Page 108 - Toyota Under Fire

THE RECALL CRISIS

TOYOTA’S ELECTROMAGNETIC
INTERFERENCE TESTING
An electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing chamber is it-
self a marvel of engineering. Toyota has built eight chambers
in Toyota City, Japan, and each of them is in almost constant
use testing components, systems, and entire vehicles. Another
chamber is being completed in Ann Arbor, Michigan as we write
this. While all systems are also tested in the real world, EMC
testing chambers allow Toyota to test the worst electromag-
netic interference situations possible.
The largest of these chambers, where entire vehicles are
tested, is roughly the size of a small basketball gym. The room has
sophisticated equipment that can create every type of EMI, includ-
ing that produced by high-tension power lines, television and radio
broadcasts (up to 10-kW broadcasts), ham radios, aviation radar,
and cellular towers. In the center of the chamber is a vehicle-sized
platter on which the vehicle being tested sits so that it can be spun
around and exposed to EMI from every possible angle. Within the
platter is a dynamometer—essentially a treadmill for cars that can
measure speed, acceleration, and other characteristics. When a ve-
hicle is brought in for testing, a specialized nonmetallic (to avoid
altering the EMI) robot is placed inside. Controlled remotely from
outside the chamber, the robot constantly accelerates and brakes
at different rates throughout the tests. Cameras positioned on all
the wheels and on the dashboard monitor vehicle performance,
looking for any hesitations, surges, warning lights, or trouble codes.
In addition to the external EMI, tests for the effects of in-
terference from inside the car, such as cell phones, are also run
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