I8ABMR

what exactly do they mean brake override?????????????????????

spwolf

brake input is more important than gas input, if brakes are pushed, gas pedal is ignored... Toyota said that a lot of Toyota and Lexus cars are getting it by the end of the year.

sears1234

Will 07 ES350 get this override fix?

LexBob2

I can't answer your question, but I took my '07 in for the pedal/floor reconfiguration and they didn't do the over ride fix. A week later I bought a 2010 ES and it had been done along with the pedal/floor recall prior to delvery.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

I guess its possible to fix stupid (drivers)

spwolf

i am not sure that recalled cars will get this, they need to redesign the computers to work with this properly.... only new cars will get it.

IS-SV

Yes, that's why I asked earlier, how this recalls was going to be carried out...
(wasn't asking how owners will be notified which is standard practice)

GS69

CNN: Brake Override

There's one safety feature that Toyota could have had in its cars for years that would have stopped many, perhaps even most, cases of unintended acceleration -- it's called 'brake override.'

Toyota has been saying for several weeks that it will add the feature to all of its new cars, and singled out the technology again at a press conference in Japan Wednesday.

Brake override -- or "smart throttle" -- is a software algorithm that acts as a tie-breaker between the gas pedal and the brake pedal. Once you step on the brakes, even if the gas pedal is pressed down at the same time, the car assumes you no longer want to accelerate.

The car acts as if you've stepped off gas, dropping the engine speed to idle. A driver could easily stop a car even if the gas pedal were pinned down down to the floor.

"There's an implausibility going on there, so we defer to the brakes," said Rob Moran, a spokesman for Mercedes-Benz, one carmaker that already uses this technology on all of its cars.

Volkswagen also uses this technology on all of its cars, including Audi models, and Chrysler Group uses it on all of its Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.

Toyota has said it hadn't previously used the technology because some drivers occasionally choose to use both the brake and gas pedals at the same time for certain maneuvers, such as starting the car on a steep incline.

Some automakers, like General Motors, feel it's not needed. GM has technology similar to brake override, but only on cars like the Corvette ZR1 and Cadillac CTS-V, vehicles with engines so powerful they threaten to overwhelm even strong braking.

A GM spokesman said the brakes on most of its cars are strong enough to stop cars even at full throttle. GM specifically tested this with a Pontiac Vibe, a car engineered by Toyota.

"We ran the Vibe wide open at 60 miles an hour and the brakes were able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop within 169 meters, consistent with our internal requirement for brake performance." said Martin Hogan, GM director of brake systems, in a company statement.

While that may be true under ideal conditions, it doesn't reflect a real-life scenario with a panicked, non-professional driver, according to Jake Fisher, a vehicle engineer for Consumer Reports magazine.

Pumping the brakes, or even just releasing the brake pedal once and pushing it back down, while the car is at full throttle can lead to the loss of power brake pressure. Without that, there's little hope of stopping the car if it's still in gear at full throttle, said Fisher.

If your gas pedal is ever stuck down or the car acts as if it is, step one is to move the gear selector to neutral. Even without "smart brake" technology, you should be able to stop the car.

The brake override system requires a computerized electronic throttle control system, something most newer cars have today.

Car buyers may be nervous about computers running their cars' basic functions, said Fisher. But with an old-fashioned mechanical throttle, there's just a cable communicating between the gas pedal and the engine. If that cable fails or gets stuck, there is no back-up. With software, you can have multiple systems running, checking their inputs and actions against one another.

"Smart-throttle" is just another back-up system, said Fisher, and it's one every car should have. "It may not be the cure-all," he said "but it is absolutely the right thing to do." To top of page

TRDFantasy

So most GM cars (save for a few high-performance models) do not have brake override, yet this is the first time I hear the media mentioning this.

Funny how there is no hysteria that sudden acceleration could occur on a GM vehicle, oh wait, that's because they are supported by the UAW and the govt .

nthach

GM probably omitted a few lines of RTOS code to save a few cents/dollars per car. Multiply that by how many cars GM makes and it's a cost savings of several millions a year.

Besides, the majority of cars GM makes are for rental fleets with a 55-65 MPH governor in software.

GS69

Toyota to Add Brake Override on 3 More Models

TORRANCE, Calif. – Toyota says it's installing a brake override system in three more models.

The carmaker says that now 2005-2010 Tacomas, 2009-2010 Venzas and 2008-2010 Sequoias will get the backup safety system that overrides the accelerator if the gas and brake pedals are pressed at the same time. It previously said it was installing the systems in five other existing models.

The Tacomas and Venzas are being recalled for problems with gas pedals getting stuck under floor mats and will have the brake override installed at the same time that problem is fixed. Sequoias are being recalled for sticky gas pedals and owners will be notified separately about the override installation, Toyota says.

Toyota has said it will install the brake override in all future models worldwide.

TRDFantasy

Good job Toyota, adding additional brake override systems to existing and old models already on the road.

The witch hunt against Toyota seems to be never-ending here, but that will only make Toyota more of a ferocious competitor when this entire situation ends.

spwolf

i have posted it in another thread, brake override will not work if you pressed brakes first and then gas, so if you need to launch under brakes for various reasons, it will still work properly.