I see today that NASA will be looking into the problem with the Toyota.
I have been thinking about it and here is my take on the problem and possible cause.
Static can do STRANGE things....
Saw the story on the news this morning that NASA will be helping Toyota find the problem with the run away cars.....
I have a lot of electronic experience being retired Navy Electronics Tech and having a high interest in Electronics and Radio Frequency or RF. I also spent 8 years with SONY doing everything from making Picture Tubes to fixing Play Stations units.
My gut feeling of why the problem is happening with the Toyota Cars is all related to "STATIC CHARGE". All the different materials used to build the car like plastic and rubber acting like a insulator. Two pieces of Metal and a insulator can cause the 2 pieces of metal or 2 wires or group of wires and a insulating material to become a big capacitor..... A Capacitor will hold a charge or difference in potential or voltage.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor ...
Like shuffling your feet on a carpet and sticking your finger out and touching metal you get a "SNAP" or discharge.....
A Glass Picture Tube is made as a Big Capacitor.... In the manufacturing process, a robot paints carbon inside the picture tube funnel. When I was making Picture Tubes at Sony, my area had 2 Fanuc Robots with a 4 inch paint roller painting carbon on the outside of the picture tube. With the glass in the middle, the 2 carbon areas became a big Capacitor.... That is why a old TV turned off for a year and touch the Anode of the Picture Tube you get knocked on your BUTT..... The inside of the Carbon holds a charge.
Static in cars has been documented in 2 areas.... Plastic Truck Bed Liners.... A Metal Gas Can sitting in the bed of a Pickup Truck on the plastic bed liner with the steel bed of the truck under it builds up a positive charge in the Metal Gas Can. Swing the grounded Gas Pump Nozzle and touch the metal gas can and a spark jumps to the nozzle as the can or Capacitor is discharged... BIG BOOM normally follows.... Bed Liners should have a warning sign on each side warning to put the gas can on the ground.....
The Second Static In Cars is while the car is getting gas pumped into it you get back into your car and wait..... You now build up a charge on YOU like the shuffling the feet on the carpet.... You step out of the car now charged and with rubber shoes you walk up and do that "SNAP" thing as you go to grab the Gas Nozzle.... Big BOOM normally follows.... They say you should touch the metal of the car to GROUND yourself far away from the Nozzle and the gas fumes..... Or just DON'T GET IN THE CAR.....
There are some great Gas Station Videos on line showing this.....
OK... Back to the run away cars..... I believe it will be found that a Static Build up between DIFFERENT sections of the CAR and the Wiring AND the SHIELDING OF COMPUTERS with METAL will hold different charges or different Voltage Potentials causing the Computers to LOCK UP.
In the Car Case.... It will be One Computer Talking to another Computer and one "IGNORING" the other because the Ground Reference of the Computer is Raised to a Voltage Potential ABOVE the other.... Computers talk in Binary Language.... a 1 and a 0 or Zero... A High and a Low..... A Binary Capitol A is 01000001. That is low, high, low, low, low, low, low, high. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_system ...
http://www.tekmom.com/buzzwords/binaryalphabet.html ...
It takes 2 things for a computer to talk to another computer and it is called a Hand Shake Routine or in Human.... Outreaching Hand and a "How Are You" and another Human Outreaching Hand shaking it and saying "I am Fine".... That is a Hand Shake Routine and computers do it Thousands of times a second.... There are Timing Clocks in both computers and if the second Human was talking to another human in this example the handshake would only take place when the clock of the second human finished talking to the other person to listen and shake and respond with our example.
So back to the Toyota Cars.... I believe that is the Hand Shake Routine is being messed up between computers do to the Capacitive Charge of the different Metals and insulators of the car and when the computer is sending a "A" or 01000001 in binary and the other computer is seeing 11111111 or all HIGH.... This is because the Voltage reference is raised by the Capacitor Effect.... O' I forgot to mention Binary Logic Voltage Levels..... Back in the 70's when I first started playing around with Computers and Electronic Projects, The IC or Integrated Circuits or Chips were TTL or Transistor Transistor Logic ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transis...ansistor_logic ... Where 1 and Zero was a 1 = 5 Volts DC and a 0 or Zero = Zero Volts DC or .02 volts DC to be exact... Later there were CMOS Chips or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS ... As Computers got faster and faster it was decided that a smaller swing in voltage from the positive 5 volts to a Zero took TOO MUCH TIME.... So other "Standards were used with a lower voltage to speed things up.... Here is a Chart of Binary Logic to Voltage.... http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html ...
So to sum up this long RAINY DAY post to what is happening to the cars.... The Capacitor Voltage between the different parts of the CAR AND the Ground LOOP EFFECT are building up and preventing the computers from effectively communicating... It is like having a loud radio playing in the room and you trying to talk to someone..... Your mouth is moving but the receiver is overwhelmed by the loud radio not hearing you... With the Cars, the Computer is Overwhelmed by the Capacitive Voltages and the Car Goes OUT OF CONTROL AND CRASHES and the voltages DISSIPATE or the Radio Stops PLAYING. Now the person can again hear what you are saying as the Loud Music is GONE.... Or the Static is GONE.... That is WHY they cannot pin point the problem. As the Capacitor Parts of the car discharge and everything goes back to normal, ALL the tests show everything NORMAL....
SO until NASA attach's Data BUS Monitoring and logging Equipment to the Car or Cars AND reproduces the same STATIC CHARGES the problem won't be found..... Static and Ground Loop is a elusive problem.
That is my take on the Runaway Cars.... and my name is AL Ursich, Shohola, PA.... 3/30/2010....