de autos cars

Those of a certain age will remember that in the mid-1980s Audi had its own unintended acceleration problem...onto which gasoline and a whole boxful of matches was thrown by Morley Safer and the gang at CBS' 60 Minutes.

The story was that the Audi 5000 would roar off by itself, hurting and killing people.

Ultimately, it was shown that the drivers were stomping on the accelerator when they thought (or at least said) it was the brake. But Audi very nearly didn't survive the controversy.

Well, Professor Richard A. Schmidt was one of those who dug past the hype and found the truth 24 years ago...and in an op-ed piece in The New York Times on Wednesday (hat tip to The Truth About Cars for pointing it out), he says history may be repeating itself. Just substitute 2010 for 1985, Toyota for Audi, Prius for 5000.

Read it here.