NHTSA Tracking Braking Loss on Prius Hybrids

NHTSA Tracking Braking Loss on Prius Hybrids
Toyota owners are unhappy about the performance of the system, calling it defective. Pedestrian lives at risk?
by Ken Zino on Dec.24, 2009

Dozens of owners of the current third generation Toyota Prius models have filled complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the alleged brake failures they have experienced.
The Office of Defects Investigation has at least 33 complaints that we are aware of from Prius owners alleging a problem or safety defect, often about the design or performance of the braking system, which recharges the battery when the Prius decelerates.

Some owners describe this as unintended acceleration, but a review of the complaints by TheDetroitBureau.com leads me to think that this is an issue about how the braking system is calibrated. Whether this is a safety related defect is ultimately up to NHTSA to decide. The safety agency is authorized to order manufacturers to recall and repair vehicles when ODI investigations indicate that they contain serious safety defects in their design, construction, or performance.
For Toyota, it is another owner satisfaction or quality issue, at a minimum, coming from its most advanced technology vehicle at a time when Toyota is under attack for its handling of safety matters.
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<http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2009/12/nhtsa-tracking-braking-loss-on-prius-hybrids/>

The government needs to get all these dangerous Toyotas either fixed or off the road.

can have screwed things up so badly across most of their product lines all at once.

Did they make a conscious decision a few years back to squeeze suppliers too much in an attempt at increasing profits?

...the first "Because now they make their cars in America!" response. There are plenty of America-haters here on DU.

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another problem is buying millions of electronic bits and pieces to replace mechanical parts. the failure rate on electronics is the problem. a failure rate of even less than 1% on 5 million electronic bits is a hell of a lot.

electronic braking and accelerators/speed control is`t the smartest thing to do on mass produced automobiles.