Toyota, contemplating to add Prius in recall
Toyota is currently facing another pressure on Thursday when the government cited brake problems with Prius that were addressed by customers.
Toyota thinks it is too early to decide if the hybrid model will be added to the millions of cars being recalled. The complain of the car owners is that their brakes do not engage immediately when they press the brake pedal, that it gives inconsistent feel. The U.S. National Highway Trafffic Safety Administration said they will review the problem. The Japanese automaker is ever willing to cooperate with NHSTA investigation. Toyota is already checking other hybrid models to know if they have the same braking system as the 2010 model, but so far no complaint was raised.
NHTSA said that the common report from the Prius owners is that they are experiencing "brief lag" when they apply the brakes, although in the reports, it did not specify how long the lags were. Though the Japanese auto maker are not decided to call recall, it seems they are likely to do so within few days since they are under the scrutiny of customers and regulators. Toyota was one of the first companies to introduce hybrid car that combines an electric motor with gas engine.
Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997, and in 2001 it was introduced worldwide. The Hybrid models of Toyota took pride for its high mileage, that made it popular among the environmentally aware drivers, particulary when gas prices went up two years ago. Prius, a highly computerized car, encountered difficulties in the past. In 2005, 75,000 car units were repaired just to fix software glitches that caused the engine to stop. It also had problems with headlights going out.
Toyota insisted that in the case of gas pedal problems, the dilemma is mechanical, not electronic. As for the Prius brakes, senior manager of global power train for J.D. Power and Associates, Mike Omotoso, said the reason is a software malfunction in the computer that controls the brakes. According to him, the problem occurs as the Prius changes between using electric motor and internal combustion engine to power the car. The motor which is powering the car also runs the brakes, but the brakes give out briefly in the transition.
According to Mr. Omotoso, it’s almost like circuit interruption, when you switch, there’s a short pause like a second or less. He said that the system should be reprogrammed where the braking power is applied for a split second longer. In separate reports, Ford Motor Co. plans to fix 17,600 Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion gas electric hybrids due to software problems, which can give drivers the feeling that the brakes have failed. According to Ford, the dilemma occurs during transition between two braking systems and at no time are drivers without brakes.
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