US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha on July 1 for "Integrated brake and accelerator pedal assembly" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,346,144, issued on July 1, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Integrated brake and accelerator pedal assembly" was invented by Blaine C. Benson (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Luke W. Garnaut (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Bradley M. Legris (Brighton, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pedal assembly that has a rotation axis is provided. The pedal assembly includes a pedal pad, which includes a first portion positioned on one side of the rotation axis and a second portion positioned on the other side of the rotation axis such that a load applied to the first...