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Old 28th March 2010, 23:03   #16
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Well, even if we are to accept for argument's sake that cosmic rays ARE the culprit in Toyota's woes, won't there be ANY OTHER electronic (not just car electronics) that failed? This is bovine crap, IMHO!

Btw, even if this article came in an Indian newspaper, shouldn't this be in the International autoscene section?
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Old 28th March 2010, 23:46   #17
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I feel sorry for Toyota who unfortunately were the only car makers in the world to be subjected to Cosmic rays, cant understand even after such a big mess why cant they just admit they screwed up and just get on with it.
There are people who have lost their lives due to this and just imagine how their family and close ones will react when told that it was cosmic rays.

Last edited by aah78 : 29th March 2010 at 00:54. Reason: Edited for content.
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Old 29th March 2010, 00:03   #18
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well people are jumping into conclusions at the snap of a finger. Its Mentioned that Federal regulators and not the company themselves(well common which company is rather foolish to make such statements?) have hinted a possible reason for the so called microprocessor problem.
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Old 29th March 2010, 01:33   #19
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This thread is - International Automotive Scene, not Indian Scene.
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Old 29th March 2010, 16:42   #20
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+1 to Cuboid.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ph03n!x View Post
Well, even if we are to accept for argument's sake that cosmic rays ARE the culprit in Toyota's woes, won't there be ANY OTHER electronic (not just car electronics) that failed? This is bovine crap, IMHO!

Btw, even if this article came in an Indian newspaper, shouldn't this be in the International autoscene section?
Though it does sound incredible, but there's a small but definite possiblity for electronics (including car electronics) display strange beheviour at the minimum and random failures at the maximum. Reality is stranger than fiction, isn't it?

Off topic discussion:

There are reports of various degrees of trouble (as worse as failures even) in radio communications, broadcast, electrivity supply etc due to cosmic shower and solar flare (to be very specific). The solar flare has a cycle of roughly 11 years and known to cause troubles as mentioned above and in affects computers. There have been reports of computer memory failure, system failure etc due to these devine interventions!

Please read the links below:
[COLOR=#0000ff]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#0000ff]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare[/COLOR]

The electronics industry understands these and there are electronic compoents that are radiation hardened and those are typically used for mission critical applications.

Note: My post has nothing to do with whether cosmic showers may cause the issues in Toyota cars. I am just stating few relatively lesser known but very interesting facts.

Cheers
Pratim
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Old 29th March 2010, 20:25   #21
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Cosmic Rays!!

Guess TATA can learn such sci-fi excuses...
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Old 29th March 2010, 20:43   #22
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I don't find anything funny with that. It's probably due to the fact that we have not experienced such a thing before and hence may be laughing. It is possible that they are at a completely different track. But I do think, that Toyota must have spent lots of hours in the problem and had this been a bug, it probably would had been out by now.
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Old 29th March 2010, 21:36   #23
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Just remembered one more different take on it that I read
CanadianDriver Feature Articles Feature: Not so fast – Toyota?s unintended acceleration

Its supposed to be human error where you mistakenly press on the accelerator thinking its brake. Audis experienced the run away problems in the 80s and the reason was never found.
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Old 30th March 2010, 17:42   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cuboid View Post
It impacts electronic circuits for sure.
...
I would not be surprised at all if the radiation causes an IC failure. And as the car ECU is nothing but an IC, it may also get impacted. Now suppliers of the IC to toyota would be the only person who could tell whether their circuits are radiation error tolerant or not.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pratim View Post
Though it does sound incredible, but there's a small but definite possiblity for electronics (including car electronics) display strange beheviour at the minimum and random failures at the maximum. Reality is stranger than fiction, isn't it?
Yes, definitely. Proton particles would affect integrated circuits causing failure. It is not fiction, but truth.

But, how come cosmic particles are so particular about ICs running in Toyota ECUs? How come the particles are not targeting other ICs? Lots of ICs in hand held devices out there. No one is recalling at mass scale yet.

Is it just me who is smelling sinister designs here?
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Old 31st March 2010, 21:59   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by R2D2 View Post
You bet it is funny.

I will take this cosmic ray bit with a pinch of salt. Let me tell you why. How come almost no Toyota car in Asia/Pacfic (even China had a 'proactive' recall, no runaways reported there) are not displaying symptoms of run away acceleration etc? Are these 'scientists' alluding to some theory that cosmic ray bombardment only occurs in northern latitudes?

Cheers!
It's like all those UFO sightings which are mainly over North America. Must be also due to cosmic rays!!
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