Chipsets

Wednesday's recall of the 2003 Sequoia marks the third computer-related recall for Toyota Motor this year.

The Japanese car company announced a recall of 50,000 Sequoia 2003 model year SUVs to address problems with the Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) System. If not fixed, some vehicles may not accelerate as quickly as the driver expects, Toyota said.

And earlier this month, Toyota said it would recall 9,400 Lexus GX 460 SUVs to correct a stability control system problem that could lead to a loss of control, which Consumer Reports designated as a "Don't Buy: Safety Risk."

These two recalls follow a February recall of 133,000 2010 Prius models to update software in the vehicle's antilock brake system (ABS), which could lead to inconsistent braking.

In the glitch disclosed on Wednesday, Toyota said it made a production change during the 2003 model year and published a technical service bulletin to address the issue when it was first identified in the fall 2003. "Since that time, Toyota has been responding to individual owner concerns by replacing the skid control engine control unit in Sequoias impacted by this condition," Toyota said in a statement. The engine control unit, or ECU, is an onboard computer.

There have been no reported injuries or accidents as a result of the condition, Toyota said.

The Sequoia and Lexus GX 460 recalls both involve stability control, which is one of many computer-controlled drive-by-wire technologies used in cars today. Toyota instituted the Vehicle Stability Control system in 1997 on Lexus vehicles (PDF), which it describes as "sensors, actuators, and computer electronics (that) help avoid and recover from vehicle skids and spins." Sensors detect when the vehicle's direction of travel does not correlate with "driver steering inputs." The system then uses throttle and selective brake intervention to help maintain the path of travel.

In the case of the Lexus GX 460, "it was a bad choice of (programmed) settings," said Jeff Bartlett, online deputy editor for autos at Consumer Reports, which first identified the problem. "If you were decelerating from a highway to an off-ramp--they just gave it too much latitude, really," he said in a phone interview. "It wasn't an electronic problem per se, it was more of an… Read more

USB 3.0 will not see widespread adoption until at least late 2011 because of lack of direct support from Intel. As a result, the new standard may not become as prevalent this decade as USB 2.0 has been through most of the past decade.

The current USB standard, which is found on almost all mainstream gadgets today, has been around a long time. USB 2.0 was first available as far back as 2001 and Intel laid the groundwork for widespread use on PCs and devices in spring 2002 when it put the technology in its silicon.

Eight years later, the advantages of moving to a faster standard, USB 3.0, are clear (for devices like digital cameras, camcorders, and hard drives): transfer rates jump from 480 megabits per second to 5 gigabits per second--which is more than a 10-fold increase in speed. And as this CNET Review of a USB 3.0 Seagate external hard disk indicates, it can make a big difference: the Seagate drive was the "fastest USB external hard drive to date," according to CNET Labs.

But without direct support in Intel's silicon, it's a chicken-and-egg dilemma. The result: mass adoption of USB 3.0 by PC makers is unlikely.

"The real sweet spot of a new version of USB comes when it is integrated into the chipset of the PC," said Brian O'Rourke, an analyst at In-Stat. "That's when USB becomes mainstream...By integrating it into its chipsets, Intel essentially allows PC OEMs to offer that new flavor of USB for free," he said.

But Intel is not expected to put USB 3.0 in its silicon until 2011, according to O'Rourke. That means the interval between the initial introduction of USB 3.0 by NEC in May 2009 and Intel's adoption will be much longer than the transition was in 2001-2002. "In this go-round, it's going to be about two and a half years instead of a year," said O'Rourke, who also writes about this in a blog entitled "Transition to SuperSpeed USB Will Be Slow."

In an interview last month in Heise Online, an Intel representative said that USB 3.0 wouldn't become mainstream until… Read more

The newest 4G marvel from Sprint and HTC joins a growing list of high-end smartphones that tap into the speed of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

The dual-branded Sprint HTC phone announced Tuesday at CTIA 2010 in Las Vegas joins other Snapdragon-based phones, including the Google Nexus One (also made by HTC), the HTC HD2, Acer Liquid, and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. All, except the HD2, are upscale phones that run the Android operating system.

The Sprint Evo 4G is representative of a category of high-end Android-based phones that pack extra processing punch to power large screens (in the case of … Read more

Qualcomm is adding 4G technology to its Gobi laptop modems and expanding its chip offerings that support 3G technologies.

The San Diego-based company announced at CTIA in Las Vegas Tuesday that it will add, for the first time, LTE, or Long Term Evolution 4G technology to the roster of 3G technologies that the Gobi modem supports. 4G technology is expected to offer much greater data throughput than current 3G technologies (see chart below).

Gobi modem technology is significant because it supports more than one type of 3G service. In effect, Gobi allows switching to a different 3G provider in software. The integrated Gobi modem on HP EliteBook business laptops, for example, supports Verizon's EV-DO and AT&T's HSPA 3G services. Before, a user would have to replace the internal modem to switch providers.

And Gobi modems will now be future-proofed by supporting LTE, too. Michael Concannon, senior vice president of connectivity and wireless modules at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, explained how this could play out for PC makers. "A PC supplier, for example, may go with a 3.6 megabit-per-second module on a very low-end laptop, while in the mid-range they may want to go with a 14.4 (Mbps), and at the very high end… Read more

Toyota on Monday released information that calls into question a driver's account of uncontrollable acceleration affecting his Toyota Prius in San Diego.

In a video released Monday by Toyota titled "Toyota preliminary findings of alleged runaway Prius," Toyota Motor Sales Vice President Mike Michels questioned Jim Sikes' account of uncontrolled acceleration in his Prius last week in San Diego.

On March 7, James Sikes called 911, saying the accelerator in his Prius was stuck and he couldn't slow down. The event was thought to be related to glitches that, in rare cases, may cause uncontrolled acceleration … Read more

A U.S. government agency and Toyota could not replicate an alleged runaway Prius incident in San Diego, according to an Associated Press report.

On March 7, James Sikes called 911, saying the accelerator in his Prius was stuck and he couldn't slow down. The event was thought to be related to mechanical or electronic glitches that, in rare cases, may cause uncontrolled acceleration in the Toyota Prius.

But in a memo drafted for a congressional panel, technicians with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota were unable to replicate the problem on Sikes' car, according to the AP report.

"Every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake pedal to the floor, the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow down," the report said. The memo went on to say that it would not be likely that Sikes's gas pedal would be stuck while he was slamming on the brakes at the same time.

A similar conclusion was reached by Edmunds.com on Friday, which CNET reported based on an interview with Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds. The car Web site conducted a test on a Prius in an attempt to replicate the problem that Sikes… Read more

The case of the runaway Toyota Prius in San Diego highlights the challenges facing Toyota when claims are made about hard-to-trace glitches.

The incident, which received wide national coverage, happened Monday when James Sikes called 911, saying the accelerator in his Prius was stuck and he couldn't slow down. The happening was thought to be another in a string of alleged incidents related to glitches which, in rare cases, may cause uncontrolled acceleration in the Toyota Prius.

But now, Sikes' motives are being questioned by car site Jalopnik, as well as by USA Today. A report from a local Sacramento TV station investigated Sikes' past, also calling into question his motives.

All reports state that Sikes, who filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008, had large debt loads. And USA Today says Sikes had cars repossessed in the past and that his leased Prius was his only remaining car, which he would have to give back in a few months. Though these facts alone do not necessarily add up to an indictment, the veracity of his claims are now being questioned on technical grounds by car Web site Edmunds.com.

Sikes did not return calls to his business.

"It doesn't add up," said Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, which just completed a test Friday of a Toyota Prius that's the same generation as the Prius in Sikes' case. (See the Edmunds.com video here.) "I just held the throttle wide open with my right foot and then I pressed on the brakes with my left foot. When you overlap the brake and the throttle in that car, the engine decouples, and the brakes take over completely."

"That's protection that's in the Prius drive train because of the hybrid nature of the vehicle," Edmunds said.

Sikes has claimed otherwise.… Read more

The latest cases of uncontrolled acceleration in the Toyota Prius point to software glitches that the car industry needs to address with more rigorous testing, according to a company that specializes in software integrity.

The most recent high-profile incident happened on Monday when James Sikes called 911 around 1:30 p.m., saying the accelerator in his Prius was stuck and he couldn't slow down, according to a CBS News report.

At one point, the car hit a speed of 90 mph. A California Highway Patrol officer inserted his car in front of the Prius and applied the brakes to try to get the Prius to stop. It stopped after about 20 minutes.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny...it jumped and it just stuck there," Sikes said at a news conference, according to the CBS News report. (See video below.) He said he tried the brakes but this didn't stop the car.

Dave Peterson, chief marketing officer at Coverity, said: "There are two things that are clear about the latest Prius incident. One, nobody knows where the problems are inside of these types of automobiles. Two, the days of blaming floor mats are coming to an end." Coverity provides software analysis to help electronics companies build high-integrity software. Its customers have included France Telecom, Siemens, Mitsubishi Electric, Research In Motion, and Broadcom.

Peterson asserts--as have other experts--that "drivers should not be software beta testers for automobiles." Sophisticated drive-by-wire cars like the Prius demand more exacting analysis, as is practiced in the airplane industry. "It is time to see the auto industry learn from the avionics sector and apply rigorous integrity testing for all software components and all combinations of integrations between these components," he said.

In a statement, Toyota said it sent a technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the Monday incident. Generally, the automaker has maintained that mechanical flaws, not electronics, are to blame in cases of unintended acceleration, though the company does investigate select incidents when drivers claim electronic failures. … Read more

The electronic issues dogging the Toyota Prius signal that cars are increasingly susceptible to software bugs. Cars, however, are not PCs on wheels and have a different set of problems than that crash-prone computer on your desktop, according to an expert at Edmunds.com.

Anyone who has ever been in a Prius knows immediately that it's different, with its large LCD display on the dashboard, the computer-controlled buttons that switch the car into different fuel-efficiency modes, and the all-digital dashboard.

If the Prius is any indication of the future of cars, then cars with more computer-related glitches is part … Read more