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SRS goes on to make the case that NASA and NHTSA failed to procure any outside professionals on their own accord that specialized in vehicle engine management or testing, instead relying on Toyota to guide them in those areas. SRS says that the report shows the government also relied on Exponent, the third party hired by Toyota, in order to dismiss a key finding concerning a phenomenon known as “tin whiskers.”
Tin whiskers are hair-like structures which can causes electrical shorts and they were found in “virtually every potentiometer accelerator pedal assembly inspected – including a vehicle whose pedal was replaced by Toyota following acceleration problems.” The report even verified that tin whiskers as a cause of electronic malfunction.
“These studies were far from independent. They are the products of Toyota’s involvement and that of the company’s litigation defense experts who provided the statistical analysis that the agencies used to dismiss the physical evidence that showed flaws in Toyota’s electronics,” says SRS President Sean Kane. “Contrary to Secretary Ray LaHood’s pronouncements, the investigations actually showed numerous ways that Toyotas can experience unintended acceleration without alerting the fault detection system. They were simply dismissed as unlikely.”
Yep its in courts how. But certainly congresses hearings where influneced as they were premature of any evidence. They even ignore the NHTSA data that showed that the complaints on Toyota of unintended acceleration were no higher than other brnads. Pure politics put forward by trial lawyers who have alot to gain and the unions.Now you have sites being feed by those same sources for trail purposes to effect the jury pool.They know they have a hard case to prove after the investigation results.Yep;the big threee fanboys can't take when they are provn baseless on investigations.
Well, to play Devil's Advocate, any Pb-free soldered component will probably show some sign of tin whiskers. Question is how big they were and how close they got to an adjoining solder joint.
Not that anyone would paint me as a defender of Toyota and I have stated repeatedly that there was wrong doing on their behalf, however, that wrong doing was tied to covering up and ignoring issues, not something faulty with their systems.
I would imagine that you could find similar faults on almost any assembly, what matters and what wasn't stated was the probability of that fault causing an issue in the real world. If we are talking a .00001% chance, than it isn't reasonable to expect anyone to design for that. I would be interested to see if they find the same material on other manufacturers pedals.
I really wouldn't put much stock in this report as Sean Kane and SRS Inc. are being PAID by numerous plaintiffs in court cases against Toyota to testify as content experts. I seriously doubt they would be releasing a report claiming there was no issue. At the very least it isn't like this group is a disinterested third party working to expose the truth. They are group that stands to profit from the trials and any doubts they can raise.
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