College Park , Maryland ( CNN ) -- In his hectic , noisy laboratory at the University of Maryland , Michael Pecht is wary when it comes to assessing whether Toyota 's suggested repair of sticky gas pedals will have any real impact . `` They are in a bit of a quandary , '' said Pecht , a professor at Maryland 's Clark School of Engineering . `` If they announce that electronics is a problem , they are probably going to be in a lot of trouble , because nobody 's going to drive the car . So at this stage , they do n't want to announce there is any electronic problem . '' But according to Pecht , who is an expert in failure analysis and has written a book on sudden acceleration in automobiles , complicated electronics -- not a mechanical issue with the gas pedal -- lie at the heart of Toyota 's problems . And three other independent safety analysts contacted by CNN also conclude that neither floor mats nor stuck gas pedals are an overwhelming issue . `` From what people have told me about their sudden acceleration incidents , most of them have have got nothing to do with the sticking pedal at all , '' said Antony Anderson , an electronics consultant in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , England . Anderson said electronic throttle controls , which largely have replaced mechanical accelerators , can malfunction in ways he compared to an occasionally disobedient child . `` We 've all had that type of experience , and I 'm afraid that is the sort of experience that can happen with any piece of electronics , with an electronic throttle , '' he said . And Sean Kane , who runs a company called Safety Research Strategies in Rehoboth , Massachusetts , said , `` Toyota 's explanations do not account for the share of unintended acceleration complaints that we have examined . '' Toyota officials dispute any assertion that the complicated array of electronics in its cars has an impact on the acceleration issues that have dominated headlines in the past weeks . `` After many years of exhaustive testing by us and by other organizations , we have found no evidence of an electronic problem in our electronic throttle control systems that could have led to unwanted acceleration , '' said John Hanson , Toyota 's spokesman on quality-control issues . But experts like Anderson say the tests conducted by Toyota are not adequate . `` Those tests do not reproduce what actually happens in everyday life , '' Anderson said . `` They are testing for certain conditions , for certain standards , but they test , for example , signals one at a time . They do n't do a whole lot of signals altogether . Whereas in a car , you 've got a great cacophony of electromagnetic interference going on all the time , and you really ca n't rely on testing of a single frequency at one time . '' As for the U.S. government 's testing of Toyota 's problems , the man in charge of the Center For Auto Safety , Clarence Ditlow , said that a 2007 test on a Lexus -- a Toyota brand -- by the National Highway Safety and Traffic Administration to find possible electronic interference was amateurish . `` They did n't do any real testing , '' he said . `` For all I know , they just took a garage door opener , pointed it at the engine compartment and snapped it , and that 's electronic interference to see whether or not anything happened . They closed the hood , and off they went . No problem . '' iReport : Prius owner stands by his car . Efforts to contact the NHTSA in snow-bound Washington were unsuccessful . But Toyota spokesman Hanson said , `` It 's very easy to look from outside and say , 'There is no problem with the pedal . ' But this is the problem and we are fixing it . '' Hanson said the company `` invited '' further testing and pointed out that NHTSA officials announced a `` fresh look '' into the whole area of electromagnetic testing , not simply limited to Toyota .
They say complicated electronics , not mechanical issue , are problem . Japanese officials say they ' ve found no evidence of electronic problems . Some Japanese automaker 's tests are inadequate .