“This has been useful, but not as useful as it could have been,” the Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee told top Toyota executives. “I think there is more knowledge at the table than has revealed itself.”
Rockefeller (D-WV) said he expects Congress will have to revisit the TREAD Act, which required automakers to provide more safety information to federal regulators after the Ford Explorer-Firestone tire disaster in 1999.
“Two things are already very clear to me,” Rockefeller said. “First, Toyota needs to restore customer confidence and trust and thoroughly recommit itself to quality and open communications. And carmakers should be required to provide to dealers the equipment they need to read Event Data Recorders.” He then added, senior executives have to certify the data they provide to regulators is 100-percent complete and accurate. He added, “The government has to do a much better job of keeping U.S. consumers safe.”
In concluding hearings with Toyota’s Chief Engineer, Takeshi Uchiyamada, Chief Quality Engineer Shinishi Sasaki, and COO of Toyota Motor Sales America Yoshimi Inaba, Rockefeller asked, “What I hear is that Toyota is doing things to bolster consumer confidence in its products, but you don’t believe there is any further technical defect to fix. Who is accountable? Who makes decisions?”
Despite several witnesses at both House and Senate hearings who have claimed that sudden acceleration could be caused by an electronic malfunction, and many members of Congress who believe that the electronics issue should be examined, Uchiyamada said yesterday, “There is not a single case where electronic throttle control has been shown to have led to sudden unintended acceleration.”Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) revealed another internal Toyota document that showed the company was aware of an increase in recalls and investigations of Toyota products by NHTSA in 2006, and the company intended to “manage” this increase by strengthening its relationship with the Agency. “Our ability to manage the tide of safety investigations rests largely on our ability to work well with NHTSA,” wrote former Toyota U.S. COO Jim Press in his presentation notes. (See Press presentation pdf.)
“This looks more like a PR effort than an effort to solve the problem,” LeMieux griped.
He noted that as cars become more complex, it heightens the burden on automakers to make sure all their systems operate reliably, because consumers (not to mention some independent mechanics) no longer have the skills to diagnose them.
When asked about the progress of the recall, the Toyota executives minimized the number of cars involved in the recall, citing the number of customers, rather than cars. While recall records at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show 7.6 million cars have been involved in the two recalls for unintended acceleration, Inaba said the recall involved 5 million Toyota customers, of which 1 million had had the work performed.
In slightly more positive news for consumers, Toyota announced at the hearing that it would deliver to NHTSA its first three “black box” decoders today, to help the Agency gather information from crashes that could shed more light on the role of unintended acceleration in crashes. (Black box readers for GM, Ford, and Chrysler are commercially available.)
Meanwhile, four more Toyota owners filed complaints of unintended acceleration with NHTSA over the weekend.
In any case, it looks like the scrutiny into Toyota unintended acceleration events is far from over. And Congress is likely to make new laws soon requiring the collection of more detailed black box data, as well as requiring greater transparency from automakers. We hope these will lead to a positive outcome for American drivers.
Also read: "Senate presses NHTSA in Toyota investigation."
Be sure to follow Consumer Reports Cars blog (RSS) and Twitter (@CRcars) to keep up with the latest information and advice, also see our unintended acceleration guide.
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