It’s still baffling how people can actually step on the wrong pedal and hard no less, but hey, guess we’re nobody to judge but Toyota’s got a solution.
Well, it’s more like an “enhanced safety net” rather than a solution cause a solution would be to eliminate this phenomenon entirely – of reversing into our kids, our pets, or even off a multi-storey parking lot.
It’s called the Acceleration Suppression Function and unlike current systems which only work when sensors detect obstacles such as other cars or walls, this one is rather different. The newly developed function aims to control acceleration due to “abnormal operation of the accelerator” even when no obstacles are present.
When developing the new system, Toyota analysed big data collected from other connected vehicles to determine instances when the driver genuinely intended to step on the throttle and instances where it was accidental.
With this, it has allowed them to identify and compute when the accelerator has been operated abnormally before allowing the system to kick in. With that, they’ve even come up with a function to control acceleration even in the absence of obstacles.
This function will be available in new cars through the Toyota Safety Sense driver assistance system while older models can be retrofitted with it. Toyota also plans to share the operational logic of this function extensively, including with other auto makers.
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