Toyota Acceleration Recalls

Toyota Acceleration Recalls

By:

Joseph Badillo

Bob Conley

Beth Ann Horton

Taylor Logan

Abstract

Recently, Toyota has issued two main safety recalls for certain models involving the driver’s floor mat and the accelerator, the Floor Mat Pedal Entrapment Recall and the Sticky Pedal Recall. Also in early 2010 Toyota issued a voluntary recall on two models that were affected by the anti-lock brake system (ABS). Owners were notified via mail, and were told to bring in their car to a dealer. In the fall of 2009, Toyota issued the Floor Mat Pedal Entrapment Recall due to a defect in the driver’s floor mat. There was the potential that an unsecured, incompatible, or poorly installed driver’s floor mat might have interfered with the accelerator pedal, causing the pedal to get stuck in a depressed position. A temporary fix was to remove the floor mat entirely until Toyota designed a replacement. Toyota issued the Sticky Pedal Recall in January 2010 because of how the friction lever interacted with the sliding surface of the accelerator pedal inside the pedal sensor assembly. The accelerator pedal might have become difficult to depress, slow to return to idle, or stuck in a partially depressed position. To solve this problem, a reinforcement bar was installed in the accelerator pedal to produce smoother function. A long term solution to prevent both problems was the brake override system. When the automobile was moving, and both the gas and brake were simultaneously pushed, the system software caused the automobile to only respond to the brake. Millions of units were potentially subject to these recalls. As a result, Toyota has been faced with numerous lawsuits because of injuries or deaths caused by their faulty units.

Introduction

Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational Japanese automobile manufacturer founded in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works by Kiichiro Toyoda. It became an independent company in 1937 and first entered the...