Prius unintended acceleration: Can Wozniak be wrong?
Next up, a cruise control glitch?
Over the last few days I’ve come across a few references to some problems that Steve Wozniak, Apple Co-Founder, has had with his latest Toyota Prius. This morning I finally read a story thanks to an e-mail from reader Steve.
Wozniak claims he can easily repeat a situation in cruise control when he can make the the Prius unintentionally accelerate. Fortunately, the situation can be controlled with braking, assuming the report is true. Ultimately, in Wozniak’s professional opinion, the Prius cruise control software needs an upgrade.
Despite his claims of repeatability, Wozniak was not able to convince either Toyota or the NHTSA that there is a problem. Moreover, Toyota claims it investigated Wozniak’s claim – an assumption I’m making as Toyota responded that they investigate all complaints – but was not able to find any evidence of such a problem.
I don’t get it. If Wozniak can repeat the issue at will, how can neither Toyota nor the NHTSA find a problem? Is Wozniak tricking the system in a way that only one of the world’s most infamous software engineers would attempt? Anybody have any more details on how Wozniak can force the Prius to accelerate unintentionally while in cruise control?
