2007年9月，美国俄克拉荷马高速公路出口网关上，有一辆2005年份的丰田(Toyota) Camry 发生汽车暴冲事故，导致一死一重伤的惨剧，当时认为事故是车地板的踏垫松动、或是油门踏板黏腻所导致；但最新调查结果显示，电子节流阀控制系统(electronic throttle control system)才是意外事故元凶。
上述调查结果是原告律师的结案陈词，但被告丰田汽车的辩护律师却声称，事故原因是驾驶人疏失；而这起缠讼数年的案件，终于在日前由俄克拉荷马法院的陪审团做出决议，认为丰田汽车所采用的汽车技术必须承担事故法律责任。
根据美联社(AP)报导，法院陪审团决议，在该起事故中受重伤的驾驶人Jean Bookout应获得150万美元的赔偿金，而在事故中丧生的Barbara Schwarz家属也应获得150万美元的赔偿。陪审团并认为，丰田汽车犯下“罔顾他人权利”的罪责，法院将在接下来继续针对被告在此案件所需支付的惩罚 性赔偿金，进行第二阶段的审理。
专家将此俄克拉荷马案件视为一个先例──据了解，已经有数百位丰田汽车车主声称车辆发生无预警加速暴冲状况；而该案例也是第一次有测试结果声称，问题可能出在车辆的电子节流阀控制系统。曾检视过丰田电子节流阀系统软件原始码的嵌入式系统专家表示，它们在其中发现缺陷，所包含的错误码就是导致车辆暴冲事故的原因。
但 值得一提的是，美国太空总署(NASA)专家也曾经调查过丰田汽车的电子节流阀控制系统，却并未发现导致车辆暴冲的电子缺陷。据了解，NASA的专家花了 十个月的时间进行调查后，美国国家高速公路交通安全局(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)早在2011年2月就结束了对丰田汽车多款车型的测试。
嵌入式系统产业界的专家们并不认为 NASA有足够的时间做出完整的报告，而更重要的是，NASA在该报告中并没有排除软件导致车辆无预警加速暴冲的可能性；当时的报告指出，调查小组定义出 了两个假设性的丰田ETSC-i 电子节流阀控制系统故障模式(相对于非电子性的原因，例如黏腻的油门踏板、地垫压迫或是驾驶员操作不当等问题)。
这 两种故障模式之一，是油门踏板位置感测系统(pedal position sensing system)故障，与未被汽车监视系统侦测到的中央处理器(CPU)的系统软件故障；它们不会产生诊断故障代码(diagnostic trouble code，DTC)，有可能导致无预警的车辆加速暴冲。
第二种假设情况是主CPU的系统软件故障导致节流阀在驾驶员未动作的前提下开启，并持续控制燃油喷射与点火。报告指出，虽然并没有证据显示报告中所假设的ETSC-i状况发生，并不意味着可能性不存在。
为了让俄克拉荷马案件水落石出，有一组新的嵌入式系统专家受命接手NASA的调查；而究竟是怎样的一个小小软件码失误，可能导致驾驶人无法控制引擎速度，还需要专家们更详尽的解释。而由于目前法院要求案件律师与参与调查的专家，在判决前不得进行公开发言，未来有更新的信息出炉，ESMC将会有更进一步的报导，敬请期待！
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Acceleration Case: Jury Finds Toyota Liable，by Junko Yoshida
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Acceleration Case: Jury Finds Toyota Liable
Junko Yoshida
It wasn't loose floor mats or a sticky pedal that caused the sudden acceleration of a 2005 Camry in an accident that killed one woman and seriously injured another on an Oklahoma highway off-ramp in September 2007. The electronic throttle control system did it.
This was the closing argument of the plaintiffs' attorneys. In contrast, attorneys for Toyota blamed the crash on driver error.
In a verdict delivered Thursday afternoon, an Oklahoma County jury found Toyota's in-car technology liable for the crash.
The Associated Press reports that the jury awarded $1.5 million in monetary damages to Jean Bookout, the driver of the car, who was injured in the crash, and $1.5 million to the family of Barbara Schwarz, who died. The jury also decided Toyota acted with "reckless disregard" for the rights of others. A second phase of the trial on punitive damages is scheduled to begin Friday.
Bellwether
Experts had viewed the Oklahoma case -- one of several hundred contending that the company's vehicles tended to accelerate inadvertently -- as a bellwether. This was the first test of a claim that put the fault squarely on a flaw in the vehicle's electronic throttle control system. Embedded systems experts who reviewed Toyota's electronic throttle source code testified that they found it defective. They said it contains bugs -- including some that can cause unintended acceleration.
It's important to note, however, that Toyota's electronics throttle control system had already been the subject of a NASA investigation that reportedly found no electronic causes of unintended acceleration. After the US space agency's 10-month investigation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its probe of Toyota models in February 2011.
But not everyone in the embedded systems industry thinks NASA had enough time to come up with a complete report. Perhaps more significantly, in its report, NASA itself did not rule out the possibility of software having caused unintended acceleration.
The NESC team identified two hypothetical ETSC-i failure mode scenarios (as opposed to non-electronics pedal problems caused by sticking accelerator pedal, floor mat entrapment, or operator misapplication) that could lead to [an unintended acceleration] without generating a diagnostic trouble code (DTC): specific dual failures in the pedal position sensing system and a systematic software malfunction in the main central processor unit (CPU) that is not detected by the monitor system...
The second postulated scenario is a systematic software malfunction in the Main CPU that opens the throttle without operator action and continues to properly control fuel injection and ignition...
Because proof that the ETSC-i caused the reported UAs was not found does not mean it could not occur.
For the Oklahoma trial, a new group of embedded systems experts was hired to dig deeper in hopes of picking up where NASA left off. However, how exactly a single bit flip could cause the driver of a real car to lose control of the engine speed demands more detailed explanation from experts.
EE Times will be talking to some who were involved in the investigation, and we will be breaking down what went wrong -- according to experts -- with Toyota's electronic throttle control systems. These experts are currently under a gag order from District Judge Patricia Parrish, who ordered attorneys and experts on both sides not to discuss the case publicly until after the punitive stage.
责编：Quentin
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