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Toyota to install brake override systems

By Matt Brogan |

Toyota have come up with a fix for their runaway cars, it will be installing brake override systems on all Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles by the end of the year.

This will be a global upgrade said Yoshi Inaba, president of Toyota North America Inc., in an interview at the Detroit auto show today. This follows a recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles last year in the United States to fix the problem.

“We expect to have it standard on all vehicles by the end of the year,” said Mr Inaba.

In the United States there were instances of runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles which caused injuries and in some cases death. Toyota blamed the floor mats becoming logged under the accelerator pedal. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) believe the floor mats were not the only cause.

Mike Michels, a Toyota spokesman, says the brake override software system shifts the engine to idle if it senses the driver is attempting to apply the brakes without success.

“If the pedal is stuck, tampered with, no matter what the pedal is doing, the engine will go into idle,” Mr Michels said.

Toyota has not mentioned the cost of installing the brake override system.


 
  • OzeWander

    Ford would do well to install a similar system into their Explorers.

    • Frenchie

      What happened over that incident with the Ford Explorer in Melbourne?

      • Watto

        Police determined no fault with the car.

        Ford is waiting to get their hands on it.

        • Matt

          The driver has been tested and found to not have a brain lol

  • Joe

    Once this has been implemented, there will be no more burnouts in Toyota’s either.

    • new golf

      didnt think toyotas were capable of a burnout

      • Devil’s Advocate

        There must be some short memories around. The Supra turbo for one! However the modern day range is a bit yawn! ;-)

  • Joober@Work

    Something tells me this will find its way to other manufacturers over time…

    • Matt

      Other manufacturers don’t have glitches in their software like Toyota do :P
      The whole mat thing was a red herring. Tells how widespread the glitch is when they are recalling millions of vehicles across the 3 brands

  • Shak

    Why not just give it a software fix and change the mats. Wouldnt that be less costly than installing a completely new peice of hardware.

  • Ray

    Does this mean the end of heel and toe?

  • MJ

    They should have an emergency manual lever, next to the handbrake, that puts the car into neutral if u pull on it.

    No matter if the engine is on or off or driving! We have emergency door release levers in Melbourne’s new trains…why not cars?

  • Reckless1

    Talk about finding the most complex solution available – what about cutting an inch or so off the bottom of that throttle pedal…….

    or hinging the pedal at the bottom….

    or having an emergency button on the dash – a help. ‘im out of control’ button which would cut power.

  • ABMPSV

    Toyota is now facing the prospect of a second fine by US government regulators over faulty gas pedals. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has already issued a record 16.4 million dollar fine against Toyota for failing to declare a gas pedal defect to authorities and not issuing a recall until four months after they learned of the problem.

  • svd

    The Ford Explorer recall problem (OzeWander) for the cruise control was related to fires and not uncontrolled speeding. The Melbourne case is very suspicious in that neither the police nor Ford have found any fault. I find it hard to believe that the driver was not able to stop the vehicle even if the brake disable switch had failed then it would have been possible to bring the vehicle to a stop on a straight section of road by swithching the ignition off. By swithing the igniton off there would have been loss of power assistance for the steering and progressive loss of brake assistance depending on the number of repeat applications. Some vehicles may have an interlock to prevent the vehicle being placed into neutral while the cruise control is on though I dont know of any specific vehicle, which would be there to prevent over rev of the engine, but this is another method that in an emergency could allow the vehicle to be brought to a stop.