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December 7th 2011: Freedom of Information Act

Safety Research & Strategies Takes DOT and NHTSA Transparency Battle to Court; Sues for Toyota Investigation Documents

September 2011 Tin whisker effects reported in automobile accelerator pedal sensors

• Sept 23rd 2011 CALCE : Prediction of Potential Failures Risks in Toyota Vehicles Confirmed by NASA Scientists  Investigations of Toyota vehicles have revealed tin whiskers in a critical component of their vehicle engine control system. At the September CALCE Conference on Tin Whiskers, Henning Leidecker and his team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who are recognized experts on electronic device failure and tin whiskers, presented their studies of tin whiskers on Toyota vehicles. They determined that the risk of failure due to tin whisker shorting in affected Toyota vehicles can be on the order of 50 to 150 per million. This figure agrees with the number reported in a recently published scientific journal article [Sood et al.] written by CALCE researchers Bhanu Sood, Michael Osterman, and Michael Pecht. They assessed the probability of a tin whisker–induced electrical short to be 140 per 1 million, based on whisker growth statistics.

• Sept 14th 2011 NASA :  Electrical Failure of an Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor Caused by a Tin Whisker and Discussion of Investigative Techniques Used for Whisker Detection  A tin whisker-induced short was responsible for the failure of a 2003 Toyota Camry Accelerator Pedal Position (APP) Sensor based on a dual potentiometer. The NHTSA report states warranty analyses dentified at least two additional falures due to tin whiskers in similarly designed APP sensors 
  

August 2nd 2011 Police Cruiser stops runaway Ford Expedition - Huntsville TX
Video report from Click2Houston.com : Gatlin Jeter said he couldn't stop his SUV last Saturday as he sped toward downtown Huntsville at 60 mph. He called 911 and emergency dispatchers called police for help. Sam Houston State University patrol officer Rocky Carrell heard the call and used his police SUV to stop Gatlin's Ford Expedition. See also this article

July 27th 2011 Florida court accuses Ford Motor Co. of hiding deadly sudden acceleration glitch St Petersburg Times

For the first time, a Florida court has found validity in decades of complaints by drivers that faulty electronics can cause their cars to rocket out of control. In doing so, a 5th Circuit Court judge has accused Ford Motor Co. of hiding or destroying records of its own engineers' concerns about sudden acceleration caused by electronics — instead blaming accidents on drivers inadvertently hitting the gas pedal. If upheld, one attorney predicted thousands of old cases brought by drivers of runaway cars could be reopened.  Stimpson v. Ford Motor Co., 2004-CA-13, Circuit Court for Sumter County, Florida (Bushnell). See Court Order

March 15th 2010 (AP) South Carolina's highest court overturns an $18 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. in a fatal crash, ruling that one expert shouldn't have been allowed to testify about cruise-control problems.       Wall Street Journal           SC Supreme Court Opinion                                   

A Greenville County jury handed down an $18 million dollar verdict in a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company.


December 15th 2009 circa 12.40 pm: Melbourne Australia: Cruise Control Glitch causes a ride of  terror.A motorist thought he was going to die during a terrifying ride through Melbourne's eastern suburbs after his cruise control jammed.Chase Weir, 22, was forced to dodge cars during his 30-minute ordeal after his Ford Explorer became stuck on 80km/h.The car's computer malfunctioned when he attempted to take the Burke Road exit from Kew to Greensborough about 12.40pm today.Mr Weir's attempts to stop the vehicle — including braking, shifting the car out of gear and even removing the keys — proved futile as he desperately dialled triple-0 on his mobile phone, The Age reports.Two police cars found the out-of-control 4WD and attempted to clear a path along the Eastlink roadway.But the driver was forced to veer onto the wrong side of the road to avoid banked-up traffic near Monash University's Frankston campus."That's pretty much when I thought, 'I'm dead'," Mr Weir told told Nine News.  Nine News Video Report  ABC News radio interview