Posted by admin on Jul 8, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments
<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.carsguide.com.au/toyota”>Toyota Cars</a> has always been a market leader for many decades now. The brand has continued to deliver quality products and services to its loyal client base who do not think twice before buying any product from them.
However, there have been some technical malfunctions that have been experienced in the cars manufactured by Toyota. The fault has been found primarily in the accelerator pedal. It was few years back that Toyota first announced that it will introduce a shrunk model of the accelerator in all its 2007 – 2010 models. It was then only, that many automobile experts had raised their concern on this.
The thought behind this was that, if the gas pedal was made smaller, it would help avoid the situation of the accelerator being stuck under the floor mat of the driver. But the fact remained that it was only half the measure. The actual way of sorting out the problem was to reprogram the computer so that it would include a brake to idle fail safe.
The company has now recalled the cars that have new gas pedals and replaced them with brake to idle fail safe in some cars.
This new technology that the brand has introduced i.e. brake – to – idle – fail safe, is something that is computer controlled. It cancels the accelerator inputs as the brakes are depressed. Thus, with this new technology, it becomes impossible for the accelerator, if ever stuck, to cause an accident. This is because a single touch of the brakes gives an indication to the computer that the gas pedal should be ignored.
The fail safe is a foolproof and simple countermeasure for the stuck up accelerator problem, as it only requires the ECU or engine control unit programming to be updated. Thus, when Toyota had announced that they would re-size the accelerator pedals in its new cars, they also announced that they would reprogram the Camry, Avalon and few other cars and include in them their latest technology i.e. brake-idle-fail safe system.
This indeed is great news for all the owners of Toyota. They as always, have ensured that they give the best to their customers and have thus set a great example of always doing the right thing.
This new technology that the brand has introduced i.e. brake – to – idle – fail safe, is something that is computer controlled. It cancels the accelerator inputs as the brakes are depressed. Thus, with this new technology, it becomes impossible for the accelerator, if ever stuck, to cause an accident. This is because a single touch of the brakes gives an indication to the computer that the gas pedal should be ignored.
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Posted by admin on Jul 1, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments
We hear a lot about safety nowadays and rightly so. Hardly a day goes by without, us members of the general public being exposed to one photographic horror story after another about carnage on our roads. Now this article is not meant to act as a criticism for any of these campaigns, I think actually they serve an immensely useful purpose but it would appear possibly that we perhaps spend an inordinate time on external factors and ignore in car factors when it comes to safety.
If we take a look at safety kit for cars than there are possibly several different types off the safety kit and technology that are worth looking at.
Firstly, traction and stability control. Well folks it goes without saying best way to survive an accident is to try and avoid having it in the first place. Sounds common sense? Of course it does in this case, we are thinking in terms of all traction and stability control. Traction control is there in cars to assist us when things go all pear-shaped on slippery surfaces about stability control, also known as ESP actually goes further. It is almost a case off the car taking complete control. It does this by comparing and analyzing the path and the direction that the car is moving in whilst under control off the driver and if there is a major discrepancy between the two, what do you know the car takes over and slows the car by breaking one or more wheels, reducing engine power or any combination of the two.
The second piece of technology that is worth looking at off breaking aids. By this I mean anti-lock breaks which are now standard on new cars. The ease use a system which in turn uses a series of sensors to prevent the cars wheels locking out or up or under breaking leading to a skid. Basically they enable a driver to continue steering and remain in control of the car while breaking hard in an incident and not losing control of the car.
Next we look at adaptive cruise control. The best cruise control management systems in cars don’t just help you maintain a constant speed without any pressure from you on the accelerator and they can also analyze the distances between you and the car in front meaning that if you come too close to the caught in front the system will immediately slow the speed of your call to compensate and maintain the correct distance between you and the car in front. Get this; there are some systems that even talk to the driver. Wow that’s all we need is a car that talks back.
The thing that you have to remember with all of these technological systems is that they calmed completely prevent accidents but what they can do is reduce the severity of those accidents.
You will find that while a human remains in control or has a controlling influence on the control of a car quite honestly there is always the possibility of something random happening no matter how experienced or how good the driver is.
All you can try and do is try and minimize the effects and that is what some of these systems do.
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Posted by admin on Jun 24, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments
Science is enabling people to make giant technological strides in all fields, including those of automobiles. Although the dawn of mass produced flying cars is still far away, major interest combined with high funding has resulted in many potentially ground breaking technological changes in cars. Areas where research is primarily focused on includes finding new energy sources and materials; including biogas, hydrogen, nitrogen, electric and solar power as potential energy sources, building smart cars, making cars less accident prone, saving energy, having greater fuel efficiency and producing cleaner cars, which do not pollute the environment. Techniques such as regenerative braking, the ‘Turbosteamer’ used by BMW and the use of computational fluid dynamics help in a more efficient use of energy.
The idea of a car propelled by nuclear energy may seem farfetched but the Ford Nucleon was pioneered in 1957, which was the first nuclear automobile. However, no working prototypes were produced but nuclear energy can be looked at in the future as a potential fuel source. Currently, hydrogen is proving to be a much more viable fuel source as several prototypes have been produced. BMW produced the BMW Hydrogen 7 as a dual fuel vehicle with the ability to use either liquid hydrogen or gasoline.
Apart from all these practical advantages, the aesthetics of the car are subject to immense scrutiny as well. Movies have generally heralded the creation of future technologies in cars. Many of the features present in the cars of early James Bond movies are present in mass-produced cars today. In the movie, I Robot, released in 2004, the producers used the Audi RSQ sports coupé, which used spheres instead of wheels.
Fiction has also occasionally dwelled into the possibility of flying automobiles. In fact, the dream of building such a vehicle has been present ever since the first plane of the Wright Brothers took flight. In January 2009, the Terrafugia Transition, developed by former NASA engineers, took its first test flight as the world’s first flying car. The car has the ability to transform from a car into a plane in approximately 15 seconds. The manufactures are confident in the ability of this integrated vehicle to be mass produced. Paul Moller has been trying to manufacture a flying car, which he calls a “Skycar”, his prototype labeled M200X was unveiled in 1989, which could go as high as 50 feet. More interestingly Skycar M400, which is his latest design, has the ability to take off and land vertically, ability found in harrier jets. The car can reach speeds of 400 mph and currently costs $1 million but if it is to be mass produced it is likely to be available at a more affordable price. Additionally, there are many other prototypes in the works including the likes of the Aerocar, Avrocar, ConvAir Car, Airphibian and Arrowbile. Many of these vehicles use different sets of technologies for propulsion and aerial abilities, some of them use propellers while the others are integrated with wings as well. Proper financial resources and technological integration between these several prototypes can finally bring the dream of mass production of flying cars to a reality.
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