Two things that make you go "Hmmm..."

[unixronin]

Something old, something new, both via the Biker Skum Mailing List.  :)

New:  Seattle Weekly on when a good Prius goes bad, and Toyota refuses to admit there might be a problem.

Any vehicle, especially one that incorporates many new technologies, can have unknown design problems or systems that fail in unsafe ways.  Toyota doesn’t need to be ashamed of problems on the Prius.  They DO need to be ashamed if they sweep it under the rug and blame it on ridiculous assertions like “too many floor mats” in a car from the showroom floor being test-driven by a prospective buyer, or “out of gas”.  Regardless of whether the failed cars were out of gas (the owners swear they weren’t), if we take Toyota’s word that the Prius can fail in such a dangerous manner simply from running out of gas, then it shouldn’t be on the road.  Period.

Old (July 2006 article):  Stand and deliver! Boston.com on the debt-collection racket in Massachusetts.  They can cost you your job, take your car, put a lien against your home, and usually never even be asked to show any proof that you owe the debt. Small claims courts go along with it, and the state Attorney General’s office doesn’t care.

Some of the followups say the state promised to fix the problems.  But did they? The AG’s office promised to investigate the worst of the predatory “debt collectors”, and only ever filed one charge against one person.

Comments

[montieth.livejournal.com]

That's the problem with a car as utterly complex as that. My Honda Insight has a conventional engine with the electronics assisting. It'll fail safe from my understanding of things. If I kill the switch, it'll certainly kill the engine and that'll bring things to a stop.

No different than a car with say a broken accellerator return spring.

If all you have is an electronic "start/stop" button, you don't have that much control. Seems like there needs to be a big red Stop contactor switch.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

Isn't that mechanical design 101. Anytime you have that much energy/power avaialable you need to have a way to immediately shut it down. Preferably without damaging the machine, but if it is necessary to sacrifice the machine to ensure safety of people it is always an acceptable trade off. Consider ISO/OSHA E-stop switches, or the key switch on the ignition. For the case of the prius old old style IBM E-stops should be considered especially the type that fired a bolt through the power cables.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

You would think. Most high amperage stuff is done with contactors/relays. That stuff is trivial electronically. Presumably they're flipping them with logic rather than dumb switches. In this case, it appears that Toyota thought they had the design set perfect and didn't include this sort of basic system.

Of course you CAN get situations where contactors fail to open due to arc welding of the contactors or the like (look at that battery powered motorcycle, the Killacycle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o15EALghp0), supposedly the controls welded closed which is why he couldn't cut the throttle in the burnout).

[n5red.livejournal.com]

That's the nice thing about both of my vehicles, no computers. I did that with a Volkswagon New Beetle and decided "never again".

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

New York, not surprisingly, has at least firm like that. They tried to come after me for something over six years old, ergo erased from the books. Very aggressive, very threatening, until I started describing their building to them in great detail (Thanks, Google Earth!) and politely explained that my state allows me to have kevlar and assault rifles. I invited them to fly out to the 'ol Wild West and collect in person.


Never heard back from them, oddly.