Dr. Todd Hubing and Dr.Hua Zeng publish paper entitled Examination of Contaminant-Induced Faults in Connectors

Link to paper:

Zeng and Hubing, Examination of Contaminant-Induced Faults in Connectors

Could salty sea air get into connectors and do crazy things with their resistances and thus the electrical environment under the hood? I wonder.

Dr. Michael Pecht grows tin whiskers on Toyota ECU connectors

Dr. Michael Pecht, director of CALCE at the University of Maryland, with his co-author E. George, published a paper in 2013 documenting the laboratory growth of tin whiskers on tin-finished connectors in a Toyota Tundra ECU (Engine Control Unit, i.e. the car's computer). The paper takes a fascinating look at what can happen when tin is used to finish the connectors inside an automotive ECU. The whiskering creates unpredicability in the performance of the unit.

Link to Dr. Pecht's paper at Science Direct

Here are a few excerpts from this paper:

(partial)

Congressman Fattah calls for settlement funds to be allocated to mentoring programs

Dr. Antony Anderson publishes important paper on SUA cause in connectors

INTERMITTENT ELECTRICAL CONTACT RESISTANCE AS A CONTRIBUTORY FACTOR IN THE LOSS OF AUTOMOBILE SPEED CONTROL SYSTEM FUNCTIONAL INTEGRITY

Summary: For three decades, sudden acceleration (SA) incidents have been reported, where automobiles accelerate without warning. These incidents are often diagnosed as No Fault Found (NFF). Investigators who follow the line of diagnostic reasoning from the 1989 NHTSA SA report tend to conclude that SAs are caused by driver pedal error. This paper reviews the diagnostic process in the NHTSA report and finds (1) that it assumes that an intermittent electronic malfunction should be reproducible either through in-vehicle or laboratory bench tests without saying why and (2) that the consequence of this assumption, for which there appears to be no forensic precedent, is to re-categorize possible intermittent electronic failures as proven to be non-electronic. Showing that the supposedly inescapable conclusions of the NHTSA report concerning electronic malfunctions are without foundation opens the way for the paper to discuss electronic intermittency as a potential factor in SA incidents. It then reports a simple practical experiment that shows how mechanically-induced electrical contact intermittencies can generate false speed signals that an automobile speed control system may accept as true and that do not trigger any diagnostic fault codes. Since the generation of accurate speed signals is essential for the proper functioning of a number of other automobile safety-critical control systems, the apparent ease with which false speed signals can be generated by vibration of a poor electrical contact is obviously a matter of general concern. Various ways of reducing the likelihood of SAs are discussed, including electrical contact improvements to reduce the likelihood of generating false speed signals, improved battery maintenance, and the incorporation of an independent fail-safe that reduces engine power in an emergency, such as a kill switch.

Crash victims: Where's our money?

CBS News reports on the dissatisfaction of crash victims with the settlement.

CBS News report: Victims glad at Toyota admission, sad not to get reparations

Cultural production of ignorance advances the agendas of the makers of complex, lethal products

LA Times: Cultural Production of Ignorance

"Proctor, a professor of the history of science at Stanford, is one of the world's leading experts in agnotology, a neologism signifying the study of the cultural production of ignorance. It's a rich field, especially today when whole industries devote themselves to sowing public misinformation and doubt about their products and activities."

David Michaels has detailed the corporate tactics in this book. Read it and weep.

SIU professor vindicated by Toyota outcome

Dr. Gilbert said "Holy moley!" with deep concern about safety when he found compelling technical evidence that the Toyota he was testing would run away and not set a DTC trouble code.

He was right.

Finally he is vindicated. Congratulations to Dr. Gilbert on staying the course until the truth emerged. Carry on.

Professor Gilbert vindicated

Public interest whistleblowing has "High costs but no regrets"

High Price but No Regrets for Israel's Gutsy Toyota Whistleblower - Times of Israel

Toy Trolls find some opposition

Here's a little back-and-forth with a troll today:

No, it doesn't. Those "experts" you cite are frauds payed for by shyster attorneys trying to sue for money. I'll trust the engineers way before the lawyers. The electronics have nothing to do with it. Driver error is the cause as has been repeatedly proven by multiple independent engineering organizations. The same thing happened with Audi in the 80's. Funny how you don't hear claims of unintended acceleration once the settlement money starts flowing...

Here's a much better article that includes actual facts:
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/S...

4  

•

Reply

•

Share › 

• 

  
  

  Betsy Benjaminson  disqus_R5AHDsvIQx • 2 hours ago

  
  

  Disqus Qx, what's your name? I think you are a Toyota troll, but let’s set that aside for now. Can we get down to details? Can you agree not to make broad generalizations that
  attempt to discredit Toyota critics as motivated by financial interests? These statements are inherently illogical when Toyota proponents are certainly motivated by financial
  interests. Now, to be specific, among the experts who have found the engineering processes to be substandard are, first of all, Toyota's own R&D chief (now retired from that position),Mr. Masatami Takimoto, who wrote quite specifically in several documents that are on my computer here now, that Toyota allowed incompletely developed cars onto
  the market. In other words, the way these cars were engineered was below HIS OWN standards for safety and
  quality. Second, among those I had in mind when I wrote "experts," there is one expert who has worked for plaintiffs attorneys, his name is Michael Barr, and he said the engineering processes are substandard. His opinion is authoritative and neutral, as shown by the widespread respect for his views among his peers, as he is shortly going to be giving the keynote speech at the top conference of embedded systems engineers, sponsored by EE Times. Toyota had no defense against him in court, and did not rebut him. Other experts who have given their opinions on Toyota’s engineering practices include two university professors, one retired aircraft safety systems engineer, and five independent world-class engineers in various fields, by and large people who do not work for plaintiffs counsel.

  Disqus Qx, can you prove your claims “the
  electronics have nothing to do with it.” and “Driver
  error is the cause as has been repeatedly proven by multiple independent engineering organizations.” I challenge you to prove these claims are actually true. I think they are completely false.

  Your statement “the same thing happened with the Audi” also lacks proof. Consumers were angry then, and consumers are angry now, and scared of out-of-control cars. I suppose I concede your point if that is what you meant.

  Your statement “Funny how you don't hear claims of
  unintended acceleration once the settlement money starts flowing...” is absurd in the extreme, in that you must know as well as the rest of us know that all settlements require silence by plaintiffs.

  As for the WSJ article you cited as being more factual, if you would look at the upper left corner, you will see that this
  article is clearly noted as “opinion.” Delving into it a little further, you will see that the author works for a think tank called Cato Institute, where his bio proudly proclaims him thus: The Washington Post has dubbed him the “intellectual guru of tort reform.” According to the Washington Post also, “Cato is one of the largest think tanks in Washington, with a $39 million budget in 2011, according to its tax form. It espouses an ideology of limited government and free-market economics. The Koch brothers, owners of the privately-held energy company Koch Industries...are founders.” So, Disqus Qx, talk about agendas! Certainly there is some agenda in the WSJ opinion piece that you mislabel. The Cato Institute has 64 "Policy Scholars." Among them there is not a single face of color. One of their blogs is "Overlawyered." How neutral are they? How representative are they of the interests of ordinary US citizens? It seems to me that the hegemony they represent is nicely cloaked in a veil of libertarianism. Can you agree? It is not objective. If I misread you, please explain your position.

  Have a nice day. Betsy

Toyota says it deceived consumers (LA Times headline)

Charlene's Web, a creation of the consumer advocate Charlene Blake

Charlene is a powerhouse consumer advocate who loves to tell the whole truth to automakers.

Here her work is profiled in an article called "Charlene's Web."

http://www.autonews.com/article/20020513/ANA/205130742

Toyota’s settlement with the U.S. Dept of Justice

The FBI found that Toyota knowingly and willingly lied to the government and the public about the defects in its runaway cars that killed and injured people. This kind of lying is illegal under the US “TREAD Act.”

Toyota was charged with one count of “wire fraud,” intentionally making money by lying to the public.

The settlement agreement is a “deferred prosecution” against the company but not against the executives. It means that prosecution will not take place if Toyota is totally honest for three years. If the government finds more lying, the crime will be prosecuted.

The agreement has some bad points and has some good points

The bad points:

1.      It covers Toyota’s lies that were already known.

2.      No one will go to jail even though there are a number of documented deaths and catastrophic injuries as a result of specific conduct of individual executives.

3.      The settlement covers only two causes of unintended acceleration – floor mats and sticky pedal. Of all runaway cars, these causes are only around 30%. Electronics account for the rest, but the government cannot prove that yet.  Plaintiffs experts have proved it pretty well.

4.      The settlement does not help people with defective cars to get them fixed

5.      The settlement’s impact on Toyota outside of the U.S. is unclear

6.      There are some loopholes in the demands on Toyota

The good points:

1.      It has to wire $1.2 billion to the US government by Tuesday!

2.      There will be a watchdog – an “Independent Monitor” for 3 years to watch Toyota’s honesty

3.      Employees can report anonymously to the monitor, who will report to the department of justice.

4.      This monitor arrangement can force Toyota to be honest about its electronics, and may lead to more criminal charges if they hide anything.

Takeaway for the public:

5.      The story is not over, car electronics are not regulated and not only Toyota but other companies like Ford, Mitsubishi, KIA, and Honda also have documented problems with runaway cars

6.      We must remain vigilant when buying cars to search out automakers with excellent safety engineering. In general, Europeans are ahead of the Americans and Asians on this, but it depends on the individual automaker.

7.      In Israel we should demand more auto electronics safety laws based on recognition that the safety is not  adequately regulated in the U.S. Our police should be better trained to find when the car is at fault.

8.      Be prepared, be aware, shift to neutral, use parking brake.

The docs here on this computer are essentially a large overlap with the docs acquired by the FBI/DOJ investigators, based on my reading of what the DOJ knew, from their Statement of Facts.
In addition to the whole trove of docs related to the floor-mat+sticky pedal fraud, I got another set, the "ghostly docs," shall we call them, 230 docs that covered all aspects of engineering bugaboos related to electronics and unpredictable vehicle behavior.

"B.o.B. Ghost in the Machine (Musikal Tube)"

"Willfully and knowingly, having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud..."

Southern District of NY Criminal Charge against Toyota

Toyota settlement with DOJ - Discussion on Czech Republic national public TV station