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Toyota Sudden Acceleration Is Driver Error

Posted by kdawson on from the fed-findings-fault-fat-feet dept.

phantomfive writes "The NHTSA has investigated data recorders from Toyota cars whose owners claimed to have crashed due to an accelerator error. They found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren't being pressed. The investigation looked at a sample of the cars, selected by the NHTSA." Jamie found this article with a superior headline at Balloon Juice.

6 of 930 comments (clear)

  1. I am not surprised.... by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am not surprised.... Same thing happened to Audi back in the day.

    One thing for me that was a dead giveaway was that every single report regarding the Toyota sudden acceleration issue happened in the good old United States (Same for Audi, by the way). Statistically, it's very unlikely that such a problem would only happen in a single country even though these cars do not differ significantly between different countries. You'd expect a few deaths in Japan, France, German, the United Kingdom where Toyota cars are also very popular.

    Too bad for Toyota that their brand has been permanently damaged in the US. (Just ask Audi how well it went for them the years after the accusations). GM, Ford and Chrysler are probably very happy about this.

  2. Re:This assumes... by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 5, Informative

    > I don't recall hearing/reading about them.

    Oh please... google up "sudden acceleration".

    One of the stories this will turn up is the recall of Audi 5000's in the 1980s. 60 Minutes covered the story and claimed to demonstrate the effect. They actually faked it with a compressed air bottle.

    This topic has come up dozens of times, on dozens of models, in dozens of countries. To date, 100% of the time it's driver error.

    Maury

  3. Re:This assumes... by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Informative

    NEITHER can be presumed. Toyota, you don't get out of this THAT easily.

    RTFA:

    "The data recorders analyzed by NHTSA were selected by the agency, not Toyota, based on complaints the drivers had filed with the government. Toyota hasn't been involved in interpreting the data."

    and

    "Still, since the start of Toyota's troubles late last summer, the Japanese company hasn't blamed drivers for any of the sudden-acceleration incidents, though in many cases the company couldn't find another cause. Toyota President Akio Toyoda has said the company won't pin the blame on customers for its problems as part of its public-relations response.

    "An attorney who represents four drivers who sued Toyota in state courts over sudden acceleration said the NHTSA finding doesn't mean much for his litigation. "Toyota has always taken the position that the electronic data recorder system is not reliable," said Tab Turner, the Little Rock, Ark., lawyer.

    "A Toyota spokesman said the company considers the device "a prototype tool. It wasn't designed to tell us exactly what happened in an accident. It was designed to tell us whether our systems were operating properly.""

    Toyota aren't "trying to get out of it that easily". They appear to have behaved commendably.

  4. Re:This assumes... by GizmoToy · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has happened with all automakers. Every automaker that I can think of has had a recall for floor mats interfering with the accelerator pedal. Honda had so many it redesigned the pedals on the new Civic to pivot from the floor instead of the firewall so the mats can't get under them.

    This is just for model year 2009, I've seen more complete tables as well...
    Unintended Acceleration - All Brands

    Toyota got nailed because it got a lot of publicity. The other brands are all nervously waiting for someone to point the finger at them, knowing they all have these complaints... even with mounting evidence that it's driver error.

  5. Re:This assumes... by eln · · Score: 5, Informative
    The line you refer to was in Henry VI, and it was said during a comedic scene. Two characters are talking about what a utopia they would make England if they were in charge, with increasingly more absurd propositions like selling seven half-penny loaves for a penny, and making it a felony to drink "small" beer. This culminated in one of the characters saying "the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" as a sort of first step toward their imagined utopia. It was a laugh line, and one that probably resulted in uproarious laughter among the audience of the day. The line was immediately followed by this one:

    Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings: but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.- How now! who's there?

    Clearly, Shakespeare had no love for lawyers or legal proceedings, and it's fair to say his audience probably didn't either. Some lawyers have tried to frame this as actually complimentary to lawyers, arguing that Shakespeare framed the men who were having this conversation as villains, but I think that's looking too deeply into it. Shakespeare wrote for his audience, and that whole scene was obviously intended primarily as comic relief. Throwing in a lawyer joke was an easy way to get laughs then just as it is now. The line about a single sealed (signed) document making one not his own man any more is the sort of biting social commentary Shakespeare often slipped into his comedies.

  6. COMPETITORS DO HAVE PROBLEMS. LOTS... by doctor_no · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a list (SUA) sudden unintended acceleration complaints to the NHTSA

    http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/nhtsa-data-dive-3-117-models-ranked-by-rate-of-ua-incidents/
    http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/05/sudden.acceleration.fact.check/index.html

    Atop that, most of SUA complaints to the NHTSA are a sham.

    http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/89-dead-in-the-nhtsa-complaint-database-it%E2%80%99s-a-sham/

    Its not about a design flaw, some people are on their cell phone, distracted, and in some cases plain DRUNK. One Toyota SUA had a driver with a blood alcohol level of .103 (link above). Its easier to blame the car rather then admit you were drinking or were texting on the cellphone.

    In other cases it turned out to be a complete hoax (in the case of the California Prius incident):

    http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html
    http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/fox-is-sikes-a-balloon-boy/