4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

http://10newsblogs.com/audio/prius-911call.mp3

dont hurt yourself laughing at this call. Its such a joke

ExTrEmE99

iTrader: (6)

EW YORK — ABC News has called into question its reporting on acceleration problems with Toyota vehicles.

The network’s handling of a Feb. 22 “World News” story about potential problems with computer systems in Toyotas has created ethical questions and intensified bitter feelings the besieged automaker already had toward ABC.

ABC has admitted to a misjudgment and swapped out the brief dashboard video in its report, which continues to be available online. Its story illustrated a report by David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who suggested that a design flaw in Toyotas might leave a short-circuit that could cause sudden acceleration undetected by the car’s computer system.

Correspondent Brian Ross’ “World News” report showed him driving a Toyota with Gilbert that was rigged to quickly accelerate. Even though he knew it was coming, Ross said the incident left him shaken, and he had a hard time getting the car to come to a stop.

Briefly during the drive, ABC cut to a picture of a tachometer with the needle zooming forward. The impression was that the tachometer was documenting the ride Ross was taking. Instead, that picture was taken from a separate instance where a short-circuit was induced in a parked car.

ABC said that editing was done because it was impossible to get a good picture of the tachometer while the car was moving because the camera was shaking. The camera shot was steady when it was taken in a parked car.

“The tachometer showed the same thing every time,” said ABC News spokeswoman Emily Lenzner.

Toyota spokesman John Hanson disputes that, saying tachometers react much more dramatically when short-circuits happen in a parked car than in a car that is moving. Tachometers measure engine speed.

It all points to problems that are created when visual journalists try to alter reality in order to get a better picture.

“Anytime you give the audience any reason to doubt the honesty of the piece, that’s a serious problem,” said Charlotte Grimes, a Syracuse University journalism professor who specializes in ethical issues.

“Do they honestly think that a company like Toyota, with all the resources that it has, would not be looking at these things?” Grimes asked.

Toyota recognized the differences right away: the shot showed the car’s speedometer was at zero, the parking brake was on and no one was using the seat belts — while Ross wore one on the test drive, Hanson said. Online discussion of the differences began almost immediately, and the Web site Gawker.com wrote about it last week.

ABC edited the online version of its story shortly after that story appeared and wrote a note on its Web site explaining why.

“This was a misjudgment made in the editing room,” Lenzner said. “They should have left the shaky shot in. But I want to make clear that the two-second shot that was used did not change the outcome of the report in any way.”

The inserted tachometer shot still didn’t specifically illustrate Ross’ ride. It was from another ride made in order to create different camera angles. A camera person could not have captured the tachometer shot with Ross and Gilbert both in the car, Lenzner said.

Toyota’s Hanson said it was next to impossible for the short circuit detailed by Gilbert to happen in real life. The automaker, which had to recall many of its cars because of problems associated with a depressed gas pedal, held a news conference on Monday to try and refute Gilbert’s study. It depicted similar short circuits in other cars, none of which were detected by the vehicles’ computer system.

Gilbert did not return phone or email messages for comment, and a woman who answered the phone at his home said he was unavailable.

Hanson said he wished Toyota could have been invited to see the simulation conducted by ABC. “Simulation” is a word that brings back tough memories for TV networks: NBC’s news president lost his job in 1993 after it was revealed that for a “Dateline NBC” study about alleged safety problems with General Motors trucks, the network rigged a truck with small explosives for a story. Lenzner said it was ridiculous to compare a two-second tachometer shot to the NBC case.

She said Toyota was given a chance to comment on the story the day it was aired.

“It was not like ABC was trying to alter the footage,” she said. “There was no staging. There was no dramatization. It was an editing mistake.”

Even before this report, relations between Toyota and ABC were on edge. More than 100 Toyota dealerships in the Southeast had agreed last month to pull advertising on local ABC affiliated because they were angry with Ross’ aggressive reporting on the automaker’s problems.

http://www.torontosun.com/money/2010.../13193231.html


———
ABC needs to retract their video and tell the public the real story!

-J-P-L-

That was agonizing. I don't know how the 911 operator avoided committing suicide during the call.

He deserves nothing less than the death penalty after questioning by Jack Bauer.

LexFather

Toyota should sue ABC....amazing they say "its a mistake" and expect that to be fine? Are they serious especially when they are going after Toyota's possible "Mistake".

bagwell

I really don't get this...she specifically tells him to put it neutral...multiple times....(that should have been end of story right there)
then to hold the power button for 5 seconds....is it really that hard to do?

"sir you need to get your car out of gear"

in 20+ minutes he couldn't do this????

oh wait...he had to hold the phone and steer so he couldn't do anything else????????

idiot.

LexFather

I hope future scammers read this. You will be investigated and your life put out in front for the public to see.


Runaway Prius Driver Faces Questions As Probe Begins
http://www.10news.com/news/22804088/detail.html
POSTED: 6:50 pm PST March 10, 2010
UPDATED: 7:40 pm PST March 10, 2010
[BUZZ: Runaway Prius Driver Faces Questions As Probe Begins]
SAN DIEGO -- As Toyota and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration investigate Jim Sikes' Prius, 10News looked into the obstacles Sikes may face going forward.

Sikes made the TV network rounds following his ordeal with his runaway Prius on Monday. In the meantime, the California Highway Patrol said they would leave the credibility of his story to federal investigators.

10News uncovered files from Sikes' 2008 Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and criminologist Suzanne Goodney Lea said anyone who reports problems with Toyotas is likely to come under additional scrutiny.

"Seems like an easy way to cash in and make a lot of money," said Lea.

While no on is claiming Sikes wants to cash in, experts said he may face questions because of his financial situation.

According to his bankruptcy records, he had a $700,000 debt. Additionally, his debts included two homes he was upside down to the tune of $240,000. He had credit card debt to deal with, including $12,000 owed to Bank of America, $38,000 owed to Citibank and $15,000 owed to Discover.

Brian Pennings of the CHP said, "There was nothing in this evidence of the vehicle or evidence of his statement or our observations to discredit his statement as of Monday."

The CHP has closed its case just as Toyota and federal investigators begin theirs.

It will be an intense probe that Lea said would focus just as much on Sikes as his car.

10News spoke to Sikes late Wednesday afternoon and he said is not looking to make any financial gain from the incident. He added he was not looking to sue Toyota and is not seeking a financial settlement.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

yea I listened to the 911 phone call last night, it was painful of facepalm. I felt sorry for the dispatcher who had to put up with that. Not to mention tying up a 911 operator for over 20 minutes on a low priority call, and not only that he didnt freaking listen to her instructions.

Yea Mike when I first hear Sikes was in real estate, I was thinking he must be in deep debt and this is a great way to cash in if he was. Now that I read he is $700k in debt

whoster

so fellas,


how much longer do you think this debacle will go on?

ABC News has admitted to foul play, the NHTSA has long stated there's no real problem...

Provided that Toyota will complete the recalls regardless of the matter, I've been thinking how long it will be before the mainstream media stop this witch hunt.

With the headlining act of ABC admitting to fault, will the other conglomerates have much reason to fill the gap, or just gradually phase this "issue" out of the public's eyes and ears?

IS350jet

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's going to get a whole lot worse, before it gets better.

LexFather

Yup and of course he will say he isn't going to sue.

Did anyone notice his Corvette jacket too?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I don't think this is the 15 minutes of fame sikes was looking for.

Lets Drive

iTrader: (3)

As long as it takes for a bigger/fresher story to come along, or once people become indifferent towards the constant bombardment of the news, with no real progression besides accusations.

Whichever comes first.

Lets Drive

iTrader: (3)

A nice article to offer some perspective, with regard to the psychology behind the phenomenon of UA:



By RICHARD A. SCHMIDT
Published: March 10, 2010
Marina del Rey, Calif.

THE Obama administration has said that it may require automakers to install “smart pedals” on all new cars. This kind of system — already used in BMWs, Chryslers, Volkswagens and some of the newest Toyotas — deactivates the car’s accelerator when the brake pedal is pressed so that the car can stop safely even if its throttle sticks open.

The idea is to prevent the kind of sudden acceleration that has recently led to the recall of millions of Toyotas. Federal safety regulators have received complaints asserting that this problem has caused accidents resulting in 52 deaths in Toyotas since 2000. Smart pedals might help prevent more such accidents if the cause of unintended acceleration turns out to be some vehicle defect.

But based on my experience in the 1980s helping investigate unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000, I suspect that smart pedals cannot solve the problem. The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake.

From the mid-1980s until 2000, thousands of incidents of sudden acceleration were reported in all makes and models of cars (and buses, tractors and golf carts). Then, as now, the incidents were relatively rare among car crashes generally, but they were nevertheless frequent and dangerous enough to upset automakers, drivers and the news media.

I looked into more than 150 cases of unintended acceleration in the 1980s, many of which became the subject of lawsuits against automakers. In those days, Audi, like Toyota today, received by far the most complaints. (I testified in court for Audi on many occasions. I have not worked for Toyota on unintended acceleration, though I did consult for the company seven years ago on another matter.)

In these cases, the problem typically happened when the driver first got into the car and started it. After turning on the ignition, the driver would intend to press lightly on the brake pedal while shifting from park to drive (or reverse), and suddenly the car would leap forward (or backward). Drivers said that continued pressing on the brake would not stop the car; it would keep going until it crashed. Drivers believed that something had gone wrong in the acceleration system, and that the brakes had failed.

But when engineers examined these vehicles post-crash, they found nothing that could account for what the drivers had reported. The trouble occurred in cars small and large, cheap and expensive, with and without cruise control or electronic engine controls, and with carburetors, fuel injection and even diesel engines. The only thing they had in common was an automatic transmission. An investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration found no electro-mechanical defects to explain the problem. Nor did similar government studies in Canada and Japan or any number of private studies.

In the Toyota situation today, some have suggested that unintended acceleration has been caused by floor mats or sticking throttles, but there is considerable doubt about these explanations, and the search for the smoking gun continues. One thought is that computerized engine management systems or electronic controls may be to blame. And so it is interesting to note that unintended acceleration in the 1980s happened before the arrival of drive-by-wire controls and computerized engine-management systems.

Back then, many of us who worked in fields like ergonomics, human performance and psychology suspected that these unintended-acceleration events might have a human component. We noticed that the complaints were far more frequent among older drivers (in a General Motors study, 60-to-70-year-olds had about six times the rate of complaints as 20-to-30-year-olds), drivers who had little experience with the specific car involved (parking-lot attendants, car-wash workers, rental-car patrons) and people of relatively short stature.

Several researchers hypothesized how a driver, intending to apply the brake pedal to keep the car from creeping, would occasionally press the accelerator instead. Then, surprised that the car moved so much, he would try pressing harder. Of course, if his right foot was actually on the accelerator, the throttle would open and the car would move faster. This would then lead the driver to press the “brake” harder still, and to bring about even more acceleration. Eventually, the car would be at full throttle, until it crashed. The driver’s foot would be all the way to the floor, giving him the impression that the brakes had failed.

In the cases that went to court, jurors naturally asked, why would a driver with decades of driving experience suddenly mistake the accelerator for the brake? And why would the episode last so long — often 6 to 10 seconds or more? Wouldn’t that be ample time to shut off the ignition, shift to neutral or engage the parking brake?

First, in these situations, the driver does not really confuse the accelerator and the brake. Rather, the limbs do not do exactly what the brain tells them to. Noisy neuromuscular processes intervene to make the action slightly different from the one intended. The driver intends to press the brake, but once in a while these neuromuscular processes cause the foot to deviate from the intended trajectory — just as a basketball player who makes 90 percent of his free throws sometimes misses the hoop. This effect would be enhanced by the driver being slightly misaligned in the seat when he first gets in the car.

The answer to the second question is that, when a car accelerates unexpectedly, the driver often panics, and just presses the brake harder and harder. Drivers typically do not shut off the ignition, shift to neutral or apply the parking brake.

In 1989, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration concluded that the incidents of unintended acceleration by the Audi 5000 were mostly caused by this kind of pedal error — not some electro-mechanical defect in the vehicle. To fix the problem, Audi designed something called an automatic shift lock, which, when the car is being started, keeps the transmission in park unless and until the brake pedal is depressed. If the driver should press the accelerator instead of the brake, the vehicle remains safely in park.

(In a car with a manual transmission, a driver is naturally prevented from making a simple pedal error, because even if his right foot goes to the accelerator instead of the brake, the car still will not move unless he also intentionally lifts his left foot from the clutch.)

Audi ultimately gave the world’s other automakers the rights to the patent on the automatic shift lock and by the mid-1990s virtually all new cars had adopted the feature or some variant of it. Incidents of sudden acceleration when people started their cars dropped sharply. The shift lock not only made people safer but also provided evidence for the hypothesis that most of the problems had been caused by driver error.

Yet the automatic shift lock did not entirely do away with sudden acceleration incidents — as the Toyota problems illustrate. The fix now championed by the Obama administration could work in situations in which there is an actual vehicle defect. It would tell the car that if it receives signals to both accelerate and brake, the accelerator should go dead so that the brake alone will work.

But this smart-pedal system can be of no use if the driver is simply pressing the accelerator and not touching the brake. The unintended acceleration — and the crash — would still occur.

What the smart pedal may do, however, is finally give us a sense of whether sudden acceleration tends to stem from operator error. If the reports of acceleration continue (and the smart pedals work properly), then there will be nothing and no one left to blame but the driver.


Richard A. Schmidt is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/op...11schmidt.html

TorontoIS

Great article, thanks for posting it, it should be required reading.

djyoshi626

iTrader: (5)

I'm certain smart pedals won't fix the problem especially if it's driver error.


What next, smart accelerators that won't allow you to STOMP on the throttle or limits how fast you can accelerate? Say good-bye to 0-60 times

People just need to learn to drive... our license requirement standards are too low.