Toyota still on the hot seat
Published on Thursday, February 25, 2010
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation and grandson of the firm's founder, survived a public grilling by members of the U.S. Congress this week, ...
...but many questions remain unanswered concerning reports of “unintended acceleration” in Toyota vehicles.
Chief among them for many inquisitors keen to make political hay out of the matter is, “who knew what, when?” It’s not just Toyota that is effectively on trial in that respect; so is the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Various safety advocates and political foes are keen to make a case that NHTSA was not tough enough on Toyota soon enough.
The fact that this is an election year in the U.S. for members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives seems to have heightened the political theatre of the proceedings well beyond the simple matter of determining facts.
Perhaps a bigger question, for consumers at least, is whether or not the causes of “unintended acceleration” that Toyota has identified – ill-fitted floormats (in the U.S. only) and sticky accelerator pedal assemblies – are the whole story. And whether the fixes that are being applied are enough to ensure customers’ safety.
Toyota’s assurances that they are took a blow on the first day of hearings when, under fierce questioning, U.S. Toyota head-man, Jim Lentz acknowledged that there may still be some unknown factors at play.
The testimony of some witnesses who claim to have experienced “unintended acceleration” in Toyota vehicles does not fit readily with the causes and fixes Toyota has assigned to the condition.
Speculation is rife in many quarters that electronic issues with the drive-by-wire accelerator pedals – perhaps caused by EMF (Electromagnetic Force) interference – may be involved.
But electronic throttle control (ETC) systems are widely used throughout the industry, not just by Toyota. And the company says it has not only thoroughly tested its vehicles for such interference, without finding a problem, so has an independent engineering firm.
In his testimony on the second day of hearings, Akio Toyoda stated firmly: "I'm absolutely confident that there is no problem with the design of the ETC system."
Here in Canada, dealers are well into installing the “fix” in customers vehicles, while Toyota Canada has been conducting press demonstrations across the country to show that brakes alone can bring a vehicle to a stop form 100 km/h or more, even with the throttle held wide open.
Similar tests conducted by third parties suggest that holding the throttle wide open adds only about a car-length, at most, to a typical vehicle’s normal stopping distance from 100 km/h. All of which casts considerable suspicion on the widely avoided topic of driver error.
Concluding his formal statement to Congress, Akio Toyoda said: "My name is on every car. You have my personal commitment that Toyota will work vigorously and unceasingly to restore the trust of our customers."
But the only thing certain from the events of this week is that, recall or not, commitment or not, this issue and its many ramifications are not going to go away quickly or quietly.
Politicians, media and lawyers with vested interests in keeping it going will make very sure of that.
Source : Gerry Malloy – Canadian Auto Dealer