Investigations into the origin of the crisis of Toyota have also attracted attention on everything that could go wrong in the electronic systems of vehicles, the increasing number of wires, sensors and chips that have profoundly changed the car in the last decade.
Although not found a track that appears responsible for the problems with Toyotas, start drawing a picture, which shows that the auto industry race to incorporate more technological advances in vehicles has surpassed the control tests quality and regulatory initiatives.
And that is worrying not only for Toyota car owners, but for those who drive any modern vehicle that is essentially a computer on wheels.
Toyota insists that the mail has no bearing on the sudden and accidental acceleration which has resulted in massive retreat from the market, and nobody could prove otherwise.
But several lawyers, regulators, engineers and politicians are not ready to exonerate the electronic systems.
The automotive industry has advanced at a rapid pace since the late 1990s, to replace the cables and other mechanical devices from computers that control the brakes to the pedals and the steering. Industry participants note that electronics have made vehicles safer, with devices such as airbags and antilock brakes. This also would have made the vehicles more efficient in fuel consumption, cleaner and usually more reliable.
But things can go wrong, and diagnosis of problems is complex.
The age of the vehicle may also impact.
"It's like finding a needle in a haystack," said Raj Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "It's very difficult to reproduce this. The problem occurs, you review and not find it. It is normal to attribute something to the driver and let it happen."
That's what Toyota did in the beginning.
The drivers complained that their vehicles sped out of control, even without stepping on the pedal, but the complaints were largely dismissed by Toyota, its dealers and government regulators, who attributed the situation to mechanical problems or that drivers stepped the accelerator by mistake.
Toyota, which until recently had the reputation of a company offering industry-leading products, high quality, began replacing other electrical mechanical accelerators in 2002, with the Camry. Since 2007, all models have been equipped with high-tech pedal.
An analysis of complaints by the auto safety research firm Quality Control Systems (NHTSA, for its acronym in English), found that the number of speed complaints received by the Security Agency Highway Traffic tripled from the launch of electronic pedals.
The NHTSE said that 34 people have died in collisions resulting from the sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles since 2000.
But the matter did not receive much attention until a Toyota official of the California Highway Patrol and three relatives were killed when their leased Lexus sped out of control and crashed into another vehicle near San Diego. The shock of August 28 received coverage in the press.
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