Unintended Mental Deceleration Syndrome

Via Instapundit, here's an article from Popular Mechanics about what you can and cannot prove with the "test" on ABC purporting to show a Toyota Avalon falling prey to Sudden Acceleration Syndrome (SAS): Electronics Don't Rewire Themselves

Let's get specific: The Toyota throttles (as well as a lot of others) use two Hall-effect sensors, which operate between 0 and 5 volts DC. The voltage increases by 2 to 2.5 volts between the pedal position representing idle and the position for WOT. There are two discrete sensors on separate circuits. The second circuit runs about 2 volts higher than the first. Both sensors have independent 5-volt supplies and independent 0-volt reference returns (meaning they don't share a ground), and they aren't grounded to the chassis. The engine control module (ECM) calibrates the sensors' idle position at every engine start. And if the two sensors don't agree fairly closely as to the percentage of engine throttle called for, the ECM goes into a low-power, limp-home mode, sets a trouble code, and turns on the "Check Engine" light. This means that a sticky pedal may cause the engine to return slowly to idle or not at all. This also means that a using a cell phone or driving under a power line isn't very likely to make you crash and burn.

Here's what Gilbert had to do to make his Avalon go rogue: He had to cut open three of the six wires that travel from the pedal assembly to the engine computer. Two of the wires send the accelerator-position signals—one for each Hall-effect sensor—and one is a 5-volt power supply. Next he had to insert a specific 200-ohm resistor between the two signal wires. Finally, he had to generate a direct short between the 5-volt supply lines and the signal leads. The new wiring essentially mimicked a size-12 mashing of the pedal to the carpet and the engine went to WOT. Also, the order of the modification is important. Apply the 5-volt power lead to the wires before inserting the resistor and the computer would instead throw a fault code and go into limp mode.

Now, I am a liberal arts major, so I'm pretty much taking PM (and Toyota's) word for this. But, the extent to which ABC's "objective" analyst - who "was paid $1800 for his engineering study by Sean Kane, a safety consultant. Kane's for-profit firm Safety Research & Strategies Inc. works with lawyers who are currently suing Toyota over the sudden acceleration issue" - had to go to force the Avalon to accelerate for Brian Ross should have been self-refuting. Instead, it was repeated over and over again by a credulous media that wanted to believe the worst anyway.

PM also memorably rebutted every element of every 9/11 conspiracy theory, something that should have been page-one news in any major media outlet, but wasn't. Like the National Enquirer with the Edwards story, climate bloggers with Global Warming, and Fox News with everything it touches, PM has become part of the alternative media. Telling the truth about stories that the MSM would rather not discuss. We really do live in strange times.