Toyota designs SUA mitigation system, plans summer launch

MANILA: Research done by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) using data gathered from connected cars suggests that there may be some truth behind the so-called sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) phenomenon – at least as far as driver error is concerned.

In order to help deter serious accidents and reduce damage caused by misapplication of the accelerator, TMC has developed an Acceleration Suppression Function (ASF) that will come as part of a new retrofit accelerator control system in certain existing models in the summer of 2020.

The ASF is a more advanced system compared to the retrofit pedal misapplication acceleration control system that was developed in 2018 and installed on existing vehicles up until December 2019.

ASF, aside from detecting obstacles such as other cars or walls, also has the ability to control acceleration due to abnormal operation of the accelerator even when no obstacles are present.

TMC’s research and development team designed the system to discern between throttle misapplication and actual pedal-to-the-metal action (during times when acceleration from a temporary stop is required). They analyzed actual accidents where the cause was determined to be pedal misapplication, particularly analyzing situations where the accelerator pedal was pressed fully. The characteristics of those situations were then compared to data from connected cars in order to teach the system to determine when drivers genuinely, and safely, wanted to rapidly accelerate.

The data also helped developers install a function setting that can control acceleration even in the absence of obstacles. In conjunction with Intelligent Clearance Sonar, TMC expects ASF to further reduce the number of accidents caused by pedal misapplication in parking lots and other areas.

Toyota says it plans to share the operational logic of this function extensively with other automakers.

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