Toyota forced to investigate braking system on 2010 Prius in Japan and US
As Toyota seemingly didn’t have enough problems these days, with two huge recalls, suspended sales, angry customers and the loss of popularity, a new issue will now join the unintended acceleration ones, this time concerning the braking system on the 2010 Prius hybrid.
It seems that the Japanese Ministry of Transport, more specifically its recall division (think NHTSA), has advised Toyota to look into 14 cases out of a total of 77, in which owners of the third generation Prius experienced unresponsive brakes for a short period of time, most often at low speeds or in conditions like on a bumpy or slippery road.
The NHTSA has also logged 136 complaints about the brakes on the 2010 Prius, claiming momentarily losses in stopping power. What’s worse, four of them involved crashing and two of those resulted in injuries.
While Toyota says it is currently investigating the problem, many voices are pointing to the new regenerative braking system that the company installed on the third generation Prius hybrid, which is electronically controlled so that the battery pack for the electric motor would receive every tiny amount of power generated when the brakes are engaged. Other rumors are claiming that there might a defect with the actual mechanical underpinnings, specifically the brake pads.
Either way, it seems that no Toyota car is seemingly safe these days. If you own one and have experienced any such problems like unintended acceleration or unresponsive brakes, you’d better go to your dealership in order to have the model checked out.
Source: New York Times
