Right. Cosmic rays. More likely space aliens who want to bring their 2010 antimatter-powered car into the market and need to knock off the competition.
The feds are now examining a rather wild theory — that cosmic radiation may be causing some of Toyota’s electrical issues. The feds received an anonymous tip from an industry source that Toyota’s microprocessors, memory chips and software may be more sensitive to cosmic rays than its competitors, causing increased incidences of malfunctions. Such problems are commonplace with airplanes or spaceships, raising the need for extremely robust electronic designs.
[…]
Electrical interference could help to explain the unintended acceleration afflicting 13 models across Toyota’s lineup, or about 5.6 million vehicles in total. While software and hardware can compensate, to an extent for cosmic interference, cosmic rays can potentially cause the kind of unrepeatable “single event upsets” that could add up to many of the 3,000 complaints against Toyota received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2000.
William Price, who worked at a jet propulsion laboratory studying extraterrestrial electromagnetic interference (EMI) for 20 years, comments, “[It] occurs virtually anywhere. It doesn’t happen in a certain locale like you would expect in an electromagnetic problem from a radio tower or something else.”
A Toyota spokesperson in a brief comment to Freep.com said that Toyota’s protections against extraterrestrial EMI were “robust against this type of interference” and that its vehicles featured “absolute reliability”.
I b’leve they actually said “Comic Strays.”
Apparently, the Japanese aren’t buying up the aliens’ debt either.
“A Toyota spokesperson in a brief comment . . . that its vehicles featured “absolute reliability”.”
This statement is just plain wrong, as shown by the vehicles that have had problems. Or did they agree to the recalls just to humor the NHTSA and DOT?
Absolute is is an absolute, as in 100%, not as in 99%. I don’t know if cosmic rays could cause this but “absolute reliability” does not apply.
Does the Prius, or some of their owners, need a tin foil hat to shield against the rays?
Bet me to it #4. Now all Prius owners need is a tin foil hat to make them look more of a dickhead
I have worked in aerospace for 18 years and can say that the idea isn’t completely crazy. In aerospace, it is very possible that a stray cosmic ray can energize a bit in memory or cache. To deal with this we use ECC Memories and Error Detection and Correction algorithms to protect against the possibility.
Although our atmosphere blocks most cosmic rays and the odds are very low of cosmic rays reaching the ground, but it is not out of the range of possibilities.
The auto industry is using computers and electronics to take more and more control over the capabilities of automobiles. The government needs to start enforcing process standards on automobile software, like they do for aeroplanes (like DO-178B for commercial aerospace and Mil-Std processes for military aircraft).
Can you say, “Act of God?”
In legal parlance, and act of god removes responsibility from the manufacturer because the event could not be reasonably foreseen.
So if someone can cause a reasonable doubt that these events are due to cosmic rays, and that this could not be reasonably foreseen, then Toyota is off the hook.
“…Toyota’s microprocessors, memory chips and software may be more sensitive to cosmic rays than its competitors”
So how is it different from any other brand car that uses ‘fly by wire’?
Would a faraday cage help against cosmic strays?
Cosmic rays has been the computer person’s version of “The Devil Made Me Do It” since day one.
It is and always will be BS. It is called bad code and no one to check it. There was a day when mathematicians would check and recheck code to proof it.
Now the companies that program will not bother to hire expensive and time consuming humans to go over their code before releasing it create bloated crap code that routinely screw up. They use what? Other programs to do it.
They claim the code is too big, it would take too long, it would add to the retail price. Yeah like MS Office at over 400 bucks is affordable. No it is just like anything else. Make it cheap and shoddy, sell it at obscene prices and when the backlash comes pay it off before going to court.
That is how business runs around the world.
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Well, can you see a correlation between these incidents and altitude? For example, I remember reading, years ago, how Intel were seeing more RAM error corrections in PCs in Colorado compared to Florida. Easy to check …
Uhhh… Did I miss a memo? I always thought Cosmic Rays were an inside nerd joke for “I’ve got no Idea.”
i wonder what operating system is in these toyotas?????? hhmmm??? could it be??? WINDOWS??? 😛
#* asked “Would a Faraday cage help against cosmic strays?”
No. A Faraday cage can protect something from external electromagnetic radiation. Cosmic rays are highly accelerated particles from space (some are particles blown out when a star goes supernova).
To stop a cosmic ray (as I understand it) takes mass, mass, and more mass and hope the particle hits an atom.
I meant #8 asked. Bad shift key or bad typist, you make the call.
I had a cosmic ray go right through my head once. Now I wear a lead-lined hat all the time.
#13… it would be ironic if it was the 911 calls that caused the cars to stop responding.
Ye Gads !
Now, I understand what happened on 9-11.
Alien directed cosmic rays.
No human terrorist, no box cutters, only cosmic rays altering microprocessors, so that airliners fly into buildings & disappear. Skycrapers collapsing on their own. Air Defenses not scrambling.
Aliens abduction of the Secretary of Defense with no recollection of where he was for that half hour.
Mind altering events in tropical climes, where cosmic rays left the POUS in a daze & reading upside-down a child’s book about a goat.
Further North, a faraday cage in the underground bunker spared the VPOUS.
Uninterrupted TV coverage, via cosmic rays.
“What hath got rot !”
Here in San Diego, where the latest Prius incident has been making headlines, we used to ponder why (this was 20 years ago) all the modem-based BBS Sysops near the coast would have their PC’s lose BIOS settings all at the same time. We always figured it was the Navy doing something. A friend once related how, while on a carrier 100 miles off the coast, he was shown the radar screen and the operator pointed out a line of semis on the highway – in Arizona. Turn on those high-powered radars too close to the coast and blam…
The Russians made it a serious crime to turn on the radar in some of their fighter planes while on the ground. The radar was so powerful it would cook rabbits a thousand feet away.
I also figure that in certain climes, the utilities don’t build heavy-duty shielding in the powerlines, cell towers, etc, ’cause “We don’t have weather here”. While that’s almost true (our four seasons are early summer, summer, late summer, and next summer), the very infrequent rain storms wreak havoc on the phone lines and such. So I’m sure there is more leakage of stray EM.
And let us not forget we have in San Diego not only all the Navy experimentation going on (satellite, microwave, radar and who knows what arrays like you wouldn’t believe), but San Diego is also home to Qualcomm – what kind of EM are they putting out experimenting for the next generation of cell-phone?
I do not trust “fly by wire” systems in automobiles.There is too much trust in flowing electricity and not enough trust in brute force mechanical systems (rods & levers and hydraulics) for brakes and accelerators and transmission control.Fly by wire should be for backup only. My experience after 50 years of maintaining electrical and electronic systems is that it doesn’t take much to fail an electrical system.
Anyone have an idea how big Toyota’s state and federal government lobbying budget is?
Hoaxing aside. Perhaps it’s just a matter of having the gas and brake pedals too close together. And/or too far to one side. So some drivers. Possibly mostly the elderly. Are confusing the two. Still…. I wouldn’t rule out some kind of radio electrical interference with a sensor or something. If cellphone really can effect instruments and flight controls, of large aircraft. Then why not cars’ computer speed controls?
The US government ownership of GM is what caused Toyota’s problems. The gov stands to make billions if they can just up GM market share by a few % points.
Just another example of why government needs to get out of corporate America.
Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack, Ack ACK!!!