Toyota Problem Runs Deeper Than the Floor Mat and Gas Pedal: It’s the Fly-by-Wire Electronics in the Engine and Transmission

I’ve been reading about the runaway Toyota Prius in California, and reading some of the comments from readers who say that all a driver has to do is stick the vehicle into neutral and allow the engine to race until you slow down. With respect, they have no idea what they’re talking about.

In Toyota vehicles, you are not able to shift when you’re going like a bat out of hell. The shifter won’t move until you’re below a certain amount of RPMs and speed. If the engine is racing and the vehicle is accelerating, there’s way too much torque, and the safeties won’t allow a shift. On my stick-shift Toyota pickup that I no longer own, you could shift into neutral, but you couldn’t shift back INTO gear if you were going too fast.

In essence, Toyota drivers who are in this Prius situation are locked into one of several outcomes: a high speed crash, the accelerator disengages and they’re able to brake safely, or they bail out at 90mph and die.

In the case of the Toyota Prius in California that’s in the news, the driver made another option: call 911, and get help. The cop pulled alongside and told him to engage the parking brake as well. They were able to slow the car down, until the driver could override the safeties and shut the engine off, which isn’t possible when the car is accelerating. The police officer pulled out in front and provided his cruiser’s braking power to bring the Toyota to a halt.

This is no floor mat issue, or brake pedal issue. It’s in the electronics, which are being shorted out. I think that defective chips are the cause of this acceleration issue with Toyota.

A few weeks ago I jump-started a 2008 Toyota Tundra. The driver said that it was easy to jump-start the Tundra as it had no spark plugs. What the Sam Hill….I asked him to show me and it was an electronic chip that’s wired into an on-board computer that regulates all the functions that the spark plug is responsible for. It was the most high-tech vehicle engine that I’ve ever seen.

The transmission is also controlled by computer. The electronics is the issue, and that’s where the problem lies, in my non-expert opinion. If they can't find a physical problem, it's an electronic problem. What else could it be?

I’m waiting for someone to blast a runaway Toyota with an EMP gun. Here’s an interesting article from 2004 on the topic of using electromagnetic pulses to stop cars.