At issue was an adjustable gas pedal for use on cars and trucks equipped with electronic engine controls.
The patent in dispute is for an adjustable gas pedal, designed to work in vehicles equipped with electronic engine controls.
Adjusting the throttle cable did not cure this; Honda said that recalibrating this bike's electronic engine control should banish the annoyance.
The power bump was achieved through modifications to cylinder heads, camshafts and intakes, as well as to the electronic engine management system.
The primary advantage of hybrids is that the system permits downsizing the engine and always operating in its optimum efficiency range through the use of advanced electronic engine and transmission controls.
The trouble occurred in cars small and large, cheap and expensive, with and without cruise control or electronic engine controls, and with carburetors, fuel injection and even diesel engines.
PREMIUM RECOMMENDED The engine is calibrated to perform best using premium-grade gasoline, but the electronic engine management system incorporates a sensor to detect knocking, so it will run on lower-octane gasoline without harm.
Where Toyota has failed is that rather than review the overall safety of the engine operating unit, it has focused instead on diagnosing the function of many thousands of pieces of an electronic engine.
The F 650 ($8,110 to $8,600) has optional antilock brakes, electronic engine management and a catalytic converter in the exhaust system -- technologies found on no other single-cylinder bike.
The company has so perfected the practice of kaizen from the bottom up at the assembly line that it has lost the big picture of how the whole electronic engine — and thus overall safety — works.
