Toyota faced a public relations nightmare in recent months as their vehicles faced issues of unintended acceleration due to poor fitting floor mats. Not only has Toyota since moved to replace the floor mats in question, but Toyota has just announced that it will install brake override systems on all Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles by the end of 2010 to prevent this issue in the future.
Installation of these new brake override systems has already begun this month, according to the president of Toyota North America, Yoshi Inaba. The first vehicles to receive the systems are the Toyota Camry and the Lexus ES 350, which are among Toyota’s highest volume vehicles. By year’s end, Toyota’s goal is to feature this system as standard equipment on every model.
After several occurrences of runaway vehicles were reported, due to floor mates interfering with the accelerator pedal, Toyota has acted fast to not only replace the floor mats, but also aimed at working closely with the NHTSA to investigate the issue thoroughly.
By installing brake override systems, Toyota vehicles will be better suited to avert unintended acceleration. These systems are able to turn the engine to idle if the software detects that the driver is trying to apply the brakes, but is still unable to stop the vehicle.
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