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Old 02-02-2010, 06:15 PM   #20 (permalink)
cfg83
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1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
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Christ -

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ View Post
That's the thing, though. You'd figure that naturally, to be cheap, it would have to be simple, right?

Exactly the opposite there.
Yeah, my Dad says *both* pedals are too complicated, and he's X-Nasa. But I also think his frame of reference is "traditional" pre drive-by-wire car design.

At this point it's a mystery to solve for me. There are so many questions :

- What is the history of the CTS pedal? There must be an evolution of design that moved through "the system" to end up where it is now. They have already changed the type of plastic to deal with the problem in pre-existing iterations, so *someone* must have concluded that it was "good enough" in it's current form.

- Are there other non-Toyota pedals that are similar in design?

- Is the pedal "more complicated" because it allows for reuse of other drivetrain parts? It could be more complicated so as to drive down the *overall* cost and/or complexity of the drivetrain.

- Was there a whistleblower trying to replace it?

- What are the manufacturing costs for the different pedals? I heard the Denso and CTS pedals are interchangeable, but maybe the Denso costs X% more. The fact that it's in 60% of the cars Toyota sells implies that they were achieving a huge economy of scale.

- What is the best pedal design out there, both "modern" (drive-by-wire) and traditional (i.e. throttle cable)?

- If the CTS pedal was designed by Japanese Toyota engineers, will they commit Seppuku to make up for their mistake?

CarloSW2
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