This guy might be a genius when it comes to computers, but he obviously doesn't know much about cars. Just because you don't put your foot on the gas pedal when you accelerate with the cruise control does not mean the gas pedal doesn't depress. The pedal depresses until you let off the "accel" button on the cruise control, then the pedal "comes back up" to a set point.
I'm not saying Toyota's problem isn't related to some weird PCM program-related glitch, but the guy's logic and reasoning supporting it couldn't be more flawed.

 

While what you are saying was true on the old cable-operated throttles that had cruise, it isn't the case on cars with ETC (like his Prius). The throttle pedal stays put, with the throttle blade being controlled electronically. Except in cruise it is not going by the throttle pedal position sensors, but by the cruise logic's request for torque.

 

Have you driven a DBW car? There's nothing there to make the pedal press itself. It's all software for cruise control. It's not like cruise control on your typical throttle cable controlled car.

 

That's interesting, because I'm pretty certain that my Tundra has the wonderful "drive-by-wire" throttle, and when I use the "accel" button to speed up with the cruise control, the pedal does in fact move.
Maybe it's a different system for the more "technologically advanced" Prius, which probably has like 500 pieces of electronics to perform a single function.
I'm really starting to hate modern cars, as they've gone WAY overboard with the electronics.

 

I know exactly what you folks mean by the delay between the pedal and the engine reacting. My Dad's 2000 Suburban with the 8.1L is slow to react to quick inputs of the pedal. I am able to very quickly completely press the pedal to the floor and back without the engine even changing RPM.

As a side note, David Letterman has been having a blast with the Toyota bashing tonight

 

i swore off newer cars a long time ago. i still drive a 91 cavalier. its a nice clean car, no rust. AND minimal electronics. when something needs to be repaired, i can usually fix it myself. there is also less to go wrong with it. electric power steering, throttle by wire, traction control? why? this stuff is supposed to make the car easier to drive, all it does is make the car more of a pain in the *** to own/maintain. instead all it does is make people weak, stupid, and lazy. damn for my next car i would like to find a clean early 90's lumina with a 3.1.

people look at me funny sometimes driving such old cars but i really dont want to deal with the nonsense. maybe i will buy something newer when they make a car that doesnt have all of this new technology and costs around $12 grand brand new. my cavalier sold for 10 grand when it was new back in '91. a new cobalt is around $17 grand??(correct me if im wrong). granted some of it is inflation but allot of it is paying for technology that i do NOT NEED. all i want is reliable no frills transportation. unless i buy an older car, im not going to be able to get that anymore

 

Tundra didn't go to dbw until 07 . In order for a dbw pedal to move by itself in a situation where throttle input with cruise control on is happening , would require a electronic motor in the pedal to move it . None of them do that . It's just a video game pedal basically where a heavy spring mimmicks the resistence of a cable pedal , and there's a magnet with a a sensor that changes resistence as the pedal moves that sends input to the PCM .

 

onebadponcho, I think you owe the great big Apple fella an apology. He does in fact know more about computers than you, even if they are in a car :-)

 

Sounds like it isn't drive by wire then. I can't imagine why they would spend the money to put a motor to move the pedal. What's the point? The pedal just has sensors to send position information to the ECM.

The changeover in '07 (with the redesign) would explain it. Sounds like onebadponcho must be mistaken about his truck.

 

I think many people do not hold on to cars for more than 10 years. The car industry cares less about long-term reliability, and is adopting the model of disposable electronics. Every few years, you release something updated and better, hoping people will upgrade. Old stuff stops working, or it becomes too expensive and not cost effective to repair - it's just cheaper to get the new model. It's like replacing ink in a printer - why bother when a new printer WITH ink is cheaper than the cartridge.

Obviously it's not totally the same, but it's similar.

 

$10k in 1991 would be worth $15.6k in 2008 due to inflation alone. So the $17k Cobalt in 2010 is not that far off the 1991 Cavalier's price in constant dollars.

As to the increases in technology, I'm all for it. Greater comfort, greater safety, better performance, better fuel economy. And I would argue greater reliability too. I suppose you could argue there's a point where there's just the 'perfect' amount of technology in terms of reliability (e.g. electronic ignition replacing points) and perhaps we've gone past that point, but I still think that overall new technologies tend to make cars more reliable not less.

 

Fixed.

Getting old sucks.

 

 

That's ok, we all have to do it some time.

 

Yeah, you know, having 3 cars that you drive regularly can have it's detriments.
I knew my Tundra had DBW and was almost certain that I remember the pedal moving when using the "accel" on the cruise control. Then I was told "wrong-wrong-wrong" here, so I double-checked it today and I'll be damned if the pedal didn't move at all.
So obviously what it amounts to is what the computer geek is saying makes complete sense. If the pedal doesn't move down, how can it get stuck down or be "slow to return"?