Patent 7287501 was granted and assigned to Toyota on October, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A coil driving a contact of an ignition and injection relay is connected to a connection line of a main relay and an ECU. When an ignition switch is turned off, the ECU drives an ignition device and an injection device for a prescribed period thereafter. Then, the ECU turns off a main relay to perform self-shutting-off, and the ignition and injection relay is turned off interlocked with an operation of the main relay being turned off.