Well I’m back from my sojourn to Illinois, and as I drove there and back on the lovely turnpikes through state after state, I am reminded of what I love, and what I hate, about my Toyota Prius.

When constantly reminded of the bad aspects of my ’06 Prius, like the way that Traction Control (TRAC) turns itself into a grave hazard instead of a driving safety feature by constantly flipping out over little things and killing power when no loss of traction is actually happening (like when hitting a bump in a road) to nearly cause accidents instead of prevent them, or like when the Prius is suddenly depending on only those teeny tiny wheel brakes (anti-lock no less) once TRAC has bumped the regenerative braking offline.  it’s easy to forget the good things about the Toyota Prius.

Like getting over 46MPG while roaring down the Indiana I-90 turnpike at 70MPH.  (Because that’s the legal speed limit and I don’t condone speeding, of course.)  And like while doing the above wonder, having plenty of power left to accelerate, if need be.  Or, in Chicago construction, having the ability to pull out on a dime to slip into traffic.

It’s really all quite impressive that a car that can get such good gas mileage can also perform so well when you need it.

When TRAC doesn’t kick in.

When you have aftermarket tires because you need even some pale imitation of traction to drive safely.

And when you’ve replaced the stock air filter with a K&N performance filter to prevent your Prius from stuttering when you push down the accelerator.

Right then.  So in theory, the Toyota Prius has really got potential.

Now if only Toyota would just get around to fixing those little niggling details, like TRAC…

Or give us an option for a driver’s seat that’s actually comfortable and adjustable for long hauls, like one would buy a gas-sipper like the Toyota Prius for.

And I wonder if aftermarket brakes for the Toyota Matrix can be fit onto a Prius…

But in the meantime, I’m back from my trip, home safe and sound, and blog entries should begin trickling in once more.  I hope you didn’t miss me too much. 

Now, I honestly don’t mind taking the time to fill out a survey or questionnaire for a good cause.  As a software engineer, I know the value of good feedback.  It’s the lifeblood of quality assurance.  But that said, I’ve just recently been hit by two doozies that made me question just what intelligence there is behind the throne.

2010 Census

To start with, let’s look at the 2010 Census.  I don’t mind doing a census at all.  In fact, once upon a time I even applied for a management position with the US Census Bureau and scored over a 90 on their test after my former military experience was taken into account.  (It still didn’t get me the job though.)  So one could say that I “get” the whole census thing.

And yet … this year’s … I so don’t get.

To start with, in the 2010 Census we’ve got a question devoted just to “Hispanic origin”.  Which is great that we care about your heritage.  Except, according to the question, being Hispanic has nothing to do with race?  And I quote here, “Hispanic origins are not races.“  Um … okay then.  Not sure how that works exactly, but if you say so…

So the question following the not racial “Hispanic origins” is the, err … race question.  While it’s nice that for a change I get to check “White” instead of “Caucasian” (Because since when are all people from the Caucasus region specifically, or for that matter all people from the Caucasus region white?) the whole thing goes quickly downhill from there.  If you’re white, you check white.  If you’re black, you check “Black, African Am., or Negro”.  (An interesting choice of wording there.)  If you’re American Indian or Alaska Native (why not just word that Native American?) then you get to specify your tribe so we know your heritage.  If you’re Asian (or Pacific Islander which is arguably Asian) you get to chose from Asian indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, Other Asian (with a block to enter your Asian ethnicity), or Other Pacific Islander (with a likewise block for the specifics).  And if you’ve been left out, you check “Some other race”.

Hmm.

Besides how disturbing it is that Asian in general consumes 75% of the choices in the actual “race” question here, and that no one seems to give a fig about your heritage in any way if you’re white or black, does anyone notice a glaring option missing here?  Because the 2010 Census clearly states that “Hispanic” is not a race, in the question they orient solely at Hispanics, they then go on to specifically not list Hispanic as a race in the race question.  So if you are Hispanic, which checkbox do you use for your race?  There’s no “Hispanic” choice there.  So do you choose “Some other race” and fill in the obvious of “Hispanic”?  Or did the Census Bureau expect you to check “American Indian”?  “White”?  Or “Black”?  What in bejezus halizooya is going on here?

I mean I’m really a pretty open-minded and easy-going person, but even I can see that this is a pretty … un-politically-correct choice in question design here.  And that a lot of people are going to get miffed.

And that besides the affront of this poor choice in design, it’s also just really really needlessly unbalanced.  Poorly thought out.  Something not right.

But wait, that’s not all.  The Gender question is specifically worded as “sex”.  Which, again, not so PC.  But far worse, is strictly Male or Female.  Now for 99.99% of us, I’m sure that’ll do just fine.  But that really doesn’t cover all genders.  Because we at the very least also have a genetic hermaphrodite gender, which is a reality that some people are born with both parts.  And we also have the surgical (if not psychological) reality of transgender.  Now you expect dumb employment forms and such to be this ignorant.  But for someone as supposedly professional as the US Census Bureau, especially in these modern times, you’d think that they would have at least these two choices in their survey.  And that’s just a matter specifically of gender, and has nothing to do with sexuality.

And yet, there’s even more poorly thought wording in this census.  Let’s look at the relativity question.  How does Person X relate to Person 1?  Only to Person 1.  And no where do the instructions state that Person 1 is the head of the household.  So, say we had the Brady Bunch.  (Transported through time of course.)  Alice, the live-in maid, decides to fill out the 2010 Census for them because they’re always so busy that they somehow neglect the day-to-day trivialities.  So she puts herself as Person 1.  Because no where do the instructions say not to, or even suggest that this is in any way wrong.  So Alice is Person 1.  Now the eight Bradys are all Person 2 through Person 9.  And not a single one of them is in any way familial to Person 1, Alice.  So as far as the 2010 Census and the US Census Bureau are concerned, the Brady Bunch household is filled with 9 people who are “housemates”.  Even though 8 of those 9 people are in actuality related to each other.  All because no where did the question’s instructions state that Person 1 should be the head of the household when Alice filled out the census.  Yes, it’s a little silly to be that pedantic.  But silly or not, there’s no where that suggests this is an improper way to fill it in.

I’m also a little confused if not concerned that there are no questions of employment, income, or even religion anywhere in this census.  Granted, questions like these should be voluntary.  But especially in this struggling economy of ours, the opportunity to obtain some even remotely accurate data seems sorely missed.

All-in-all, I am greatly unimpressed with the quality of this 2010 Census.  I could have worded this thing better in my sleep!  And it also gives me pause to wonder just what, exactly, is this 2010 Census being used for.

Toyota Prius Feedback Survey

So I just got an electronic survey from Toyota about my Prius, specifically focusing on problems within the last 12 months.  (And yet, strangely, all but one of the problems I reported were problems which are inherent to the Prius and not just something that popped up recently.)  Now, the Prius has a lot of potential.  But let’s face it, the car still needs a lot of work.  And Toyota has got to know this.  And I think that they do.  I’ll explain why in a bit.

Firstly though, the odd thing.  As a bit of background, the Toyota Prius has no “gears” per se.  Yes, it has a transmission.  Technically it has gears.  But it has no shifting, because it only has one speed.  (Not counting neutral and reverse I guess.)  One forward speed.  So then it’s an automatic … if you can call not shifting “automatic”.  What it does is play between the power put out by the gas engine, and the power put out or taken in by two electric motors.  (The two electric motors are used as generators when they take in power instead of putting it out, which is how the Prius gets its “regenerative braking”.)  This is all computer controlled and a function of engine output, not transmission gearing.  The Prius has only one forward gear.

So, why then, is a whole section of this survey devoted to the drivetrain?  With questions on clutch, shifting, and all?  Does Toyota not know that the Prius doesn’t even come in a manual transmission?  That there is only one forward gear?  That it was in now way possible to have a clutch pedal in my Prius?  And yet, a whole section of the survey was devoted to this obviously unnecessary and fruitless line of questioning.  Odd.

I mean I get why.  Obviously this survey is a generic template applied to every single car.

But did no one think that maybe, just maybe, it’d be a good idea to tailor it to the car specifically in question?  Seems like Toyota is having an awfully large problem with perceptions of quality lately.  Maybe it’d be a good time for them to put a little more thought into everything they do right now, no?

Okay then, now back to the prior allusion.  Why does it seem quite obvious to me that Toyota knows that the Prius design still needs work?  Because the one biggest problem that I can see with the Prius, the 800lb. gorilla in the passenger’s seat, the problem from which pretty much all of their other problems in the Prius stem or are exacerbated by, is the Traction Control (aka TRAC) in the Prius.  Because whenever this “feature” kicks in, engine power is suddenly and majorly cut, and regenerative braking literally vanishes.  So to reiterate, whenever the Prius in any way loses traction, and with the stock Goodyear Integrity tires this happens a lot, the Prius will a) come to a sudden halt if it is accelerating or b) go into a suddenly adverse loss of brakes resulting in a significantly longer braking distance.  Both are obviously severe safety hazards.  When making a turn, accelerating from a slow roll or a stop, it’s rather bad form to suddenly halt your forward acceleration without even lighting up your brakes.  The people behind you try really hard not to slam into your rear end when this happens.  And it happens all without warning (and often without good reason) because of the touchy TRAC and bad stock tires on a Prius, through no intention or fault whatsoever of the driver.  It’s the bad TRAC.  Likewise, you’re in inclement weather.  It’s raning.  Heck, it’s snowing.  You’re braking in your Prius.  Suddenly, without warning, your TRAC light starts flashing and you can no longer brake worth a damn.  Are you driving on ice?  Nope.  Just that really dangerous implementation of TRAC again.  Your regenerative braking, the main source of braking in your Prius, has just been cut out from under you.  The tiny little wheel brakes, that aren’t meant to be the sole braking power of the car, are now your only source of braking force.  Sure hope you had that mile and a half of following distance.  Otherwise you’re in for some brown trousers time.  All because of TRAC.

Clearly the TRAC implementation in the Toyota Prius is a serious safety hazard.

And yet with all of the places to tell Toyota about your problems with the Prius in the survey, not in a single solitary place was there any mention of TRAC.  Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), which is not standard, but no TRAC, which is standard.

Was this somehow a glaring oversight?  Did Toyota inconceivably but accidentally leave TRAC out?  Well, of course, there’s no way to definitively say whether it was done accidentally or on purpose.  But either it was on purpose, or it was somehow a really bad quality failure in the questionnaire design.  Either way it’s bad.  Really bad.

And personally, the way I see it, it completely screams that Toyota knows about TRAC problems in the Prius and just doesn’t want to hear about it.  With as many years as the Prius has been running now, and as many times as it has been “redesigned” (and I use that term loosely since really only once was the Prius completely reworked, the rest of the changes are all pretty minor ever since it started using the Matrix platform), not once has Toyota seriously taken a stab at solving this glaring safety concern in the design.  The most they’ve ever done is try to make TRAC less sensitive, so that it theoretically doesn’t kick in as often.  But is still just as dangerous when it does.

So it comes as no surprise that TRAC is mysteriously left out of this Toyota Prius survey entirely.  Toyota knows.  They just have no intention of caring, let alone actually fixing.

To me Toyota’s survey said a lot more about them than they intended.  And to me, it’d take nary an act of god at this point to ever get me to purchase another Toyota.  Not because of some gas pedal problems they had with one of their parts manufacturers.  But because of the way Toyota seems to not care about serious safety issues with their designs.  If it weren’t for my own quick hand with using the engine braking feature in my Prius, I’d have sold it long ago for safety reasons.  But I have no intention of ever buying another Toyota, let alone a Prius, until Toyota changes their ways.  Which, frankly, is looking really unlikely if this survey of theirs (not to mention everything else that they do) is any indication.  If I wanted that kind of neglect I’d buy a Hyundai or a Kia, thank you very much.

Conclusion

When writing a survey, whether it be a Toyota Prius feedback, a 2010 Census, or whatever, what you say in your survey speaks volumes, whether you intend it to or not.  You’ve really got to put more effort into these things people.  This is the kind of stuff that should be getting people fired.  This is the kind of thing that not only should not be happening when they’re being written, but should never make it past quality control before hitting the public at large.  It speaks not just of a single failing on someone’s part, but on multiple failures at several levels, from the lowest rung to the highest levels of management.  No one should be letting these things happen, and yet to get to their final releases as they’ve done, they should have passed through several hands.  It’s a bad sign of the times.  And it’s happening everywhere.  It’s at the very least a public-relations nightmare, and at the most indicative of poor management from the top down and a grave lack of concern for the public/customer.

First, let me preface this blog entry with some pertinent background.  Yes, I do own an ’06 Toyota Prius.  Now, you can call me a Toyota Fanboy or whatever you like, but if you do any due diligence whatsoever, you’ll have noticed that I have expressed serious safety concerns with the Toyota Prius and especially its Traction Control and the way that it interacts interferes with the regenerative braking, especially in bad weather.  A problem further exacerbated by the incredibly tiny traditional wheel brakes, not to mention the Goodyear Integrity (What a joke!)  stock tires with their horrible traction.  A problem which Toyota has still not fixed in their latest Prius model, in spite of its threat to safety.  And only the most serious of many grievances with the poor design of the Toyota Prius in general, especially at extremes of heat and cold.  Probability is high that my next car will not be a Prius, or even a Toyota.  Not with the way that Toyota has not been addressing these issues.

Now, that said, is it me, or do we have an awful lot of Chicken Littles out there crying about how the sky is falling?

Yes, Toyota had some bad luck with parts.  Yes, there are some faulty gas pedals out there.

Is it a safety issue?  Only if you’re a f___ing moron.

Let’s step back in time a bit shall we…

My last car was a Mercury Sable.  I knew a lot of people who had Mercury Sables.  They were good cars.  Except for when they weren’t.  Each one was plagued by a minor demon.  Each and every person who I knew who drove one all had electrical issues of some kind.  From a windshield wiper that seemed to work in reverse (when it worked at all) to a dash lights that illuminated for no reason.  And hell, each and every one eventually had the same head gasket blow.  What was the special electrical quirk in mine?  Every once in a blue moon, when coming to a stop at speeds well under 10 miles an hour, the engine would suddenly take off like a bat out of hell.  Usually my foot was already on the brake, as I was slowing.  And usually it happened as I was pulling up to a gas pump.  The brakes weren’t strong enough to hold back all those ponies, and if I were a f___ing moron, the car would have gotten away from me and quite likely careened out of control, resulting in an accident.

But did I ever run my car into someone because it was accelerating out of control without my foot on the gas?

No!

And why not?  Because there’s this thing called an “ignition switch”.  Cut the power to the engine and low and behold, the vehicle stops revving like a maniac.  Gee.  Funny how that works.  And not only that, but I also know for a fact that if by some odd reason of monumental stupidity you can’t seem to figure out how to kill the ignition, there’s also a neutral gear, which while not stopping the engine from flooring it does stop the vehicle from accelerating, allowing the brakes to get it back under control, and giving you all of the time in the world to, yes, you guessed it, kill the ignition.  But what if your ignition is a button and not a key to turn?  Simple!  RTFM.  Read The F___ing Manual.  Because even the push-button ignitions can be turned off, and yes, at the simple push of a button.  Some manufacturers prefer the OMG approach where any repeated pressing will disengage the ignition.  Others, like Toyota, take the methodical approach (to avoid accidental killings) of holding the button down for a mere three seconds to kill the ignition.  It’s just that simple.  It intentionally leaves power to your steering and braking for safety purposes.  And I can guarantee that it’s right in your owner’s manual.

Wow.

Really?

Yeah.

And I know for a fact that my ’98 Mercury Sable was hardly the first car to ever have issues either.  Why the number of stories I know of people from the generation before me who had their engines catch fire is a fascinating study alone!

Let’s face a little something called reality, shall we?  Cars have always had mechanical and/or electrical problems.  Just like every other piece of machinery ever made.  That’s why they also have off buttons.  That’s why there are always safety features and sanity checks.

It happens.  And there’s pretty much always a way to avoid these failures from becoming life threatening.

So back to the present.  The problem here is not that Toyota has some cars out there with theoretically faulty parts.  I can guarantee you that every single car manufacturer that ever was has or has had cars out there with faulty parts.  (In fact, though rarely reported, Honda is actually involved in their own recall on the Jazz/Fit right now!)  And yet, we as a species have survived.

No, the problem here is two-fold.  The first is that Toyota is actually being honest for a change.  It’s a new concept in automobile manufacturers.  Usually recall notices would be kept on the down-low, only affected people knowing, if even that many.  Usually recalls wouldn’t even be considered until at least a dozen incidents because they cost money and businesses are not always exactly honest and forthcoming.  And it was hardly ever newsworthy because that’s just how it always is.  But this time, Toyota jumped the gun.  They saw a possible problem and they immediately acted upon it.  And more than that, they threw out great blanket recalls on cars that we all know, for a fact, are fine.  There are cars being identified for recall for these faulty gas pedals that we know for a fact actually have gas pedal assemblies made by another manufacturer and aren’t faulty.  But Toyota is playing it safe for consumers and being up front.  And there are all manner of cars being identified for recall citing that the mats might get stuck under the gas pedal, that if you look at them, already are clearly cut out around the gas pedal to avoid just that very problem and tie down to the floor so that they can’t possibly shift up into the gas pedal.  (Unless you, the consumer, does something stupid like unclip them from the floor of course.)  Yet these are listed for recall anyway, because, again, Toyota is doing a big blanket safety process, costing them tons of money, all for you, the consumer.

The second problem is society.  We’ve forgotten that we also have responsibility.  We’ve reached a point where all we ever do is blame someone else for our own stupidity.  It doesn’t matter that we’re f___ing morons, because we have fingers and we can point, so it’s not our fault.  We refuse to even remotely share any shred of culpability, regardless of the reality.  We have lawyers set to sue and that’s that.  And if there’s money to be made, all the better.  And what an easy target Toyota has made of itself by being so honest and up front.  So we blame and we blame and we blame and make it the absolute end of the world.

Meanwhile, Toyota has not only confirmed two possible causes, identified their fixes, but has even tested and has had independently tested a simple little postage-stamp sized metal shim that can fix the fault in the gas pedals.  It’s easy to produce in quantity, and can correct all of the woes in record time for a minimal monetary loss to the company but with absolute surety and safety for the lifetime of the car.

But we don’t care.  Because fixing the problem isn’t what we want.  We want blame.  We want blood.

Also in the meanwhile an incredibly simple test for a fault in the gas pedal has been identified.  It is a part that wears over time.  Simply depressing the gas pedal while the vehicle is safely in park, feeling for if there is any kind of grinding, seeing if there is any kind of hesitation for it to pop back up when you release it, will tell you with absolute surety whether or not your gas pedal is presently faulty.  A test that can easily be done with no risk, by the simplest of simpletons, can guarantee you of safe driving before you get on the road.

And we don’t care.  Because identifying whether or not our car is safe isn’t what we want.  We want blame.  We want blood.

So we blame Toyota.  We demand blood.  We turn common sense off.  We claim that if not the sky, Toyota at least is falling.  Because really, what fun would common sense and a little responsibility be?

When Volvo decided to build excitement for their new S60 sedan, they went with a slightly different tact:  They hired a blind artist to paint it.

Enter Esref Armagan, a painter from Turkey who “sees” life in a very different way than most of us, as he’s been blind since birth.

And in its own right it’s a lovely story, documented well in this advertisement:

But if no one else is going to say it, I just have to.  Come on.  It’s a Prius!

Esref Armagan and his painting of the new Volvo S60.

A red Toyota Prius for comparison.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure just what message this really leaves us with.  That, you’ll have to decide for yourself.  But I’m thinking, as beautiful of a story as it should be, it’s the ending that has that fated twist.  Is that what Volvo really intended?  I wonder…

The Obama Administration, who are literally throwing money at everything, are going to stop throwing their money at hydrogen fuel cell cars and the infrastructure (AKA gas stations) to support them.  Steven Chu, the Energy Secretary, explained that they were, “moving away from vehicular hydrogen fuel-cells to technologies with more immediate promise.”  Because since former President Bush started funding hydrogen fuel cell vehicles back in 2003 (strangely, alternative-fuel and fuel-efficient vehicles were about the only thing he did for the green world) all that we’ve gotten since then are the Honda FCX Clarity and a supposed Chevrolet Equinox SUV, all in numbers too small not to ignore, with a handful of fueling stations … in California.  Hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure have completely failed to make a presence in the six years they’ve been government funded.

So, according to the Obama Administration, it’s time for a change.

Next year’s budget will see only $68.2m spent on hydrogen fuel cell technologies, and of those, only the actual battery-replacement kind for laptops and whatnot, not for vehicles.

Likely the budget will shift to green vehicles that show actual promise.  This would be the plug-in hybrid where in a larger battery back than a normal hybrid allows one to charge their car overnight and drive with much better fuel economy, at least until the battery goes dry.  The Toyota Prius has had such modifications done in private garages for years now, and easily gets over 100 MPG while the main battery is charged.  And then there’s the plug-in serial hybrids (otherwise known as Range-Extended Electric Vehicles) which only use electricity to drive the wheels, and use generators attached to gas engines to extended their driving range once the batteries go dry.  These plug-in hybrids tend to go at least 40 miles without ever using a single drop of gasoline.  One can only hope that Toyota switches the Prius to this type of technology soon, as it make so much more sense.

But either way, whatever the Obama Administration throws money at next year, it won’t be hydrogen cars, because they’re getting American nowhere.  In the end, hydrogen fuel cells are just batteries.  And (hopefully) the hydrogen is produced by electrolasis, AKA water and electricity.  Plug-in hybrid vehicles offer the exact same green advantages, but anyone can plug one in anywhere.  You don’t have to live in California to use them.