I think most Toyota drivers know about this one, it was a software bug, it's a shame they tried to cover it up, but the bug itself couldn't of been intentional. They were just trying to contain a shitty situation, they make otherwise reliable cars which is why people buy Toyota.

I don't think this is actually true. I have not been able to find any sources referencing an actual bug and patch. Toyota, NASA, and the NHTSA did not report any issues. Nevertheless, Toyota lost a jury trial with this rather hilarious quote available on wikipedia[1]:

"Michael Barr of the Barr Group testified that NASA had not been able to complete its examination of Toyota's ETCS and that Toyota did not follow best practices for real time life critical software, and that a single bit flip which can be caused by cosmic rays could cause unintended acceleration. As well, the run-time stack of the real-time operating system was not large enough and that it was possible for the stack to grow large enough to overwrite data that could cause unintended acceleration."

So... maybe the computer could have physically failed, or a stack overflow, or some other error? Regardless, I still feel like drive-by-wire is scary. The Revisionist History podcast also covers the unintended acceleration recall from more of a psychological perspective[2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9311_Toyota_vehicle...

[2] http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/08-blame-game

I thought the consensus was that it was floor mats getting stuck?

There’s quite a few scary stories in the automotive world. It’s quite unsettling.

The GM handling of ignition deaths was upsetting to read about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_swit...

Ford’s 2000s era people carriers with a penchant for self-immolation due to a wiring harness issue iirc.

More recently the Bosch / VAG diesel gate stories that were in the news.

Off setting that was the John Deere move to block aftermarket servicing because end users can’t be trusted...!