Posted on 03/30/2010 7:10:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
NASA and the National Academy of Sciences are joining the government's effort to figure out what caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to Toyota's massive recalls.
NASA scientists with expertise in electronics will help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study potential electronic ties to unintended acceleration in Toyotas. NASA's knowledge of electronics, computer hardware and software and hazard analysis will ensure a comprehensive review, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday.
In a separate study, the National Academy of Sciences will examine unwanted acceleration and electronic vehicle controls in cars from around the auto industry, LaHood said. The National Academy is an independent organization chartered by Congress.
The academy study, expected to take 15 months, will review acceleration problems and recommend how the government can ensure the safety of vehicle electronic control systems.
"We believe their outside expertise, fresh eyes and fresh research perhaps can tell us if electronics have played a role in these accelerations," LaHood said.
Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, including 6 million in the United States. Toyota said in a statement it was "confident in our vehicles and in our electronics" and would cooperate with the government review.
"These studies are just the kind of science-based examination we have been calling for. Bringing some sunshine to this subject is bound to separate fact from fiction, which will be good for Toyota, the industry and the motoring public," the company said.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Waiting to see when GM on the list. crickets.......
Waiting to see when GM on the list. crickets.......
I didn’t know that GM had acceleration problems.
(NASA’s) Math error equals loss of Mars orbiter
Science News, Oct 9, 1999 by R. Cowen
Two summers ago, NASA knew the thrill of victory when its tiny robotic spacecraft landed on Mars within kilometers of its target. Last week, after failing to properly use the metric system, the space agency learned the agony of de-feet.
NASA reported Sept. 30 that it had lost the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter because the force exerted by the orbiter’s thrusters remained in the system of units based on pounds and feet rather than being converted to metric.
The problem, believed to have originated before the craft’s launch last December, wasn’t caught until days after Climate Orbiter vanished on Sept. 23 (SN: 10/2/99, p. 214). It had dipped 100 kilometers lower than planned into the Martian atmosphere.
Make sure to examine obamites.
Somehow I don’t think the organization that houses and funds the global warming hype machine will shed much of the clear light of reason on the current problems of the chief competitor to General Motors and Chrysler and their labor union employees and management.
I’m betting on sabotage.
If the cause weren’t designed to be hidden, it would have been determined by now.
GM - “the power steering assist fails, it usually comes back for a time after the car is shut off and restarted”.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/02/business/main6257948.shtml
Just what GM needs! A bunch of NASA dumb-asses. Sorry, but that’s my impression after working with their engineers in the ‘90s. I helped them find a SIGN ERROR (imagine that!) that would have driven a sounding rocket off course and cause a mission fail.
Lawyer tampers with trial exhibit, dodges sanctions by pleading age
by Walter Olson on March 30, 2010
At first lawyer J. Kendall Few, trying a case against Kia Motors alleging seat belt failure, denied tampering with the seat belt in an exhibit car so as to produce an effect prejudicial to the automaker’s case. “Later he admitted he had moved the seat belt, but said he thought he had returned it to its original position. ‘I’m 70 years old, and I’d been through a fairly hard day. I went down there, and I don’t remember everything as good as I did when I was 25 or 30,’ Few said.” A federal judge said it was a “close call” but declined to levy sanctions, finding “there was no conclusive evidence that Few had acted in bad faith or committed intentional misconduct”. [ABA Journal]
The last sudden acceleration event in a Toyota was determined to be a lead foot.
Bloated agency in search of a mission. Star Wars isn’t working out that well.
The wolf gaurding the hen house
Are these the NASA engineers that gave the green light to those frozen solid booster seals, or the ones that ignored the flawed liquid fuel tank foam insullation manufacturing processes?
Right now, I’d take the Toyota engineeers.
Oh, and GM has had acceleration problems...but since the MSM had a combined IQ just short of that of a box of dirt, we won’t hear of it.
“
Waiting to see when GM on the list. crickets.......
“
Won’t happen.
So many problems with GM products, it will overload the computers at NASA.
(OK, I’m just talking about the GM products my late and dear father
bought despite my advice.)
If James Hansen is setting up this probe, Toyota has nothing to worry about! s/
NASA will find the problem was caused by global warming. They have the stats to prove it. /s/
Don’t panic: Apply brakes, put in neutral, stop, turn off engine.
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