Chronicling the Ever-Changing Automotive Industry
Last week, it was reported that Jim Sikes was driving his Toyota Prius when it suddenly accelerated and wouldn’t slow down through the use of its brakes. A California Highway Patrol officer showed up and gave him instructions on how to get the car back under control. Now, through some research and testing, many facets of his story are starting to unravel.
Continue reading ‘Uh-oh: Prius driver loses credibility’
As part of one of Toyota’s recalls, the 2004-2009 Prius already has enough attention. Adding to this is a video and report of a California man whose Prius took off on him – unintended acceleration and all. The man’s car took after trying to pass a slower-moving vehicle, and a California Highway Patrol officer used his PA system to talk the driver and inform him how to stop the car. Read on for more details and video.
Continue reading ‘CNN: Cops help Prius driver stop runaway (w/Video)’
We knew it was coming, and Toyota has announced another recall; this time for the brakes on the 2010 Toyota Prius. In a slightly surprising turn of events, the automaker also included their 2010 Lexus HS250h hybrid, which is based off of the same design as the Prius, with Lexus appointments and refinement. Toyota is recalling a total of 148,500 vehicles for problems with the dual braking systems mentioned in the previous article. The problem occurs when the car’s computer needs to mix the traditional friction braking system with the regenerative braking system employed by most hybrids. This transition period can leave drivers without proper braking power, even though Toyota says that the brakes will work and that drivers just need to apply more pressure to the brake pedal.
Continue reading ‘PedalGate Update: Recall on 2010 Prius / Lexus HS’
From the previous posts on this subject, it has become apparent that the 3rd generation Prius, starting with the 2010 model, has issues when braking. It seems that on slippery or bumpy surfaces, a loss of braking can occur. In a move that is no longer shocking for Toyota, it appears that they knew about the issue and didn’t tell anyone until it became news earlier this week. Hiroyuki Yokoyama, Toyota’s manager of Quality Control, told the New York Times that they had fixed the issue and any 2010 model year Prius sold since late January has the fix built in. No specific date was mentioned, but expect when a recall is announced. While Toyota has yet to confirm a recall, I highly doubt they can let this one go without announcing another recall.
Continue reading ‘Update: 2010 Prius DOES have braking issues’
Automotive News is reporting that the Japanese Ministry of Transportation has ordered Toyota to look into customer complaints about the brakes on its third-generation Prius model, which went on sale in 2009 as a 2010 model. There are over 100 complaints worldwide, at least two of which caused injuries to American drivers.
Continue reading ‘Update: Japan orders Toyota to investigate Prius brake problems’
It seems that Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak, better known as “The Woz”, has a problem with his 2010 Prius. Under certain cruise control conditions, it accelerates wildly. Luckily, he can reproduce the problem repeatedly – and safely. In a statement at Discovery forum 2010, he said, “this is software. It’s not a bad accelerator pedal. It’s very scary, but luckily for me I can hit the brakes.” This would indicate that Toyota has more than just bad hardware to contend with. The interesting thing is, Wozniak said he spent 3 months trying to get Toyota and the NHTSA to look into the problem, with no result.
Continue reading ‘Apple Co-Founder Confounded by Prius accelerator?’
