US DOT finds unintended acceleration caused by driver error

[StealthFighter]

After receiving more than 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation has concluded that driver error was actually at fault. According to The Wall Street Journal, investigators analyzing different data recorders from Toyota vehicles found that at the time of these sudden acceleration crashes, the throttles were wide open rather and the brakes were not depressed. Thus, they have reason to believe that drivers were mistakenly stomping on the accelerator rather than slamming the brakes in an attempt to avoid these crashes.

Of the 75 fatal crashes blamed on sudden acceleration, only one incident has actually been verified as being caused by vehicle fault – the Lexus ES350 accident that killed a California highway patrolman and three other passengers last August. Even so, this case was chalked up as an incident where the floor mat trapped the gas pedal, which Toyota quickly issued a recall for.

The WSJ also reports that U.S. Transportation Department officials have stated publicly that they have yet to find any electronic glitches in Toyota vehicles that could lead to these crashes. The only defects proven to be true are those that have been outlined by Toyota itself – floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals that are slow to return to idle.

So while Toyota may not have been at fault in these sudden acceleration cases, the automaker's image has indeed been seriously tarnished over the past few months. Over eight million Toyota vehicles have been recalled worldwide – a large blemish in automotive history, and it appears that much of the hand-wringing may have been for naught

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/13/b...pplication-in/


i have a feeling the media isn't gonna pick up on this. so it's up word of mouth to spread the truth.



the one where the highway patrolman got killed was because the dealer put in RX floormats into an ES without hooking them in properly.

[donjalapeno]

shiiiieeeeeeeeeeet

[PiuYi]

epic

[Solo_D33A]

I'm sure Toyota will try hard to clear their name like their adverts on TV.

[The_AK]

putting on twitter tomorrow afternoon, lol

[FerrariEnzo]

woohoo

its time to buy a toyota car!


IMO, most people dont care what the reason is, if they hear the slightest thing about recalls, they will be all over that and try to get more money off or addons..

[EmperorIS]

FUCK YEAH

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/1...news_us_toyota

yahoo news still trying to make toyota sound like the bad guy ...
TOYOTA BLAMES?

[slammer111]

Man, I hope Toyota can recover quickly. This reminds me of Audi in the 80s. Took 'em 20 years to recover.

[Culverin]

I wonder how toyota stock has looked over the last year.
Looks like it's going to pick up again.

[InvisibleSoul]

Stupid drivers.

[Great68]

The whole gas pedal thing seems like it was blown completely out of proportion by the US government and media like a conspiracy to increase domestic brand sales.

[moky]

Originally Posted by Great68

The whole gas pedal thing seems like it was blown completely out of proportion by the US government and media like a conspiracy to increase domestic brand sales.

this. +1
it's funny too that all other recalls by other manufacturers like dodge or chrysler, had very minimal public coverage.

[Delerious]

Originally Posted by Great68

The whole gas pedal thing seems like it was blown completely out of proportion by the US government and media like a conspiracy to increase domestic brand sales.

Not only the government and the media, but soccer moms and attention whores. Having your toyota take off uncontrollably was the talk of the town and the way to get noticed.

The whole notion of it was brutal, especially because of what cars were having these 'stuck accelerators' or whatever; mainly because it would take the car 30 seconds to accelerate to any kind of dangerous speeds.

I really hope this doesn't affect toyota negatively for very long, they really don't deserve it.

[shenmecar]

how the hell can you mistaken the gas pedal for the brake pedal?!

[!LittleDragon]

Originally Posted by shenmecar

how the hell can you mistaken the gas pedal for the brake pedal?!

Old people do it all the time... lol... but in some cars, pedal placement is just bad. Pedals too close together or a tad too far to the left, etc. I notice sometimes in panic braking situations, I step on the gas pedal along with the brake pedal and the revs shoot up because the pedals are so close together. Good thing it's a stick and the clutch is disengaged when I brake.

[tool001]

[Phil@rise]

Regardless of vehicle malfunction or not in this case it comes down to common sense. If a driver is lacking in that department then vehicle issue or not the accident should rest squarely on their shoulders.
If you're car suddenly begins accelerating stomp on the brakes and shut down the car or slip it into neutral.
If a driver doesn't have the basic understanding to do this they should not be driving. Today's society is all to willing to point at the person next to them and not the one looking back in the mirror.

[q0192837465]

The sad thing is that the bad stigma will stick around for a while. I know my family, who don't read the news too often, will still go around to tell their frds that Toyota cars r dangerous.

[TOPEC]

Originally Posted by Phil@rise

Regardless of vehicle malfunction or not in this case it comes down to common sense. If a driver is lacking in that department then vehicle issue or not the accident should rest squarely on their shoulders.
If you're car suddenly begins accelerating stomp on the brakes and shut down the car or slip it into neutral.
If a driver doesn't have the basic understanding to do this they should not be driving. Today's society is all to willing to point at the person next to them and not the one looking back in the mirror.

i agree with u on this, but unfortunately in the real world, 99.8% of the drivers out there wont know what to do or how to react when such situation is brought upon them. They all just freeze up and go wtfzomgwtfbbq, or better yet, DIAL 911, instead of doing the proper things to bring the car to a slow and controlled stop.

[FS1992EG]

Originally Posted by RX_Renesis

i agree with u on this, but unfortunately in the real world, 99.8% of the drivers out there wont know what to do or how to react when such situation is brought upon them. They all just freeze up and go wtfzomgwtfbbq, or better yet, DIAL 911, instead of doing the proper things to bring the car to a slow and controlled stop.

Placing the car in neutral and turning off the key is the logical thing to do, if you can't even do that, you should really think if you can even operate a moving vehicle in an emergency situation.

I fail all the us motorist who crashed there cars by themselves.

[twitchyzero]

The only defects proven to be true are those that have been outlined by Toyota itself – floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals that are slow to return to idle.

...wouldn't that still pose as a potential risk?

does anyone have source that the initial accident was caused by a RX mat in a ES?

[umpadupa]

Originally Posted by EmperorIS

FUCK YEAH

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/1...news_us_toyota

yahoo news still trying to make toyota sound like the bad guy ...
TOYOTA BLAMES?

wow yahoo is still being a bitch about this situation

[Phil@rise]

Originally Posted by RX_Renesis

i agree with u on this, but unfortunately in the real world, 99.8% of the drivers out there wont know what to do or how to react when such situation is brought upon them. They all just freeze up and go wtfzomgwtfbbq, or better yet, DIAL 911, instead of doing the proper things to bring the car to a slow and controlled stop.

That being said 99.8% of drivers should be taking the bus

[hk20000]

0.2% of the drivers remaining on the road out there should turn the roads into a network of racetracks like need for speed lol....that's 2 cars left on the road out of every 1000 currently on the road.

[jpark]

c-lais drive lots of lexus and toyotas that explains why its the driver error.. go figure