The wrong kind of Toyotathon.

• Author: Ackerman, Fred
• Position: Letter to the editor

Ronald Bailey's article on the hysteria over Toyota's "runaway acceleration" issue ("The Wrong Kind of Toyotathon," June) misses one point: Although the "runaway acceleration" claim about the Audi 5000 of 20 years ago turned out to be a hoax--driver error combined with driver delusion and media hysteria--the onboard computer systems in today's cars make a similar claim more plausible. Many modern cars have a "stability control" system that controls braking (and sometimes acceleration) independently from the...