The Toyota sticky throttle was NOT software related
The US Congress report on last year’s Toyota sticky throttle recall concludes the problem was entirely mechanical and not software related.
Last year we extensively covered the Toyota sticky throttle recall, which also extended to Peugeot and Citroen as they shared the Toyota Aygo in the C1 and 107.
And as far as we can see, at no time was it suggested, implied or stated that the cause of the sticking throttles was anything other than mechanical. Or at least we didn’t report it.
Despite that, the US Government has spent a gazillion dollars and a chunk of time getting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA to investigate 280,000 lines of software code.
The investigation was called for by US Congress and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday revealed that “Our conclusion – that Toyota’s problems were mechanical, not electrical – come after one of the most exhaustive, thorough and intensive research efforts ever undertaken.”
Which is nice for Toyota, assuming anyone ever seriously considered it was a software problem. We DID report a software problem in the latest Prius causing braking problems, but that was unrelated to the main recall. Still, it’s only fair to Toyota – having covered the recall quite extensively – that we report the software wasn’t the issue.
Even if we never said it was.
