Toyota human model and LA Times response

A couple of things found in the Toyota Pressroom today.

http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/...ps_Advanced_Version_of_Its_Virtual_Human_.pdf

Although targeted for vehicle occupants and so far, just an adult male, this is excellent work that can lead to improved vehicle safety. Instead of waiting on a large set of crash victim reports, the early data can be incorporated into the human model and then tested in synthetic cars followed by verification on the track. Like Edison said, the success of an inventer is to try lots of experiments and a computer model significantly reduces the costs.

Toyota Vehicles : 2011 Toyota Sienna and Avalon Earn Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 'Top Safety Pick' Award / Toyota

The Institute 'moved the goal posts' the year the 2010 Prius came out and then announced there were no Toyota vehicles in their list. The facts were the Toyota models had not been tested to the new standard and it looked like IIS might have been trying to extort more test vehicles (and funding?) from Toyota . . . but that was just the impression the IIS gave. Regardless, as the Toyota vehicles pass through the new test standards, I'm expecting to see more of these reports ... GOOD NEWS!!

Lexus Vehicles : Lexus Update: Our Response to the Los Angeles Times on Lexus ES 300/330 Drivetrain Issue / Toyota

As others have pointed out, a couple of the LA Times reporters spare no effort in reporting Toyota problems with mitigating facts and data buried or obscured by mangled prose. If one read just the first paragraph or two, it would be easy to understand why LA Times readers might not have the complete story. Still, I've noticed the LA Times reader comments don't brook such nonsense, as far as online readers are concerned.

So how do these relate to the Prius? The model will likely improve Prius safety with better passenger and possibly pedestrian protection in the future. The IIS will eventually test the ZVW30 Prius and I suspect we'll see their list of top picks include the Toyota vehicle family including the Prius. The LA Times reporters may get a clue or better still, Toyota's response to their articles get 'space' in the paper. So perhaps the current "Bell the Hybrid" nonsense will be answered with the facts and data that seem to be missing.

Bob Wilson