would track information shortly before and after an accident for a specified period of time in order to help investigators determine the cause of an accident. Legislators and manufacturers alike began to push for the recorders in the wake of multiple accidents associated with Toyota's unintended acceleration woes.

Originally, the bill would have required the black boxes to record data for a total of 75 seconds, though the House Energy and Commerce committee changed the legislation to allow the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to determine the length. The bill also deals with regulations concerning pushbutton starts, pedal placement and a number of other auto-safety issues. If the bill passes the House of Representatives, it will be sent to the Senate for a final vote before becoming law.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

Report: House committee passes bill requiring black boxes, brake overide systems originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota president Lentz updates feds on recall and safety progress

Zach Bowman — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:40:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, Toyota

Jim Lentz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Toyota in North America has taken some time to update Congress on the company's progress as the company sallies forth through a mountain of recalls. Lentz says that around 3.5 million fixes have been executed so far, including 1.67 million sticky accelerator pedals, 1.62 million floor mats and 118,000 anti-lock brake system program updates. Those figures mark 70 percent of all of the vehicles under the sticking-accelerator recall and Toyota says that it has been performing somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000 fixes per week on average.

Lentz also says that his company has complied with mandates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by bringing a total of 150 Event Data Recorder readout machines to the States. Those are the handy little gizmos that allow researchers to pull and analyze the information gathered pre- and post-crash by Toyota vehicles. The greater number of EDR machines should allow Toyota to respond to any future issues more quickly than in the past.

According to a published statement, Toyota has reiterated that it all of its new cars and trucks are to be equipped with brake override systems - something that is expected to be mandatory for all automakers within a few short years. Hop the jump to read the transcript of Lentz's statement before Congress.

[Source: Toyota | Image: Mark Wilson/Getty]

Continue reading Toyota president Lentz updates feds on recall and safety progress

Toyota president Lentz updates feds on recall and safety progress originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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USA Today investigates how automotive 'black boxes' can help recreate accidents

Jonathon Ramsey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Safety, Toyota

Long before shows like CSI misled the public about how long a DNA test takes and introduced the mythical world of "zoom and enhance," airplane black boxes were making people think you could minutely recreate an air disaster if you could just get the box. Not so. Turns out that quite a few cars sold in the U.S. have black boxes as well, with the same limitations: you can retrieve a certain set of data from them, but its quality and usefulness varies.

Toyota has been phasing black boxes into its cars since 2001, but stresses that the data collected is for "general safety research, not accident reconstruction." The data collected comes from several collection points like the acceleration and airbag modules. While it can help solve a case like the one of the zooming Prius in New York, where the woman was actually pressing the accelerator and not the brake, in other cases it won't prove effective, such as when the data being gathered is from the same corrupt source that's part of the problem.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has laid out some uniform regulations to cover black boxes from 2012. Just about every automaker selling cars here uses them, but they collect different data and an owner's access to that data differs across the country. Carmakers are generally in agreement with the new regs, but want to push the date back a year to fall in line with vehicle development timelines. The bigger issue, though, isn't what a black box is going to record, but what it will do with those recordings, who can get to them, and how easily.

[Source: USA Today]

USA Today investigates how automotive 'black boxes' can help recreate accidents originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Toyota 'secretive' about black box data

Steven J. Ewing — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:59:00 EST

Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Toyota

Due to the ongoing NHTSA investigation and several lawsuits involving Toyota, the automaker's in-car "black box" data is coming into the spotlight. However, the Associated Press has conducted an investigation of its own, finding that Toyota has, for years, blocked access to event data recorder (EDR) information, and that the automaker has been inconsistent in revealing exactly what these devices do and do not record.

In this investigation, AP found that Toyota has frequently refused to provide information crucial to crash victims and survivors, and that in some lawsuits, the automaker has routinely provided printouts with key information missing. What's more (this much we knew already), AP reports that Toyota's EDRs use proprietary software (meaning it can only be read by Toyota), and that until just recently, there was only one computer in the entire United States that contained the software needed to rear EDR data.

In a statement to AP, Toyota outlined exactly what information its EDRs collect, including vehicle speed, gear shift position, angle of the driver's seat, whether the seat belt was used, and the accelerator and brake pedals' angles. In the coming months, we'd expect that Toyota starts to make more of this information readily available, especially with its committed cooperation to ongoing safety investigations.

[Source: The Associated Press via Yahoo | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]

Report: Toyota 'secretive' about black box data originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM comes out in support of black box legislation

Sam Abuelsamid — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:29:00 EST

Filed under: Safety, Technology, GM

As of today, when incidents like sudden acceleration happen, it's extremely difficult to diagnose conclusively what the cause was. Without a mechanism to track exactly what the driver did, what the vehicle sensors detected and how the vehicle responded, it usually ends up being a he said/she said situation.

Thus, in the wake of recent allegations of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, a movement has begun to equip all cars with black box data recorders.
Representative Gene Green (D-TX) has already introduced legislation that would mandate the installation of such event data recorders, or black boxes, in all new vehicles.

General Motors has now come out publicly in favor of the proposal. GM has been installing event data recorders in its cars since 1995 as part of the air bag system. In accidents where the airbags are triggered, GM can use the data stored in the EDR for diagnostic purposes to improve the function of its safety systems. The recorders save the last few seconds of data before a crash from a number of sensors. GM is not only supporting the installation of these recorders in all vehicles, but also supports making the data accessible so that accident causes can be more accurately determined.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading GM comes out in support of black box legislation

GM comes out in support of black box legislation originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NHTSA requires disclosing "black box" details

Eric Bryant — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:04:00 EST

Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Technology

Starting in 2011, automakesr will be required to inform consumers if their new vehicle includes an event data recorder, or "black box". Such devices have recently come under fire from privacy advocates, as manufacturers have been somewhat less than forthcoming about information on the devices.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) will also require that any data recorder be capable of gathering at least 15 pieces of information, but stopped short of requiring that the devices be installed on every new vehicle. Currently, over 60% of new vehicles include black boxes that are triggered by the deployment of a vehicle's supplemental restrain systems.

As expected, no one seems satisfied with NHTSA's ruling. Public Citizen's Joan Claybrook was quite unhappy after hearing that the recorders will not be required across the board, while representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union did not like the fact that certain issues regarding the use of crash data were not addressed.

[Source: AP/Yahoo!]

NHTSA requires disclosing "black box" details originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NHTSA creating universal standard for automotive 'black box'

John Neff — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:58:00 EST

Filed under: Gadgets, Government/Legal, Technology

Though you may not realize it, your car is probably equipped with an automotive 'black box'. Also known as Event Data Recorders, these devices record information from a vehicle's various sensors during a crash - everything from airbag performance to the angle of the steering wheel to the speed of the vehicle is retained. Though an estimated 90 percent of new vehicles are shipped with the devices, each manufacturer uses their own hardware, software and file formats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will rule on a universal format for Event Data Recorders in the next 30 days, according to Automotive News. While not going so far as to make EDRs mandatory in every new vehicle, the ruling will create a standard format for data collected by EDRs across many different vehicles. The Society of Automotive Engineers has been given the task to come up with the universal format.

The new ruling will only cost automakers about $8 million, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things. To date these black boxes have aided in voluntary recalls and accident investigations, and automakers claim they're used to make vehicles safer. Of course, the real debate is whether information recorded by an EDR can be submitted as evidence against a driver in court. In that case, Big Brother may now be riding shot gun.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. required]

NHTSA creating universal standard for automotive 'black box' originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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