WEBVTT - Blame Game 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:20.796 Bushkin. On the morning of August twenty eighth, two thousand 0:00:20.836 --> 0:00:24.676 and nine, Mark Sailor set out from his home in Julivista, California, 0:00:25.076 --> 0:00:28.436 just south of San Diego. Sailor was forty five years old, 0:00:28.796 --> 0:00:32.596 a California Higway Patrol officer. Ordinarily, he drove a two 0:00:32.636 --> 0:00:35.676 thousand and six Lexus ISS, but his car had a 0:00:35.676 --> 0:00:38.796 problem with his CD player, so that morning he took 0:00:38.836 --> 0:00:41.356 it to the dealership and got a loaner a brand 0:00:41.356 --> 0:00:45.036 new Lexus ES. Sailor finished his shift at the highway 0:00:45.036 --> 0:00:48.876 patrol and went back home, picked up his wife, daughter, 0:00:48.956 --> 0:00:51.796 and brother in law, Chris Lostrella, and they all set 0:00:51.796 --> 0:00:54.836 out for the daughter's soccer practice. They were heading up 0:00:54.916 --> 0:00:57.676 Highway one twenty five and just as they approached a 0:00:57.716 --> 0:01:01.556 town called Santi Lostrella, who's sitting in the backseat, calls 0:01:01.636 --> 0:01:05.396 nine one one. What you're about to hear? A mourning 0:01:05.436 --> 0:01:06.996 you is harrowing. 0:01:08.396 --> 0:01:10.996 Nine Montier and see what are you're reporting? Yeah, we're 0:01:11.036 --> 0:01:14.116 the lection start. I'm sorry your cell phone cutting out. 0:01:14.356 --> 0:01:15.956 We're going north one twenty five. 0:01:16.996 --> 0:01:19.756 Hit our suck, I'm sorry for. 0:01:20.036 --> 0:01:23.996 Our accelerator stuck well one twenty five blake. 0:01:24.396 --> 0:01:26.556 Okay, north found one twenty five. Where are you passing? 0:01:27.036 --> 0:01:28.036 We are passing out? 0:01:28.116 --> 0:01:30.916 Where are we passing? We're we're we're going one hundred 0:01:30.996 --> 0:01:31.676 twenty mission. 0:01:31.716 --> 0:01:33.916 Gorge, We're we're in trouble. 0:01:34.036 --> 0:01:34.916 We can't We're there's no. 0:01:34.916 --> 0:01:38.996 Break, okay, Gorge and three or a half mile okay, 0:01:39.036 --> 0:01:40.876 And you don't have the ability to like turn the 0:01:40.956 --> 0:01:41.996 vehicle off or anything. 0:01:42.156 --> 0:01:43.276 Approaching an intersection. 0:01:43.916 --> 0:01:50.236 We're approaching the intersection. Okay, we're approaching intersection. Hold on, pray, pray, 0:01:50.556 --> 0:01:55.236 shot Oh oh hello. 0:01:59.716 --> 0:02:04.516 The ooo you hear is Listrella's horrified response to the 0:02:04.596 --> 0:02:08.476 Lexus spinning out of control, hitting another vehicle, and plunging 0:02:08.476 --> 0:02:23.036 down a ravine. Everyone inside the car was killed. The 0:02:23.076 --> 0:02:27.156 Sailor crash is a heartbreaking story. I hesitated before playing it, 0:02:27.996 --> 0:02:30.276 but in the end I concluded that you have to 0:02:30.316 --> 0:02:33.116 hear it to make sense of what happened Next. The 0:02:33.156 --> 0:02:36.796 tape went viral, was played on the nightly news, written 0:02:36.876 --> 0:02:39.636 up in horrified news articles, to the point where a 0:02:39.676 --> 0:02:41.356 wave of fear swept the country. 0:02:42.316 --> 0:02:45.076 Toyota is slamming the brakes on its sales. 0:02:44.796 --> 0:02:48.076 Due to a sticky accelerator that could put drivers lives 0:02:48.076 --> 0:02:48.476 in days. 0:02:48.796 --> 0:02:52.036 Runaway Toyota's cars taking off on their own up to 0:02:52.076 --> 0:02:53.196 one hundred miles an hour. 0:02:53.436 --> 0:02:56.796 A woman died she crashed her camera into a tree 0:02:56.836 --> 0:02:57.436 and a pole. 0:02:57.796 --> 0:02:59.836 A car had sped up to more than one hundred 0:02:59.876 --> 0:03:00.636 miles per hour. 0:03:01.516 --> 0:03:04.076 Hundreds of people came forward with horror stories about their 0:03:04.116 --> 0:03:08.276 Lexus accelerators getting stuck and Toyota's too. Since Lexus is 0:03:08.276 --> 0:03:14.116 a brand of Toyota, there were congressional hearings Expose's whistleblowers. 0:03:14.716 --> 0:03:18.996 NASA got involved. Toyota would conduct seven recalls between September 0:03:19.036 --> 0:03:22.876 two thousand and nine and March twenty ten, totaling millions 0:03:22.916 --> 0:03:26.036 of vehicles. As many as ninety people were estimated to 0:03:26.116 --> 0:03:33.876 have died in Toyota's that mysteriously accelerated. Toyota ended up 0:03:33.876 --> 0:03:36.516 paying a one point two billion dollar fine to the 0:03:36.636 --> 0:03:40.356 US government. They spent another one point one billion to 0:03:40.356 --> 0:03:43.876 settle a class action lawsuit, and since then they've settled 0:03:43.916 --> 0:03:49.276 something like four hundred separate lawsuits. The world's largest automobile 0:03:49.316 --> 0:03:52.956 company was accused of a cover up, of putting profits 0:03:52.956 --> 0:03:55.756 ahead of people, of having a culture of denial. 0:03:56.436 --> 0:03:58.836 Toyota's conduct was shameful. 0:03:59.236 --> 0:04:02.956 He showed a blatant disregard for systems and laws designed 0:04:02.956 --> 0:04:05.316 to look after the safety of consumers. 0:04:05.516 --> 0:04:09.036 That's Eric Holder in March twenty fourteen. He was the 0:04:09.156 --> 0:04:11.876 Attorney General of the United States at the time. It's 0:04:11.916 --> 0:04:14.956 a pretty remarkable day when the chief law enforcement officer 0:04:14.996 --> 0:04:17.636 of the land calls out one of the largest companies 0:04:17.636 --> 0:04:24.036 in the world. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening 0:04:24.076 --> 0:04:26.716 to Revisionist History, or every week we go back and 0:04:26.796 --> 0:04:41.116 examine something forgotten or misunderstood. This episode is devoted to 0:04:41.116 --> 0:04:45.156 the Toyota sudden acceleration scandal. Chances are you heard at 0:04:45.236 --> 0:04:48.436 least some part of that nine to one before. Maybe 0:04:48.436 --> 0:04:49.956 you had a Toyota at the time and had a 0:04:49.996 --> 0:04:53.316 sudden pang of worry. What I want to do is 0:04:53.356 --> 0:04:56.156 go back to two thousand and nine and convince you 0:04:56.236 --> 0:04:59.236 that something went very wrong in the way the controversy 0:04:59.276 --> 0:05:08.836 played out very well. Let's go back for a moment 0:05:08.876 --> 0:05:13.796 to person. We started with Mark Sailor, California Highway patrol officer. 0:05:14.516 --> 0:05:17.516 He's driving down the highway and he can't stop his car. 0:05:18.036 --> 0:05:22.156 The accelerator is stuck. His brother in law says after 0:05:22.196 --> 0:05:25.236 the crash. Another person comes forward to the police and 0:05:25.316 --> 0:05:27.956 says he had driven the same loner Lexus a few 0:05:27.996 --> 0:05:32.076 days before and had a similar incident. He'd accelerated to 0:05:32.116 --> 0:05:34.676 get past a truck, and when he pushed the throttle 0:05:34.676 --> 0:05:37.956 towards the floor, that's what car guys called the accelerator pedal, 0:05:38.356 --> 0:05:41.956 the throttle stuck. What he realized is that someone had 0:05:41.956 --> 0:05:44.396 put one of those big, thick all weather rubber floor 0:05:44.436 --> 0:05:46.716 mats in the car, on top of the floor mat 0:05:46.756 --> 0:05:50.196 that was already there. That second big thick floor mat 0:05:50.436 --> 0:05:53.276 wasn't attached to those little hooks that hold floor mats down. 0:05:53.476 --> 0:05:56.476 It slid around, and so somehow the thick mat got 0:05:56.516 --> 0:06:01.436 wedged under the throttle. That everyone decides is what happened 0:06:01.436 --> 0:06:04.676 to Sailor Maybe he tried to turn the car off, 0:06:04.996 --> 0:06:07.556 but the Lexus has one of those push button ignitions, 0:06:07.876 --> 0:06:09.676 and what he may not have realized is that you 0:06:09.756 --> 0:06:12.396 have to hold that button down for three seconds if 0:06:12.396 --> 0:06:14.396 you're trying to stop the car while it's in motion. 0:06:15.396 --> 0:06:18.116 Maybe he tried to put the car in neutral, but 0:06:18.196 --> 0:06:20.716 it's not always obvious how to do that, particularly if 0:06:20.716 --> 0:06:24.396 you're panicking. They crash. The nine one one call goes 0:06:24.516 --> 0:06:28.516 viral and Toyota launches a massive recall of floormats across 0:06:28.556 --> 0:06:36.436 its model line. Problem solved, right, Well, No, here's the problem. 0:06:36.876 --> 0:06:40.756 Nobody who's ever studied the sudden acceleration crisis thinks that 0:06:40.836 --> 0:06:44.156 floormats are any more than a small part of the story. 0:06:44.316 --> 0:06:45.436 It just doesn't make sense. 0:06:46.356 --> 0:06:47.476 So that's an all weather matt. 0:06:47.796 --> 0:06:50.636 That's my producer, Jacob Smith talking to Sean kin. 0:06:50.956 --> 0:06:53.396 This is the killer format. Okay, this is the format 0:06:53.676 --> 0:06:55.076 that brought Toyota to fame. 0:06:55.276 --> 0:06:58.956 Cain runs a consulting firm in Massachusetts called Safety Research 0:06:58.996 --> 0:07:04.596 and Strategies. Whenever a controversy around unintended acceleration surfaces, Sean 0:07:04.676 --> 0:07:08.516 Kain's name comes up. He's testified before Congress, he's worked 0:07:08.556 --> 0:07:11.316 closely with many of the lawsuits against Toyota, and he's 0:07:11.316 --> 0:07:12.636 not buying the floor mat theory. 0:07:12.756 --> 0:07:15.356 When the pedal was depressed fully to the floor, okay, 0:07:15.356 --> 0:07:17.596 the way this road here, the pedal extended down to 0:07:17.636 --> 0:07:19.596 the point where the bottom edge of it would catch 0:07:20.076 --> 0:07:23.156 here on this rubber piece, Okay. And it would catch 0:07:23.156 --> 0:07:24.836 on the bottom edge and it wouldn't return. 0:07:25.196 --> 0:07:27.956 But Kane doesn't believe that floor mats tell the whole story. 0:07:28.116 --> 0:07:30.916 Floor mats don't reach up and grab pedals. So the 0:07:30.996 --> 0:07:33.516 way this was have to happen is you'd have to 0:07:33.516 --> 0:07:36.596 depress your accelerator pedal newly to the floor all the 0:07:36.596 --> 0:07:38.956 wide through to wide open throttle. You'd have to mash 0:07:38.996 --> 0:07:41.316 that accelerator to the floor and to have that. 0:07:41.236 --> 0:07:44.316 Catch wide open throttle is another term for flooring it. 0:07:44.996 --> 0:07:46.916 Cain is saying that for the floor mat to trap 0:07:46.996 --> 0:07:50.796 the accelerator, the driver has to floor it. But why 0:07:50.876 --> 0:07:53.196 on earth is a guy driving his family to soccer 0:07:53.236 --> 0:07:56.516 practice flooring it? Not to mention all the hundreds of 0:07:56.556 --> 0:08:00.236 other people who complained about Toyota's with stuck accelerators, some 0:08:00.276 --> 0:08:03.756 of those complaints come from elderly ladies, your grandmother. Basically, 0:08:04.396 --> 0:08:07.196 since when does your grandmother flora when she's driving her 0:08:07.196 --> 0:08:10.956 camera down the streets? Mark Sailor, he was driving with 0:08:10.996 --> 0:08:13.516 what he thought was a stock accelerator for a while. 0:08:14.436 --> 0:08:16.596 Why didn't he just reach down and yank the format 0:08:16.636 --> 0:08:17.916 away from the pedal? Right? 0:08:18.436 --> 0:08:20.516 I still have a hard time believing, giving a long 0:08:20.556 --> 0:08:23.756 distance in the Travelers car, that the format was the culprit. 0:08:23.876 --> 0:08:26.316 Caine thinks that something else must have happened in that 0:08:26.396 --> 0:08:30.356 car and by the way, the Toyota sudden acceleration crisis 0:08:30.516 --> 0:08:33.516 ended up involving hundreds of cases, and in the overwhelming 0:08:33.596 --> 0:08:36.636 number of those cases, the car didn't even have an oversized, 0:08:36.636 --> 0:08:41.316 thick plastic floormat. The cars had normal floormats. Something else 0:08:41.436 --> 0:08:43.956 must have been happening, and a number of people believe 0:08:44.036 --> 0:08:47.756 that something has to do with software. That there is 0:08:47.916 --> 0:08:51.156 and was something wrong with the software that governs the 0:08:51.196 --> 0:08:52.836 throttle in Toyotas. 0:08:52.596 --> 0:08:55.316 In today's cars. Now we're looking at code, code that 0:08:55.436 --> 0:08:58.116 can can be up to one hundred million lines of code. 0:08:58.276 --> 0:09:01.756 The F thirty five Joint Strike Fighter is running about 0:09:01.756 --> 0:09:04.396 seven million lines of code. A luxury car today can 0:09:04.476 --> 0:09:06.836 run one hundred million lines of code. You got a 0:09:06.916 --> 0:09:08.836 what a half a billion dollar aircraft, you got a 0:09:08.836 --> 0:09:11.756 fifty one thousand dollars car. In the complexity level of 0:09:11.796 --> 0:09:14.716 the fifty thousand dollars car is exponentially greater. Do you 0:09:14.756 --> 0:09:16.636 think that that car is now going to be defect 0:09:16.676 --> 0:09:19.636 free and software clear not likely. 0:09:20.076 --> 0:09:22.196 This is the argument that Kane has made in lawsuits 0:09:22.196 --> 0:09:25.836 against Toyota. The cars contain a bug in the lines 0:09:25.836 --> 0:09:28.956 of computer code that control how the car starts and stops, 0:09:29.276 --> 0:09:33.116 speeds up and slows down. The La Times also pursued 0:09:33.156 --> 0:09:36.516 this question, resulting in one of the most prestigious investigative 0:09:36.556 --> 0:09:39.316 reporting awards in the country, the Lobe, for its work. 0:09:40.076 --> 0:09:42.996 If the La Times and Sean Kin are right, then 0:09:43.076 --> 0:09:46.596 that's terrifying, because what it means is that what happened 0:09:46.596 --> 0:09:56.716 to Mark Sailor could happen to you. I wanted to 0:09:56.716 --> 0:09:59.956 put this fear to a test, that what happened to 0:10:00.036 --> 0:10:04.036 Mark Sailor could easily happen to you or me. It's 0:10:04.076 --> 0:10:06.956 a terrible story, after all, but how much should we 0:10:07.036 --> 0:10:10.316 be afraid that our cars might do the same thing. 0:10:11.956 --> 0:10:15.156 To test this out, my producer Jacob and I got 0:10:15.156 --> 0:10:18.356 ourselves a two thousand and three camera two hundred and 0:10:18.356 --> 0:10:21.436 twenty five thousand miles on it, the best selling Toyota, 0:10:21.756 --> 0:10:24.636 in fact, the best selling car in America for eleven 0:10:24.676 --> 0:10:27.156 of the last twelve years. A lot of the unintended 0:10:27.196 --> 0:10:31.716 acceleration cases happened in cameras. After getting the car, we 0:10:31.876 --> 0:10:35.036 called up Car and Driver, the premier automotive magazine in 0:10:35.076 --> 0:10:38.676 the United States. We wanted them to help us figure 0:10:38.716 --> 0:10:43.156 out what was behind this epidemic of unintended acceleration to 0:10:43.236 --> 0:10:51.636 try and replicate one of those runaway car situations. So 0:10:51.756 --> 0:10:54.356 one Chili winter morning, Jacob and I met up with 0:10:54.436 --> 0:10:57.716 three guys from Car and Driver at Chrysler's proving grounds 0:10:58.076 --> 0:11:01.716 just west of Detroit. It's a vast racetrack that Chrysler 0:11:01.796 --> 0:11:04.236 uses to do all of its testing. I'm guessing a 0:11:04.316 --> 0:11:08.036 thousand acres big guardhouse at the front. The whole time 0:11:08.036 --> 0:11:10.556 we were there, I had someone in a jeep Cherokee 0:11:10.676 --> 0:11:13.076 keeping an eye on us, making sure we didn't take 0:11:13.076 --> 0:11:15.036 photos of any of the new cars they were testing. 0:11:15.316 --> 0:11:19.396 Oh look, there's the Q seven. Those are the Car 0:11:19.516 --> 0:11:23.876 Driver guys right there. Our guys are Don Sherman, he's 0:11:23.916 --> 0:11:27.116 the technical director of Car and Driver, and Casey Colwell, 0:11:27.276 --> 0:11:30.916 young guy works with Don. Eddie Altman also came. He's 0:11:30.956 --> 0:11:33.516 the editor of Car and Driver. Oh that's that Camra 0:11:35.676 --> 0:11:39.836 side Don, Casey Eddie. They're all car guys, which matters 0:11:40.076 --> 0:11:43.436 because one of the notable facts about sudden acceleration is 0:11:43.436 --> 0:11:46.116 how the car guys see things differently from the non 0:11:46.196 --> 0:11:50.116 car guys. Incidentally, Jacob and I would also describe ourselves 0:11:50.116 --> 0:11:52.636 as car guys, although not quite at the level of 0:11:52.676 --> 0:11:54.516 the car and driver. Folks lift up on that. 0:11:54.516 --> 0:11:55.556 We were all had come on last. 0:11:55.716 --> 0:11:59.276 It was over a second true story. When I was thirteen, 0:11:59.596 --> 0:12:03.196 I wrote away for promotional brochures on every car sold 0:12:03.236 --> 0:12:06.356 in the world, except for the Soviet Zeal which was 0:12:06.396 --> 0:12:08.916 really hard to get. I still have every one of 0:12:08.916 --> 0:12:12.476 those brochures. Anyway, back to the racetrack in. 0:12:12.436 --> 0:12:17.196 Detroit, Silver Camera Entering VDF, staying out of your way 0:12:17.436 --> 0:12:19.276 like we were before, happy. 0:12:20.756 --> 0:12:22.876 The plan is to take the camera up to some 0:12:23.076 --> 0:12:27.236 serious speeds, keep the throttle wide open, as if the 0:12:27.276 --> 0:12:30.276 accelerator pedal is somehow stuck, and then see if we 0:12:30.316 --> 0:12:33.356 can stop the car. What happens if you have your 0:12:33.396 --> 0:12:36.716 foot full on the accelerator pedal and then you also 0:12:36.836 --> 0:12:40.636 slam on the brakes at the same time, because intuitively 0:12:40.676 --> 0:12:44.876 you'd think that's what must happen in sudden acceleration. Your 0:12:44.876 --> 0:12:48.996 car surges uncontrollably, you slam on the brakes. We want 0:12:48.996 --> 0:12:50.276 to figure out what that looks like. 0:12:50.756 --> 0:12:52.996 You're going to make a go wide open throttle, then 0:12:53.076 --> 0:12:56.556 quickly you apply the brakes, not really a panic, but 0:12:56.676 --> 0:12:58.076 just stop at the best you can. 0:12:58.996 --> 0:13:02.076 So Jacob goes out first, with Casey behind the wheel, 0:13:02.636 --> 0:13:04.276 he accelerates. 0:13:03.876 --> 0:13:07.636 So bringing it back up sixty one, sixty two, sixty three, 0:13:08.116 --> 0:13:14.476 sixty five, sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, seventy and 0:13:14.716 --> 0:13:17.076 about to do it all right, We're gonna put the 0:13:17.076 --> 0:13:17.836 throttle down. 0:13:17.796 --> 0:13:21.756 So the gas pedal is floored, and now Casey hits 0:13:21.796 --> 0:13:24.156 the brake with the gas pedal still. 0:13:23.916 --> 0:13:27.836 Down, and we locked up a little bit. But but 0:13:27.956 --> 0:13:31.356 I mean that's the car stops. Oh yeah, car stops. 0:13:31.916 --> 0:13:35.316 But no loud noises, no smoke billowing out the back. 0:13:35.876 --> 0:13:38.876 Jacob asks Casey about the brakes. What kind of shape 0:13:38.876 --> 0:13:39.236 are they in? 0:13:39.796 --> 0:13:41.916 Is it a little cooked or no, it's it's not. 0:13:42.156 --> 0:13:43.236 I don't think the brakes are cooked. 0:13:43.276 --> 0:13:45.596 Why do they smell leg We'll know in a second. 0:13:47.356 --> 0:13:48.476 Don't even smell about. 0:13:48.436 --> 0:13:52.556 Okay, if you have functioning brakes, breaks win breaks first engine, 0:13:52.636 --> 0:13:53.156 the breaks win. 0:13:53.916 --> 0:13:56.756 Then it's my turn. I get into camera with Eddie Altraman. 0:13:56.876 --> 0:13:59.516 He's driving. We take the car down straight. 0:13:59.276 --> 0:14:02.236 Away, Can we go a little faster? Let me get 0:14:02.276 --> 0:14:04.436 the pass of the favorite. 0:14:04.556 --> 0:14:12.156 Seventy Ultimate hits the break firmly, smoothly, easily. We come 0:14:12.196 --> 0:14:12.716 to a halt. 0:14:13.116 --> 0:14:16.956 Throttles open. We've got. 0:14:18.516 --> 0:14:23.876 A really old not a terribly good shaped car filled 0:14:23.876 --> 0:14:27.476 with three people and a bunch of equipment, and. 0:14:27.436 --> 0:14:30.676 It's still stopping. So what's that? 0:14:32.396 --> 0:14:36.156 What is the difference between breaking with your foot completely 0:14:36.156 --> 0:14:39.476 off the accelerator and breaking like this? What I mean 0:14:39.556 --> 0:14:41.956 is how much longer does it take to stop a 0:14:42.036 --> 0:14:44.076 car with a throttle wide open? 0:14:44.676 --> 0:14:47.956 About ten feet if you want to quantify it. 0:14:47.956 --> 0:14:50.876 It can be a little bit more, but not so 0:14:50.956 --> 0:14:53.596 much that you notice. 0:14:53.676 --> 0:14:56.236 Back in two thousand and nine, Ultimate Head Car and 0:14:56.316 --> 0:14:59.436 Driver do a version of this very same test. 0:14:59.636 --> 0:15:02.636 We basically did this with a variety of cars, and 0:15:02.676 --> 0:15:06.876 we found actually that with the throttle stuck open, or 0:15:07.076 --> 0:15:11.476 going at seventy miles an hour, the camera stopped pretty 0:15:11.476 --> 0:15:15.476 close to the same distance as a Ford Taurus that 0:15:15.596 --> 0:15:16.716 had his throng closed. 0:15:17.676 --> 0:15:21.516 A camera with the accelerator stuck wide open stops basically 0:15:21.556 --> 0:15:24.116 as quickly as a Taurus breaking normally. 0:15:24.636 --> 0:15:28.636 It's not a big deal. Yeah, But of course we're 0:15:28.636 --> 0:15:33.676 not panicking. Yeah, we're not under the impression that the 0:15:33.716 --> 0:15:38.396 cars goss as my demons and we're in a closed 0:15:38.756 --> 0:15:43.116 kind of situation. But you can see, I'll get it 0:15:43.156 --> 0:15:45.676 up to seventy. 0:15:47.116 --> 0:15:54.956 Okay, not a big deal, Yeah, Yeah, it's the most undramatic. 0:15:55.156 --> 0:15:55.716 You want to try it? 0:15:55.756 --> 0:15:56.676 I would love to truck it. 0:15:56.836 --> 0:15:59.996 Yeah. 0:16:00.036 --> 0:16:02.076 We were out on the testing ground for two hours. 0:16:02.556 --> 0:16:05.316 We tried every trick in the book. The car stopped. 0:16:05.836 --> 0:16:08.076 We loaded up the camera with three adults and a 0:16:08.116 --> 0:16:11.156 ton of equipment. It stopped. We turned off the engine 0:16:11.196 --> 0:16:13.796 while the car was in motion. It stopped once. We 0:16:13.836 --> 0:16:15.796 took the camera up to one hundred miles an hour? 0:16:17.716 --> 0:16:21.796 What are we at ninety to getting there? It took forever, 0:16:22.156 --> 0:16:28.116 but it stopped. Afterwards, Don Sherman and I talked about 0:16:28.116 --> 0:16:31.196 the strangely normal experience of bringing a camera to a 0:16:31.236 --> 0:16:33.636 full stop with the accelerator to the floor. 0:16:33.956 --> 0:16:35.036 The brakes are powerful. 0:16:35.116 --> 0:16:38.196 You've got four wheels working, and it's fairly easy for them. 0:16:38.316 --> 0:16:41.516 Think of the poor engine that has to convert gasoline 0:16:41.516 --> 0:16:46.676 to power and move all that braking is relatively easy 0:16:46.716 --> 0:16:48.916 to do, it much more powerful. 0:16:50.636 --> 0:16:51.556 That's what people. 0:16:51.316 --> 0:16:55.956 Don't acknowledge, that all the capability built into their car. 0:17:02.116 --> 0:17:04.476 When Car and Driver did their version of this experiment 0:17:04.876 --> 0:17:07.436 right after the Sailor crash, they went so far as 0:17:07.476 --> 0:17:10.156 to do a full throttle breaking town on a Rushe 0:17:10.276 --> 0:17:14.236 Stage three Mustang. If you aren't a car guy, I 0:17:14.276 --> 0:17:18.636 should explain. Rush is an independent company that takes sports 0:17:18.676 --> 0:17:22.716 cars and basically puts them on steroids. The engine of 0:17:22.756 --> 0:17:26.356 the Stage three Rouche has five hundred and forty horse power. 0:17:26.676 --> 0:17:30.476 That's two to three times more powerful than the typical 0:17:30.516 --> 0:17:34.316 car on the road. A monster. A roush would take 0:17:34.356 --> 0:17:38.916 a camera and chop it into little, tiny pieces. So 0:17:39.036 --> 0:17:41.276 car and driver take the Rush Mustang up to one 0:17:41.316 --> 0:17:44.316 hundred miles an hour, keep their foot on the accelerator 0:17:44.916 --> 0:17:47.436 at the same time they slam on the brakes, and 0:17:47.516 --> 0:17:50.596 what happens. The car stops. Now it takes a good 0:17:50.716 --> 0:17:53.076 nine hundred feet to come to a full stop. There's 0:17:53.116 --> 0:17:58.476 all kinds of huffing and puffing, but it stops. Breaks 0:17:58.516 --> 0:18:01.516 go up against one of the most powerful engines on 0:18:01.556 --> 0:18:07.196 the road, and the breaks win. I think you can 0:18:07.236 --> 0:18:11.356 now understand how crucial this point is. Toyota gets embroiled 0:18:11.596 --> 0:18:16.196 in a massive controversy. They pay billions of dollars in fines, 0:18:16.636 --> 0:18:19.916 They face allegations of a cover up, all because their 0:18:19.956 --> 0:18:24.836 cars are supposed to be suddenly and mysteriously accelerating. But 0:18:24.916 --> 0:18:28.956 if your car is suddenly and mysteriously accelerating, all you 0:18:29.076 --> 0:18:32.116 have to do is step on the brakes because breaks 0:18:32.196 --> 0:18:36.516 beat engines. So why couldn't Mark Sailors stop his lexus 0:18:36.556 --> 0:18:39.396 that day as he sped down Highway one twenty five. 0:18:40.356 --> 0:18:44.316 I know it sounds ridiculous and tragic, but it's the 0:18:44.356 --> 0:18:48.516 only logical explanation because he never put his foot on 0:18:48.636 --> 0:18:56.036 the brake. Maybe the most important person in this whole 0:18:56.076 --> 0:18:59.596 story is a man named Dick Schmid. Sadly, Schmidt died 0:18:59.676 --> 0:19:02.596 last fall, which is a real loss because Schmidt was 0:19:02.636 --> 0:19:05.676 a really remarkable man. As a kid, he was a 0:19:05.756 --> 0:19:10.596 champion gymnast, later a champion sailor, a sub three hour marathoner. 0:19:11.196 --> 0:19:14.516 He owned five porsches, He raced cars, a car guy. 0:19:15.276 --> 0:19:18.156 He was also a professor at UCLA who becomes an 0:19:18.196 --> 0:19:23.116 important figure in what's called human performance research. Human performance 0:19:23.156 --> 0:19:26.796 research asks how do people move and act and interact 0:19:26.836 --> 0:19:30.436 with the physical world. Schmid starts the Journal of Motor Behavior, 0:19:30.796 --> 0:19:33.876 and along the way he becomes maybe the world's leading 0:19:33.916 --> 0:19:36.916 expert on the way your feet behave when you drive 0:19:36.956 --> 0:19:39.676 a car. I talked to Schmid about a year before 0:19:39.676 --> 0:19:42.156 he died. He was in a wheelchair. By that point, 0:19:42.516 --> 0:19:45.356 he had a neurological disease, and you'll hear a little 0:19:45.356 --> 0:19:48.076 bit of his illness in his speech. I'm going to 0:19:48.116 --> 0:19:51.036 have to repeat what he says because it's really important 0:19:51.276 --> 0:19:55.636 and I want to make sure you understand it. Schmid 0:19:55.676 --> 0:19:58.876 got involved in the sudden acceleration issue years ago when 0:19:58.876 --> 0:20:01.156 he got a call from an attorney in Washington, d C. 0:20:01.836 --> 0:20:04.556 It was a case involving a taxi driver who picked 0:20:04.636 --> 0:20:08.356 up some people outside a hotel. Nathan knows he's running 0:20:09.836 --> 0:20:14.476 of parkway. What Schmid's saying is next thing you know, 0:20:14.556 --> 0:20:17.716 he's running full throttle down the street and he makes 0:20:17.756 --> 0:20:21.196 a left turn and realizes, oh god, I'm coming to 0:20:21.236 --> 0:20:23.716 a big traffic circle, and he ends up putting the 0:20:23.756 --> 0:20:24.676 car into a wall. 0:20:24.916 --> 0:20:26.556 He splits a car at a wall. 0:20:27.636 --> 0:20:31.356 That was nineteen ninety four, years before the Toyota scandal, 0:20:31.876 --> 0:20:35.996 but it's exactly the same scenario. A car takes off mysteriously, 0:20:36.436 --> 0:20:37.596 the driver can't stop. 0:20:37.636 --> 0:20:38.116 It. 0:20:38.196 --> 0:20:39.916 Was there ever a moment when you suspected there might 0:20:39.956 --> 0:20:42.196 be a mechanical cause to these incidents? 0:20:42.556 --> 0:20:47.356 No, what I'm asking is if Schmidt ever suspected that 0:20:47.436 --> 0:20:51.356 the problem might be with the car, a malfunction, a 0:20:51.396 --> 0:20:55.796 faulty bit of software, an engineering failure, and Schmidt, one 0:20:55.836 --> 0:20:59.596 of the world's leading experts in human factors, is saying 0:20:59.836 --> 0:21:04.916 that never once crossed his mind why because everything about 0:21:04.996 --> 0:21:09.596 sudden acceleration looked like a problem with the driver the car. 0:21:16.156 --> 0:21:18.956 He starts to look at other cases and discovers that 0:21:18.996 --> 0:21:22.516 there are some pretty clear patterns. But those patterns don't 0:21:22.556 --> 0:21:25.756 involve a particular make or model of car. Nothing that 0:21:25.756 --> 0:21:28.156 could make you say, oh, there's something wrong with that 0:21:28.236 --> 0:21:31.516 kind of car. Every car maker gets hit with complaints 0:21:31.556 --> 0:21:34.796 of sudden acceleration. When it's a high profile case like 0:21:34.836 --> 0:21:39.236 the Sailor crash, people get focused on one brand, like Toyota, 0:21:39.276 --> 0:21:46.276 but that's just the effect of publicity. It happens to everyone. 0:21:46.396 --> 0:21:48.796 The patterns involve the kinds of people who have sudden 0:21:48.836 --> 0:21:52.236 acceleration incidents and the kinds of circumstances that lead to 0:21:52.276 --> 0:21:56.956 sudden acceleration incidents. The drivers tend to be older, they 0:21:56.956 --> 0:21:59.796 tend to be shorter, They tend to be people, and 0:21:59.836 --> 0:22:02.756 this is really important, they tend to be people who 0:22:02.796 --> 0:22:07.756 are driving an unfamiliar car, so for instance, parking lot attendants. 0:22:09.116 --> 0:22:12.916 This majority of these incidents happen right after someone gets 0:22:12.956 --> 0:22:15.756 into a car for the first time, or when they're 0:22:15.796 --> 0:22:22.836 parking or driving at very low speeds. Now you have 0:22:22.916 --> 0:22:26.356 to make sense of these patterns. You could argue, I mean, 0:22:26.396 --> 0:22:28.756 against all reason, but you could argue that cars just 0:22:28.836 --> 0:22:32.076 get really upset and misbehave when they're being driven by 0:22:32.116 --> 0:22:36.556 parking lot attendants. But that's ridiculous. The patterns Schmidt found 0:22:36.636 --> 0:22:40.436 mean it's not the car. What Schmidt concludes is that 0:22:40.516 --> 0:22:43.796 people are getting into strange cars, and maybe because those 0:22:43.836 --> 0:22:46.916 people are too short and didn't adjust the seat properly, 0:22:47.236 --> 0:22:49.956 they were a little further away from the pedal than usual. 0:22:50.796 --> 0:22:53.556 Or maybe they're trying to park and because they're doing 0:22:53.596 --> 0:22:55.836 the stoping and starting of getting in and out of 0:22:55.876 --> 0:22:58.756 a parking space, they get thrown just a little out 0:22:58.756 --> 0:23:02.516 of their comfort zone. They start making stabbing motions with 0:23:02.556 --> 0:23:05.636 their right foot, like someone groping in the dark. The 0:23:05.756 --> 0:23:10.396 term Dick Schmidt uses to describe this is impulse very ability. 0:23:10.556 --> 0:23:14.796 Your brain requests a very specific action, but your body 0:23:14.876 --> 0:23:17.236 fails to deliver exactly what it's told to do. 0:23:17.596 --> 0:23:21.676 I mean to say that even when producing a very 0:23:21.716 --> 0:23:26.996 familiar physical movement, there is variability in how I move 0:23:27.036 --> 0:23:30.516 my limbs and the force with which I use. So 0:23:30.676 --> 0:23:35.716 baseball players swinging a bat at a fastball may feel 0:23:35.716 --> 0:23:38.116 like he's reproducing his swing. 0:23:37.876 --> 0:23:41.236