Design News, January 28, 2010:  ”Toyota’s sticking gas pedal was an almost-unforeseeable problem, experts say, and the best course of action now is for engineers to ensure that drivers can handle the failure if it happens again.”

Q. I would like to hear how the Reliability Engineering community feels about this.  Was it unforeseeable?  How can we “ensure that drivers can handle the failure” if the failure is unforeseeable? 

Other manufacturers using throttle-by-wire added software that uses a signal from the brake pedal to override the signal from the gas pedal.  Apparently someone foresaw the problem.  

 Q. As more and more of the functions of the driver are gradually taken over by computerized equipment, with the long term goal of eliminating the driver’s participation entirely,  how do we assure the “passengers” that all is well?  How do we perform Reliability testing holistically?

And finally, though it is not technically related, is the public ready to surrender complete control?

http://www.designnews.com/article/print/446480-Toyota_s_Problem_Was_Unforseeable.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/08webtoyota.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR201002020316

San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, February 14, 2010 Page A1, “Auto electronic controls drawing scrutiny”

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