Page 2 - Electronic Throttle Control News Today

Conclude in many of those cases driver error was to blame. mike ramsey is one of the "wall street journal" reporters who broke this story. he joins us from southfield, michigan. mike, why dont you just summarize what exactly your report is saying. because you are not saying all of them, youre just talking about these ones that are not attributed to stuck gas pedals or floor mats stuck to the accelerator. right? >> right. the important thing here is that a couple weeks ago, the department of tran...

Speculation there was a computer glitch causing the sudden acceleration, a lot of experts weighed in on that, that barring any other information coming out of toyota, it has to be such. why, im asking you, did toyota wait to release this data or allow nhtsa to look at the data that would have exonerated them, perhaps, a long time ago? >> well, i think it is important here that toyota has all along claimed that they -- that their evidence shows that there is no evidence of electronic throttle con...

The brake. there is not a single instance confirmed of electronic failed control. >> a couple of weeks ago, the department of transportation says they continue to have no evidence that electronic throttle control is to blame. what they didnt say in their testing, downloads from crashed toyota vehicles, that measures what was going on in the vehicle at the time of the crash, that in cases where people had claimed that they were standing on the brake, that there was no way they could stop the car ...

The electronic controls, not the floor mats. >> is it your feeling that toyota has known about this problem for a long time and is only now addressing this issue, rather late in the game? >> as soon as toyota introduced the electronic throttle control in the 2002 model year, complaints shot up fourfold, insurance claims shot up on the vehicles and so the one common theme is electronic throttle controls and sudden acceleration go hand in hand. >> is it your feeling that people with any of these v...

Warning sign here and there, rather, we really have to become much more attentive in listening to the voices from the customers, and we want to provide something more convenient, easier to use, much better and higher technical capability, and we would like to strive for that. >> larry: have you come up, mr. toyoda, with a solution to the acceleration problem? do we definitively know why those cars accelerated? >> translator: well, they are four sort of categories of the cars. as i said earlier, ...

Cars. as i said earlier, the electronic throttle controls failure is one, and the other one is the way in which the car is driven and structural of the vehicle, for example, the relation or the location of the axle, pedal, axle and the brake pedal, or there may have been the problems with the parts and components, so i would say roughly those four categories. the etc, electronic throttle control, as far as our investigation goes, they did not present any problems, however, unfortunately, in real...

Pedal, or there may have been the problems with the parts and components, so i would say roughly those four categories. the etc, electronic throttle control, as far as our investigation goes, they did not present any problems, however, unfortunately, in reality there are accidents in the world, and so we would like to work together with various people and continue to pursue what could possibly cause these problems. and other things -- >> larry: im sorry. go ahead. >> translator: -- we are instal...

Capability and we would like to strive for that. >> larry: have you come up, mr. toyoda, with a solution to the acceleration problem? do we definitively know why those cars accelerated? >> translator: well, they are four sort of categories of the cars. as i said earlier, the electronic throttle controls failure is one, and the other one is the way in which the car is driven, and structural of the vehicle, for example, the relation or the location of the axle, pedal, axle and the brake pedal or t...

Have been recalled worldwide. what do you do for your customers now? >> translator: first of all, to our customers, i would like to say that toyota vehicles are safe. for example, customers are perhaps most concerned about unintended acceleration. and they might be concerned about our electronic throttle control system may have a problem, but i am here to explain to the american people that our engineers tried to reproduce those problems, alleged problems, and theyve been working very hard, and ...

If so, answer in the affirmative. >> larry: wewere back with aki toyoda, the president and ceo of toyota motor company. you discussed taking responsibility. what do you do, mr. toyoda, with that responsibility? more than 8 million vehicles have been recalled worldwide. what do you do for your customers now? >> translator: first of all, to our customers i would like to say that toyota vehicles are safe. for example, customers are perhaps most concerned about unintended acceleration, and they migh...