Toyota Motor Corp.’s trouble with the braking system of its Prius hybrid model shouldn’t deter buyers even though “it’s kind of scary,” Apple Inc co-founder Steve Wozniak said.
Wozniak, 59, last week said his 2010 Toyota Prius can unintentionally accelerate to as much as 156km per hour when he uses cruise control to increase his speed. Toyota will recall the 2010 model in Japan this week to repair the brake fault, two people familiar with the matter said.
“All these problems should get fixed, but they shouldn’t stop people from buying the Prius,” Wozniak said in a telephone interview yesterday. “There are bugs in every product.”
The world’s largest automaker plans to recall at least 270,000 units of the gasoline-electric hatchback in Japan and the US to repair braking systems, one person said, declining to be identified as the information isn’t yet public.
Ririko Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Toyota in Tokyo, said the company had not decided whether to conduct a recall.
While in cruise control, flicking the lever on the side of the steering wheel doesn’t always increase the speed of his car in increments as intended, Wozniak said last week. Instead, the vehicle would sometimes continue accelerating until the footbrake is used, he said.
Toyota has recalled at least 7.8 million vehicles on five continents, including the 2004-2009 Prius, to repair defects that have been linked to unintended acceleration. Wozniak’s 2010 Prius, which has a steering wheel-mounted dynamic radar cruise control, hasn’t been recalled by the company.
“It sounds kind of scary,” Wozniak, who owns four Prius cars, said of the brake-system problem.
Any deaths related to Toyotas under recall are not statistically significant, he said.
He said he would likely take his 2010 Prius in to have it checked, “but not right away.”
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