Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Re: Toyota Acceleration Problem / Sticky GasPedal Syndrome

i was reading something several years ago about some research that was being done with very small CPU's ( Integrated Circuits ) that would Randomly Program themselves to do a Specific Job.
That is: They would just fool around with their own circuitry until they finally achieved the Desired Result.
The Very Curious Thing about this Experiment was that after they found a Circuit that was really Efficient at some ( x );
They couldn't transfer that circuit to Another Circuit Board...!
Also: The Electronic Designs Completely Defied All Reasonable Attempts to Logic them out...!
That is: They Didn't make any Sense; There was no way that they should have done anything...

The Hypothesis was that during the Random Circuit Design Phase;
The Process was making use of Unique & Invisible Features or Anomalies in that Particular Circuit Board that they were using...!

Fast forward to Toyota's Current Problems with Their Accelerator Black Box.
The Salient Features of This Problem is that It is Unique & UnReproducible.

My Prediction is —
That it will eventually be discovered that for This = Particular = Circuit Design
& Scale of The MicroElectronics;
The Boards are Occasionally Exhibiting Some kind of Cross Over Effect
- Or -
Emergent Complexity Phenomena that only happens once in awhile,
given a wide variety of circumstances and Board features.

That is: The boards of Some of These Black Boxes have reconfigured themselves into Some New Electronic Design that is behaving completely normally for them.
Such a Board will look perfectly normal, and may even pass all self diagnostic routines.
But when the electricity flows through them;
The emergent pattern of functionality is Different from The Designers intention.

The Biggest Flaw with this Hypothesis is that the Malfunction seems to always take this one form of The Sticky Pedal Syndrome.
This may be because the anomaly in the circuit board only allows for this one emergent complexity effect...
...Or -- There Are Other Effects that the boards are Exhibiting;
But because they are purely benign, they are not reported or even noticed.

It may be traced back to a particular collection of boards made on a given day,
Or materials used from a particular supplier.
No amount of Investigative Analysis will ever find the problem,
As it is invariably too complex.

The Solution will be to simply redesign The Accelerator Black Box and Replace them.

2 comments:

Hilary said...

I visited, so I must leave a comment, even though it feels as if I am speaking into the void (the question which occupies most of my current thinking time is "why do people wish to represent themselves in a public space, of whatever character? and why do I ... ? )

Just for your information, if you are interested, and I find myself always interested in such things, I came here through the hyperbolic crochet of Daina Taimina on flickr.

It's unlikely that I will understand much of what you write, but I like the idea that some splinter of information will catch under my skin.

So if it's alright with you I am going to add you to my delicious and refer back a few times, until I feel that splinter, or I begin to have an inkling of understanding.

Naturally, no obligation for you to acknowledge :-)

Hilary

Chrstphre Campbell said...

i like your prose-poetry and in regards to this toyota post, i have been going over it, bouncing it off my closet door as i lay on my stomach, kicking my feet in desperation.
i don't think that i was as clear as i could have been...
The essential idea that i wanted to convey was that as electronic circuits become -too- small, they begin to act in an unexpected manner due to the unique qualities of the materials that they are made from.
Partly; i just wanted a semi-literate paper trail of this idea so that when it was finally revealed... ( it's beginning to look like toyota will come clean soon ? ) ...i can point to this and say: "HA!"