Toyota’s president signalled yesterday that he would skip a hearing by US lawmakers next week over the auto giant’s mass vehicle recalls as Washington steps up its investigation into the crisis.
The Japanese giant, pulling millions of vehicles worldwide due to faulty accelerator and brake systems, said it was also now investigating possible steering problems with the Corolla, the world’s top-selling car.
Seeking to restore confidence in its brand, Toyota said it would fit all new models with a system to cut engine power when the driver steps on the accelerator and brake pedals at the same time, to prevent runaway car crashes.
Toyota said its president, Akio Toyoda, would head a task force to improve quality control and enable the group to respond more quickly to reports of defects.
But the Toyota family scion, whoo has come under fire for his handling of the safety problems, indicated that he has no plan to appear before US lawmakers on Wednesday — one of several planned congressional hearings on the matter.
Instead Toyoda said he would give “maximum support” to his senior executives, including North America chief Yoshimi Inaba, who are due to be grilled by US lawmakers next week.
“I am sure they are well equipped to well respond to the questions and concerns of congressmen,” he told a news conference, his third this month on the safety issues that have tarnished the company’s once-glowing reputation.
Toyoda added, however, that if he was formally invited to appear before Congress he would consider doing so.
US authorities on Tuesday demanded that the world’s largest carmaker hand over documents to prove it did not drag its feet in recalling the vehicles once it learnt about defects that can lead to unintended acceleration.
Toyoda denied his company had ever covered up safety defects.
“We have not withheld information and we shall not do so in the future,” Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, told a news conference.
US President Barack Obama’s Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has vowed “to hold Toyota’s feet to the fire” to make sure its cars are safe.
Toyota has pledged to fix more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of the safety problems.
In a fresh blow to the company’s reputation for reliability, the US auto safety watchdog asked Toyota to hand over documents “to determine if the automaker conducted three of its recent recalls in a timely manner.”
Investigators will probe how the manufacturer learned of the defects in the recalled Toyota and Lexus vehicles and when the problems were discovered, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.
In response to the agency’s request, Toyota said it took “responsibility to advance vehicle safety seriously and to alert government officials of any safety issue in a timely manner.”
“We are reviewing NHTSA’s request and will cooperate to provide all the information they have requested,” the company said.
Toyota is also investigating a possible defect in the power steering of its best-selling Corolla model and will recall it if found to be faulty, executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki said.
“If this is a defect, we will start recalls,” he said. “We are in the process of investigating, but the number of complaints is less than 100.”
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite