Edmunds.com Announces Million Dollar Prize for Unintended Acceleration Research

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--Hearings related to the Toyota recall are now over, but they haven’t added much clarity about the cause of unintended acceleration. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, announced today that its company representatives are developing a plan to award one million dollars to researchers who address yet unanswered questions about unintended acceleration.

“Consumers need to feel confident that the vehicles that they drive are as safe as possible”

As Edmunds.com has previously disclosed, every car company has received complaints from consumers relating to vehicles that suffered unintended acceleration. This problem has been festering for more than 20 years when Audi fell prey to notorious headlines about the subject. Personal anecdotes about unintended acceleration occur throughout Edmunds’ CarSpace forums, the most established automotive community online. The discussion entitled “Toyota Sienna Uncontrolled Acceleration” at http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f105086/0 was started by a site visitor in November 2006.

“We have heard compelling testimony from consumers. Many incidents are not fully addressed by recalls. NHTSA is responding to the challenge with more of what they have already done: additional investigations. Isn’t it time to try a different approach? We at Edmunds.com think so,” commented Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl.

Edmunds.com is currently drafting rules for a new prize, attempting to attract the best thinkers in the world to apply themselves to determine what is really causing sudden unexpected acceleration in vehicles.

“‘Open source’ created a forum for great programmers to contribute in building great software. Let’s see if this kind of ‘crowd sourcing’ can work in the pressing area of automotive safety,” proposed Anwyl.

Edmunds.com challenges participants to demonstrate in a controlled environment a repeatable factor that will cause an unmodified new vehicle to accelerate suddenly and unexpectedly.

“Consumers need to feel confident that the vehicles that they drive are as safe as possible,” Anwyl stated. “We look forward to seeing the safety contributions that this effort generates.”

About Edmunds.com Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)

Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit. Follow Edmunds.com on Twitter @edmunds and fan Edmunds.com on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/edmunds.