(updated) NHTSA: No evidence of Toyota electronics problems
07-14-10, 06:06 AM
#47
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I don't agree. I think the worse part of this entire situation was the fact that Toyota admitted and accepted responsibility for every run-a-way complaint. IMO, that was a mistake of catastrophic proportions. When the US Government asked Toyota if they were were blaming the consumer for their UA crashes, Toyota said "no, it is our fault entirely". Why couldn't Toyota's response have been more like, "We are carefully investigating each claim on a case by case basis, however, generally speaking, no, we are not blaming the consumer." Little words like that make a huge difference in how the public perceives a company. Toyota got blamed and Toyota accepted all responsibility. To the NHTSA, that may be honorable, but to the consumer, it's bad news, bad publicity.
BTW, Toyota didn't say it was their fault entirely anyway. They continually said there's no software problem. They only apologized for sticky accelerator pedals and floor mat issues. We know the floor mat issue did cause one accident because of a stupid dealership. The sticky accelerator was really a separate issue. It was more of a minor problem, but I don't think any experts believed it was the cause for the crashes.
07-14-10, 06:17 AM
#48
Pole Position
Couldn't disagree with you more. Toyota was already getting killed in the media. If they had adamantly denied responsibility it would have gone up tenfold. Look at what's happening to Apple. They're getting butchered by the media because they refuse to acknowledge problems with the iPhone 4. And that involves a problem that is much less serious than people dying.
BTW, Toyota didn't say it was their fault entirely anyway. They continually said there's no software problem. They only apologized for sticky accelerator pedals and floor mat issues. We know the floor mat issue did cause one accident because of a stupid dealership. The sticky accelerator was really a separate issue. It was more of a minor problem, but I don't think any experts believed it was the cause for the crashes.
BTW, Toyota didn't say it was their fault entirely anyway. They continually said there's no software problem. They only apologized for sticky accelerator pedals and floor mat issues. We know the floor mat issue did cause one accident because of a stupid dealership. The sticky accelerator was really a separate issue. It was more of a minor problem, but I don't think any experts believed it was the cause for the crashes.
07-14-10, 06:36 AM
#49
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I never said they should "adamantly deny" any wrongdoing. I simply said they should have worded it differently, as I quoted above. And, yes, Toyota did, unconditionally, accept FULL responsibility for any and ALL occurrences of unintended acceleration, it's public record.
07-14-10, 06:51 AM
#50
I don't agree. I think the worse part of this entire situation was the fact that Toyota admitted and accepted responsibility for every run-a-way complaint. IMO, that was a mistake of catastrophic proportions. When the US Government asked Toyota if they were were blaming the consumer for their UA crashes, Toyota said "no, it is our fault entirely". Why couldn't Toyota's response have been more like, "We are carefully investigating each claim on a case by case basis, however, generally speaking, no, we are not blaming the consumer." Little words like that make a huge difference in how the public perceives a company. Toyota got blamed and Toyota accepted all responsibility. To the NHTSA, that may be honorable, but to the consumer, it's bad news, bad publicity.
07-14-10, 07:26 AM
#52
Pole Position
Yes, good point. Success or failure, there is nothing in between. That's the Japanese culture.
07-14-10, 07:33 AM
#53
Out of Warranty
This whole situation of vehicles going out of control for one reason or another makes a good case for a series of fail-safes in the software controls. With electronics taking over critical functions, there will be instances of failure, either of components or software, that cannot be overridden by the driver. If we are going to turn over critical commands like acceleration and braking to computers, we need a positive means to override the computer in an emergency.
"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
