Detroit Free Press: Are cosmic rays really causing Toyota's woes?

Wait a minute while I get my tinfoil hat...

 

Without getting into details, I think it's extremely unlikely for something like this to produce consistent behavior (which would be required for uniformal acceleration). They test these cars under sustained /extreme/ EMI conditions without any noteworthy issues. The vehicle's electronics /are/ heavily shielded for that very reason.

If cosmic rays were really causing problems, believe me, you'd get DTC codes not any sort of consistent acceleration...

Toyota Vehicles : Video Library / Toyota

Andrew

 

Cosmic rays are making people dumber by the minutes.

 

In all seriousness, I find it hard to believe that Toyota's engineers built its systems without safeguards at least as good as those used by Ford, Honda, Audi, Chrysler, Nissan, Renault, Kia, etc etc. As good as this all sounds, it doesn't explain the significant difference in complaints between manufacturers and model years. Since they all use similar systems it seems it should be more even.

NHTSA considers all submissions nowadays. "A Concerned Scientist"? Dr. Anderson, the guy working for the ATAC? Probably.

 

When I worked at Los Alamos National Lab (at 7000'+ altitude), a supercomputer built with Compaq had many thousands of microprocessors and no memory error correction hardware. Cosmic ray hits can definitely flip a bit in a memory or a processor, but SECDED (single-error correction, double-error detection) parity essentially solves the problem. However, on that scale, the hardware adds measurably to cost. PC vendors don't provide it because profit margins are very small, and no one cares if your browser or email malfunctions once in awhile.

An IBM report in 1979 considered effects of altitude (increases), shielding (decreases), etc.:
Effect of Cosmic Rays on Computer Memories -- Ziegler and Lanford 206 (4420): 776 -- Science
So this is neither new nor speculative.
See also:
Cosmic ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and Intel has a patent on a "cosmic ray detector" for every chip:
www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/do-we-need-cosmic-ray-alerts-for.html

 

Relatively simple test of the SEU hypothesis: compare rates of unintended acceleration reports per 1000 vehicles between Colorado and Los Angeles. Colorado has significantly higher cosmic ray background levels than at sea level. If there's no higher rate of reports in CO compared to LA (or east coast cities), then the SEU hypothesis is greatly weakened or should be disregarded. Conversely, if the rate is higher in CO, then it should be further investigated.

 

No, I think it's dark matter that's the culprit.

 

And I thought it was gray matter. On top of the head (or in my case, on the side!) and within.

 

I think you missed my joke - the tinfoil provides shielding (for the 1's and 0's in my head). (otherwise the voices tell me to do ... things...)

 

Nope. But some people on here will use any theory to prove Toyota is the fourth member of the Axis of Evil. Oops. I guess Toyota replaced Iraq!

 

When you're all done laughing....

Method of reducing alpha-particle induced errors in an integrated circuit - Patent 4328610

And:

IEEE Xplore - Sign In


Or:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_C._May

 

Don't need no fancy ECC memory or redundant computers. A simple background checksum calculation on the flash memory will suffice for fault detection of the code. RAM tests are part of the startup in any embedded system I've seen. Defensive programming is about guarding against much more likely crazy sensors than rogue gamma rays, but are effective against the latter.

Hope that helps.

 

Those cosmic rays are more likely concentrated on Detroit, where they have toasted the U.S. car industry.

 

Some of us got it. Danny has even provided a smilie for it ---> :tinfoil3:

 

I'm not even sure where to buy tinfoil. The aluminum foil hat is really and antenna that transmits your thoughts to the govenmt.

 

Oh, so now its not the floor mats, but a steady stream of cosmic rays specifically aimed at that one prius that tells the computer that the pedal is holding steady at wide open throttle.

Will wonders never cease.

 

Nah. It is your cellular phone that transmits where you are every second or so. From the location information, the government can tell more about you than any tinfoil hat will.

 

shh. your going to ruin my group photo of people using aluminum hats.

 

BINGO! That might explain why Rhonda Smith experienced "divine intervention" when her "possessed" Lexus went amok.

Shame on you Cosmic Particles! :nono: