Quote:
Originally Posted by Articus
OT:
 blindly defending toyota....All car manufacturers have demons in the closet. Toyota knew for years about a deadly flaw and continued to build the cars in this way which killed innocent people.... |
Umm...No. Sorry for continuing OT a bit longer, but I can't let this matter go untouched - I've seen Toyota get too much undeserved crap about it.
At the end of the investigations it turned out there was nothing wrong with the cars. Intense investigation found that the reported cases no attempt to use the brakes were made(those onboard computers record EVERY input the drivers make), indicating the problems to be drivers hitting the wrong pedals. Toyota was unable to find any flaws in the software during the recalls.
The claim that the cars couldn't be stopped even with full brake application was suspicious to begin with - no car with brakes that can't overpower the throttle would ever be approved for sale in the US. Sure, it could happen on older cars with worn brakes, but these reports were coming in regarding NEW cars.
Yes, there were some suspicious e-mails that let to congressional hearings, but nothing came of THOSE either - turns out they were just discussions of potential problems with drive-by-wire controls, and someone in management wanted more testing to make sure they were safe. Testing which, it was later shown, WAS done with more than satisfactory results.
At this point you may be wondering why haven't you heard of this before now? That's because it was not widely reported by the US mainstream media. There were a few below-the-fold/buried-deep-inside articles on it, but it was largely ignored because it didn't fit the American News Motto: "Your One-Stop Shop For
AAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!"
Also, contrary to early reports, nobody actually died from these supposedly flaw-induced accidents.