Toyota on Monday sought to discredit fears over the automaker’s electronics, but was forced onto the defensive hours later when a Prius went speeding out of control along a California highway.
The Japanese automaker insisted that the mechanical fixes it is applying to more than 8 million vehicles recalled worldwide are sufficient and that its tests are rigorous. It empaneled engineers from Stanford University and a top consulting firm to dismiss as “unrealistic” and contrived a study showing crossed wires could send a false signal that would cause Toyota cars to speed out of control.
David Gilbert, a professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University, told a US congressional investigation last month that some Toyota and Lexus vehicles may have an electronics design flaw.
Toyota dismissed his findings, saying he had re-engineered and rewired the signals from the accelerator pedal in order to create the flaw rather than analyzing “real world” evidence.
“If an electrical system is re-engineered and rewired it’s not surprising that subsequent testing of the system may cause unrealistic results,” Toyota spokesman Mike Michaels told reporters.
US regulators said last week they had received more than 60 complaints from Toyota owners reporting sudden unintended acceleration despite having their recalled vehicle repaired by a Toyota dealer. Toyota is in the process of investigating those complaints and has found that some of the incidents were a result of incomplete repairs, Michaels told reporters.
Yet just hours after Toyota’s criticism of Gilbert’s findings, the company was grappling with another public relations nightmare after a runaway Prius drama in California.
James Sikes, 61, was driving on the busy Interstate 8 freeway outside San Diego when he noticed his car was starting to accelerate of its own accord, the California Highway Patrol said.
The terrified motorist’s car raced along the road at speeds of more than 144kph. Tragedy was only averted after Sikes was able to call police and officers using a loudspeaker talked the driver through the process of slowing down by using his emergency brake and then turning off the engine.
Police then pulled in front of the car as it decelerated and rolled to a stop and put the rear bumper of the squad car against the front of the Prius.
“I was on the brakes pretty healthy,” Sikes told NBC San Diego. “It wasn’t stopping, it wasn’t doing anything to it, and just kept speeding up.”
Toyota later issued a statement saying technical specialists had been sent to San Diego “to investigate the report and offer assistance.”
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