Electronic Fixes for Driver Error

The flap over sudden acceleration in Toyota cars gave automotive electronic systems a black eye. So what's in store now that a team of rocket scientists (literally) have concluded that people, not electronic throttles, are to blame for most accidents caused by runaway cars?

View Full Image

Getty Images

Among the early efforts to foolproof cars: replacing hand-crank starters with electric ones.

The answer: even more electronics in cars.

Specifically, drivers will see more electronics in vehicles aimed at counteracting—or preventing—human error. What's more, there will be new electronics that take out of drivers' hands some of the responsibility of properly maintaining and in some cases, operating a vehicle.

In the future, the government is likely to require cars to have electronic systems that cut power to the car when drivers hit both the brake and gas pedals. Regulators could demand that the push-button, keyless ignition systems increasingly popular on new vehicles be redesigned to make it easier to shut down an out-of-control car. Cars could be required to carry "event data recorders," similar in concept to the black boxes installed on airliners, to record data on speed, braking and acceleration to help accident investigators reconstruct a crash.

Response to Findings

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it will pursue rules requiring these technologies in response to the findings from a nearly year-long investigation into the causes of a rash of sudden-acceleration incidents involving Toyota and Lexus cars. That investigation, which involved a team of engineers from NASA as well as NHTSA's own engineers, concluded that some of the crashes were the result of accelerators getting trapped under floor mats, but most of them were the result of drivers mistaking the gas pedal for the brake.

Safety regulators also have proposed that all new vehicles be equipped with cameras that would feed a real-time image of what's behind a vehicle moving in reverse. The goal of these systems is to prevent accidents in which people—often young children—are injured or killed by someone who can't see them when backing up.

Aside from safety, auto makers are pushing ahead on their own with increasingly sophisticated electronics to monitor a vehicle's vital functions, diagnose potential trouble, and signal to a concierge service—or the customer's smartphone—when it's time to change the oil or go in for maintenance. The next evolution of these electronic concierges: Software updates pushed to the car remotely via a wireless link or through computers at the dealership.

BMW already can update information such as the phone number for its emergency-assistance service using wireless links to its cars, says Tom Baloga, chief engineer for BMW's North American operations.

"We will take it to the next level," he says. So "we can fix something before it goes wrong."

An Eye on the Volt

General Motors Co. is monitoring the behavior of Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicles using the wireless link that comes with the company's OnStar service. Data about how Volt batteries are performing in customer hands, and other information, flows anonymously to GM engineers, says OnStar's Steve Schwinke. The Volt system expands on the OnStar system's existing capability to transmit certain "trouble codes" to the system's operators when a customer calls in to report a problem.

All of this is aimed at transferring a greater share of the responsibility for properly maintaining and operating a car from the driver to either an automated system or human minders who can—via smartphone apps or a voice link—nudge customers to get the oil changed or have the brakes checked.

Early Foolproof Move

The effort to foolproof vehicles goes back to the industry's beginnings. Early automobiles had hand crank starters that could break your arm if you didn't watch out. The solution: electric starters.

The next generation of foolproofing will venture along the boundary between what drivers should be expected to own as their responsibility, and what car makers or regulators should do to assure that driving is safe and convenient. Costs will be an issue. As will and trade-offs between what customers desire—throttle systems that feel peppy and responsive or the convenience of starting a vehicle with just a push of a button—and what regulators judge to be safe.

Some proposals that appear simple—such as NHTSA's suggestion that brake and gas pedals should be repositioned in future vehicles so they are harder to mix up—could be complicated.

Paul Green, a University of Michigan professor and expert on how drivers interact with cars, says changing the familiar layout of pedals could force car makers to make expensive changes to the body structure of vehicles.

If, for example, U.S. regulators decided brake and accelerator pedals should be an inch or two farther apart, that could compel car makers to reconfigure the floor of the car to accommodate the wider spacing. If German or Chinese regulators took the view that a different pedal arrangement was better, that could force car makers to offer different pedal layouts for different countries—the exact opposite of the industry's goal of making cars more alike world-wide.

A NHTSA spokeswoman says the agency recognizes "pedal design is a delicate balance" plans to do more research before taking any action.

Re-Learning to Drive

There's also the risk drivers will struggle to re-learn skills acquired over years of driving. There could be "enormous transfer of training issues" for motorists confronted with a dramatically different pedal layout, Dr. Green says.

Nobody in the auto business or the auto-safety regulation business likes to blame drivers for making dangerous mistakes. But the expanding push to foolproof vehicles speaks loudly about the lack of faith in the abilities of the average driver. And given auto makers experience with drivers' lack of awareness, it may be for good reason.

For instance, a BMW owner called the company's call center to complain that his car wouldn't start, stranding him in an airport parking lot. The diagnosis, Mr. Baloga says, was delivered via the car's cellphone link after the call center worker assessed information relayed from the car: The vehicle had no gas. The owner realized he had forgotten to hit the off button on the keyless ignition, and left the vehicle running—very quietly—while he headed for the plane.

Write to Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com