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Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics
(AP) – 1 hour ago
The automaker will host a Webcast event Monday at 1 p.m. EST during which it will seek to debunk a critic who claims faulty gas pedals did not cause the sudden acceleration.
The company is calling in the director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research to try to refute the claims. Toyota said Stanford professor Chris Gerdes will show that the malfunctions Gilbert produced "are completely unrealistic under real-world conditions and can easily be reproduced on a wide range of vehicles made by other manufacturers."
Stanford's Center for Automotive Research is funded by a group of auto companies, including Toyota.
The event planned Monday is part of a broad campaign by the world's biggest automaker to discredit critics, repair its damaged reputation and begin restoring trust in its vehicles.
The embattled automaker also faces a demand from unsatisfied House Democrats that it provide this week engineers or managers with "personal knowledge" of its efforts regarding unintended acceleration.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a letter to Toyota's U.S. sales chief, said that there is "an absence of documents" to show Toyota has thoroughly investigated whether electronics are causing unintended acceleration. The panel held a hearing about Toyota on Feb. 23. Toyota President Akio Toyoda told a different House committee Feb. 24 he is "absolutely confident" there is no electronics problem.
Adding pressure, however, is that the government said Thursday that it has "more than 60" reports from Toyota owners about unintended acceleration in cars recalled and repaired by Toyota for what it says could cause the problem: 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. to fix gas pedals that could stick and 5.3 million over floor mats that might jam pedals.
USA TODAY found at least 14 new acceleration complaints filed Friday and Saturday from owners who had already had their vehicles fixed under the recall.
Will Toyota comply or try to pull a quick one by using hired guns to discredit other experts. Such as the lame attack on the ABC video report.
Has there been any noticeable difference in the feel or performance of the pedal, etc., after the work? Also, why are the 2010 Avalons not involved in the recall? Different pedal assembly or design?
Clearly, they don't want the truth to be known. And, Toyota is doing everything within their power to block, hide, hinder, dismiss and deny.
It is amazing to me to see so many people who feel that Toyota does not have the right to defend themselves !! This is the U.S.A., not a kangaroo court in some banana republic.
Whether some of you here like it or not, you can expect a very strong and vigorous defense from Toyota. I am looking forward to hearing all the evidence from both sides before coming to any conclusions
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
I have no problem with that. Why do you feel that the consumer should not have the right to sue Toyota when their cars experience UA? Why, when Toyota had a recall on floor mats 3 years ago, dealers are still putting them in cars that end up killing people. I am waiting to hear from the Lexus dealer that did just that. Was he warned by Lexus corporate? I cannot believe how many people are willing to give Toyota the benefit of the doubt and not the consumer.
I think this says a lot:
Toyota's culture faulted in recall crisis
No Toyota executive in America was authorized to issue a recall. That included Jim Lentz, Toyota's top American sales executive, and his boss, Yoshi Inaba, who oversees North America.
"Most of the information was one-way. ... back to Japan," Lentz testified before Congress in late February.
Replied Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.: "What you're saying is that, ultimately, the decisions are made in Japan?"
An exodus of key American leaders from Toyota since 2006 may have been a sign of tensions that are just now coming to light amid the company's first serious crisis in more than 50 years of selling cars in the U.S., according to people familiar with the company.
Press left in 2007 to take a top position with Chrysler. Another Toyota marketing leader, Jim Farley, left in 2007 for Ford, where he is now global marketing chief. Deborah Wahl Meyer, who headed the Lexus brand, left for Chrysler in 2007 and now is chief marketing officer for Pulte Homes.
That is not to suggest that Toyota would have escaped the recent highly publicized recalls had those executives stayed. All left for attractive opportunities.
Rapid expansion, strained engineering resources and a centralized corporate structure put stress on Toyota's admired and widely emulated corporate discipline.
Engineers took on heavier workloads. Less priority was given to working closely with suppliers on quality.
A growing dependence on the U.S. for profits and aggressive expansion, the latter of which resulted in the closure of Toyota's and GM's Fremont, Calif., joint venture and an empty assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss.
• A growing frustration among non-Japanese managers that they were underutilized and sometimes ignored by superiors in Japan.
http://www.freep.com/article/20100308/BUSINESS01/3080373/1318/Toyotas-culture-fa- - ulted-in-recall-crisis
All adds up to the current mess Toyota has gotten itself into.
It goes on and on.
I have no problem in anyone mounting a defense, as long as both parties have access to the same, correct information. Not like it has been with Congress and even NHTSA having to arm wrestle Toyota to get such information.
So far no responses from other news outlets seen. But is just completed. Expected.
All is verbal though. No written documents provided that I have seen. Noticed only small number of reporters asked? or were present it seems??? Why?? Don't know??
Here is CBS link.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1n&tag=watchnow
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/423/45454.html
And another:
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_14521602?nclick_check=1
So you are saying that they did not appear for the 3/2 hearing?
"Toyota officials face Senate commerce committee hearing ...Mar 1, 2010 ... Toyota's chief quality officer and a top engineer will testify before a Senate committee on Tuesday in the third congressional hearing on ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/.../AR2010030103498.html"
Meanwhile the lynching goes on and usual suspects at Edmunds cheer loudly.
John
1. Yes, that's obvious.
2. Diesel is too hard to find around here and it's worse out in the countryside.
3. My '06 Avalon didn't have UA and my '10 Highlander doesn't either.
And your Liberty rides like a brick in addition to looking like one. Thick as a brick comes to mind for some odd reason.
I did have UA with a '67 Chevelle and a '75 Datsun B210, but they got fixed and life went on. My father told me Friday that he used to have one or two episodes a year of UA as far back as the '30s. He was born in 1922 and was a State Trooper and then a trucking company safety officer. He put 113,000 miles on a new '52 Chevy in 12 months and that was just one year. Cars break sooner or later if you drive much..
Until NipponDenso or Denso US engineers are brought forward there can be no expert testimony regarding the Toyota/etc electronics and UA.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6279089n&tag=mg;ootw
Also from CBS - new report - while Toyota was doing webcast person in Prius has SUA/UA on freeway - calls 911 - CHP could only get vehicle to stop by getting in front of it and then applied brakes.
Interesting when Toyota attempting to make claim this morning. I just go oh-oh!
According to report CHP plan a news conference later. NOTE THIS HAPPENED IN SAN DIEGO. SAME CITY WHERE OFF DUTY CHP OFFICER AND FAMILY KILLED. WRONG CITY TO HAVE THIS HAPPEN.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/08/eveningnews/main6279727.shtml?tag=cont- entMain;contentBody
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/08/eveningnews/main6279727.shtml?tag=cont- entMain;contentBody
What do you think about that racing out of control Prius in San Diego that took 20 minutes to get stopped by that CHP officer's car?.
The Gilbert test findings prove one thing, a gas pedal sensor can be modified to make the engine race. It just does not match the symptoms Toyota owners are experiencing based on NHTSA reports. I would be willing to bet that if during the Gilbert test with the engine racing, they had tried changing the shifter position to drive, neutral or reverse, that the ECM would have responded appropriately and shifted the transmission. In their test, the ECM was working as designed and just responding to the faulty input they were creating from the gas pedal.
I realize that the point of that Toyota webcast is to discredit the Gilbert report, and in this case I happen to agree with Toyota. However what Toyota is not saying is that the problem the cars are experiencing is much more insidious than the Dr. Gilbert scenario.
Ironic and timing was perfect since Toyota was in the process of making their own video version to deny any throttle problem. I'm anxious to see what the Toyota execs talked about. They testified they would have a nationwide SWAT team to investigate SUA.
you will never find out driving a toyota :P
Now today a Prius on freeway same city had out of control car- CHP stopped Prius. Can refer to my earlier post for link.
"The Highway Patrol responded. To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in front of the Prius and step on the brakes. The car eventually stopped near La Posta Bridge, but the whole even lasted for about 20 minutes."
Toyota can't buy better advertising than this!!!!
CBS report video on Prius runaway. toyota can't blame ABC for unbalanced, unfair reporting, now, can they?
The Highway Patrols will have to give lessons on how to stop runaway toyotas.
2015 Cruze 2LT, 2014 Malibu 2LT, 2008 Cobalt 2LT
the other side says there seem to be a lot of complaints and there is something wrong.
hiring a legal firm to be the front line, doesn't seem to be the right move, from a 'person on the street' view.
It was a pretty frightening Monday afternoon for a driver in San Diego. The California Highway Patrol said the driver of a Toyota Prius called 911 around 1:30 p.m. to say the car's accelerator was stuck and he couldn't slow it down.
The caller was driving eastbound on Interstate 8 near San Diego as this was happening, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy. At one point the car was traveling at 90 mph.
The Highway Patrol responded. To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in front of the Prius and step on the brakes. The car eventually stopped near La Posta Bridge, but the whole even lasted for about 20 minutes.
California Highway Patrol is planning a news conference to provide more details.
CHP does say their car got in front of Prius and then applied his brakes - in most of news releases I bookmarked. But then when it came across TV on this one station - newsreporter stated driver stopped after CHP gave directions for him to pull emergency brake and keep applying pressure to brakes. News reporter said that stopped vehicle. But that explanation didn't sound quite correct???
One report to at least 5 others saying CHP stopped.
NOTE-one TV station San Diego claimed Toyota had dispatched tech to area to help.
Worst part is they are everywhere. You just don't know when a Toyota will go berzerk and try and kill you. That incident was right past are little town and ended where we go to breakfast. La Posta Casino.