Posted on 31st March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized
NHTSA teams with NASA to discover Toyota problems, Sudden acceleration, Sudden acceleration and Toyota, Toyota recall
Pulling out all the stops in their probe, auto-safety regulators will literally turn to help from rocket scientists to study what’s caused the sudden, and deadly, acceleration of Toyota cars. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100330/bs_nm/us_toyota;_ylt=Avj2ZyGXDibrcZycWm8RhC9h24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1ajNmY2JtBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwMzMwL3VzX3RveW90YQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzcEcG9zAzcEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNnb3Z0YXNraW5nbmE
NASA space and aeronautics engineers are being called in to help examine Touota’s electronic throttles, to find out if they are the cause of the sudden auto accelerations.
“We are determined to get to the bottom of unintended acceleration,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Reuters.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, part of the Transportation Department, is doing an investigation into Toyota’s throttles. As part of that probe, nine NASA scientists who are experts in electronics, electromagnetic interference, software and difficult problem solving will be lending a hand.
The NHTSA investigation is slated to be done by the summer, and then it will be decided whether to go forward with a formal probe.
In Japan Tuesday, Toyota president Akio Toyoda convened a committee with 50 members that will study safety problems.
Posted on 23rd February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized
Aldo Toyoda and Congress, brain injury attorney, Sudden acceleration, Sudden acceleration and Toyota, Toyota recall
Toyota Motor Corp. president Aldo Toyoda will be on the hot seat Wednesday as he answers Congress’s questions about the recall of cars plagued by potentially deadly acceleration issues. Toyoda seems to be trying to make up for the ill-conceived and defensive approach he and the auto maker have taken in this public-relations debacle. But it may be too late, in many respects.
The Wall Street Journal Tuesday has a Page One story, headlined “Support Wavers At Toyota for Chief,” about how the company’s rank-and-file employees and management think Toyoda dropped the ball in his handling of the recalls.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703494404575081102279562036.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
There are complaints about his lack of leadership during the company’s worst crisis in history. Even more shocking, some Toyota managers complained that they were not keep p to date about what the company’s actions relating to the recalls, and times first hearing about what was going on after reading it in the media.
Inside the same issue of The Journal, Toyoda had written an Op-Ed piece that really doesn’t do a very convincing job of explaining away Toyota’s too-slow handling of the brakes’ malfunction that has affected its Camry, Lexus and Prius lines.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081644051321722.html
Perhaps careful not to admit culpability, in light of the lawsuits Toyota faces from families of those killed when their cars suddenly accelerated, Toyoda’s piece was not very passionate, heart-felt or eloquent. You can read it and decide for yourself.
But that may be the least of Toyota’s woes. News broke Tuesday that a federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission had subpoenaed company documents, kicking off a criminal probe of the car maker’s attempts to deal with fatal problems with accelerator pedals, brakes and floor mats.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081363213478420.html?KEYWORDS=toyota+and+subpoena
