This post starts on a rather belated subject, but an interesting subject.
In late 1986, 60 Minutes ran a special on Audi's supposed "unintended acceleration" problem. The idea was that these Audis, especially the 5000 S model, was accelerating uncontrollably, killing one six year old boy. 6 people were killed in 700 accidents and 60 Minutes ran an article featuring a doctored up demonstration of this acceleration, cutting Audi's U.S. sales in 6 [4].
The car's problem turned out to be that Audi sized and placed its pedals as if the cars all had manual transmissions since most European cars are stick shift cars [2], so the brake pedal is smaller and placed closer to the gas pedal than automatic driving Americans are used to. When a driver attempted to shift their Audi 5000 into drive, their foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas. In a video press release, Audi claimed partial fault for the incidents, despite not having any fault, but also showing (with the help of Bobby Unser) that claims that the Audis were defective in any way were false[3]. They were especially careful to point out the fact that no matter how powerful the car, brakes are always more powerful and can be used to stop a car even if the throttle is jammed open. This is a well known fact among car people.
So what's the point. Well, first, that 60 Minutes is far from perfect. They had been caught rigging an Audi to accelerate on its own [4], I guess in order to make the story.
But my bigger point, and one that will likely reoccur in almost every KarMudgeony post, is a belief that I hold dearly as a truth. Greg's Axiom of Consumers and Products: most consumers are idiots. Ok, maybe I don't mean that, but that most consumers don't know what's good or bad about 95% of products, or at least enough to make an educated purchasing decision or educated use of those products.
As it applies here, drivers of 700 cars [4] managed to operate their vehicles so irresponsibly that 6 were killed (including a 6 year old boy). Then, they denied their own fault and gained so much sympathy and support that they got 60 Minutes to destroy its own reputation (well, I guess not, but it was a big thing back then). Finally, through all of this, the American consumer, completely misunderstanding the problem, steered clear of one of the greatest car manufacturers in the world [5]. So, people can't use a product, can't accept that products have their own intracacies that must be understood to use them, and can't discern between good and bad products.
One example, I know. I have tons; you'll see.
Of course, anyone not living under a rock is wondering if this applies to Toyota's recent "stuck accelerator" issue. Not really. Toyota really did screw up, and quite badly. I cannot find a conclusion on the whole "internal memo" story going around, but I'd put money on the fact that Toyota engineers either warned their higher-ups about the control hardware or were not allowed to test it sufficiently. Then, and this is only a suspicion, Toyota seems to have blamed the problem on both the driver's floor mat and a physically sticky gas pedal and sent out fixes for them, in sequence, before finally admitting to a computer malfunction (what appears to have been the problem all along). Not to say the pedal and mat wouldn't be a problem, but it appears to be a company stalling while trying to show that they're still a good company.
Yet, as I said, Toyota is the largest car company in the world [6], despite being seemingly unable to construct two very basic parts of a car properly. And despite these problems (not my only issues with Toyota), people are still buying them, especially previous Toyota owners [7].
That all being said, I do feel bad for Toyota in one way; there's no reason what-so-ever, why the problem created by Toyota's over-ambitions and under-engineering should have been so large. There's no excuse for anyone with a license to operate a vehicle on public roads to drive 6 miles at top speed, praying to God for intervention, without stopping the car by any other method [8]. To be honest, I have a hard time believing that the brakes, gear selector, and ignition all failed since other accelerator failure tests didn't find that, but I'll let that one go on a fluke. It is possible, and I'm sure that woman has been through enough doubt already.
So what about other similar claims that were all over the news? Car and Driver did a test with a Toyota, an Infinity, and a Ford to see how much full throttle effected braking distance [9], showing something very similar to Audi's old press release demonstration [3].
Side note, despite the Infinity being heavier (400 lbs) and having just short of twice the horsepower of the Camry V-6, the Infinity out-brakes the Camry and is less effected by full throttle braking situations. One (me) might consider this demonstrative of car quality, although Nissan sells approximately 1/3 of the cars that Toyota does [6]. Again, most consumers wouldn't know a bad car if the car drove them off a cliff [10] [7]. By the way, I don't mean to malign an already hurt family, I only intend to say that when a product has been proven to be insuficiently engineered to the point of danger, owners stand behind that product like never before. Why are Toyota owners so dedicated to their cars?
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minutes
[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission
[3] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otyax6onMWw
[4] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi
[5] - Ok, fine, I don't have any proof of this. Just a claim.
[6] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry
[7] - http://www.gallup.com/poll/126236/americans-toyota-owners-confident-toyota- vehicles.aspx
[8] - nydailynews.com article
[9] - http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_deal_with_unintended_acceleration-tech_dept
[10] - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7012913.ece
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