Toyota Motor Corp has announced that it has found no flaw with its throttle controls, following an outside study which criticized the largest Japanese car manufacturer’s electronic safety systems.
The automaker presented their conclusions at a news conference, in order to reassure consumers that issues concerning safety are well under control as they work hard to keep their reputation afloat in their recall aftermath that has lasted seven weeks.
As pressure builds on Toyota, a Michigan judge ordered two top U.S. executives to appear for a deposition, to which a congressional panel has told them to surrender a memo in 2006 by Japanese employees warning of quality control issues.
The purpose of the conference held by Toyota was to discredit David Gilbert’s (An auto engineer expert from Southern Illinois University) conclusions from his study of Toyota’s accelerator controls.
Toyota’s world-wide recall of over 8 million vehicles for accelerator assembly problems, which ran the risk of “sticking” and even being trapped by car floor mats, could possibly be linked to at least five U.S. road fatalities since 2007, to which authorities are now investigating 47 other possible road deaths within the last decade.
Recent complaints have been received by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from drivers who have experienced abnormal throttle issues, even though they had performed warranty claims from Toyota during the recall. These new complaints could indicate that there are inherent problems at an electronic or software level, which means mechanical fixes are as good as ineffective.
However, Toyota spokesman Mike Michels mentioned that the automaker had discovered that the post-recall complaints were few and had been incorrectly performed by certain dealerships, adding “We’re confident in our electronic throttle control systems.”
Gilbert revealed in late February that he was able to simulate a a flaw in Toyota’s accelerator controls, allowing the vehicle to accelerate without being detected by an onboard computer which Toyota had designed as a fail-safe mechanism.
However, Toyota rebutted, stating that after reviewing Gilbert’s findings by Exponenet, a Standford University and engineering consultant company, the simulation described by Gilbert were unfounded and that such a simulation could not occur in real-life driving situations.
Stanford professor of mechanical engineering and director of the university’s Centre for Automotive Research, Chris Gerdes commented that Gilbert had altered the accelerator system in order to produce such results.
As Toyota faces numerous lawsuits, due to the recalls, where both litigation sides have begun aligning expert witnesses for their case. Where Gilbert has begun to receive funding from the Safety Research and Strategies, which is a safety advocacy and has also received funding from other lawyers who have pending cases against Toyota themselves.
For that, Exponent’s services have been employed and financial backing provided to Stanford’s Auto Safety Centre by Toyota.
Toyota and Exponent indicated that they were continuing to test other possibilities in order to find reasonings for unexplainable unintended accelerations, which could even uncover more inherent problems for the car maker.
As of Monday, a judge in Flint, Michigan has ordered Yoshi Inaba and Jim Lentz (Toyota’s Top 2 Executives) to appear for questioning for lawyers who represent the family of Guadalope Alberto who died in a crash when she was driving a Camry in 2008. Her 2005 Camry had surged forward, causing her to loose control of the vehicle, and causing a fatal accident for which the family is now suing Toyota.
Representative Edolphus Times of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked Toyota, in a letter, to hand in a memo which had indicated that Toyota employees in japan had detailed safety concerns to the management in 2006, and had also warned that without addressing such concerns could be detrimental to the survival of the company.
About the author:
Jay WM Wong Editor
Toyota Promotes Star Safety System With New Ad Campaign
Toyota Recalls Mini-Vans In Danger From Salt Corrosion
Toyota Fixed Faulty Steering Arms For Over A Decade Before Recall
UMW Toyota Sdn Bhd Unaffected By Global Recall
Loading ...