Department of Transportation engineers have combed over the black-box recorder data for dozens of fatal crashes involving Toyotas in which "unintended acceleration" was alleged. And in all but one instance, DOT staffers have confirmed that the driver confused the gas pedal for the brake pedal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
That one exception is the sad story of California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor and his family. Rather than pedal confusion, the culprit in that fatal accident involving a Lexus ES 350 dealer courtesy car was indeed an ill-fitting driver floor mat belonging to an RX 400h. Toyota and Lexus subsequently initiated a widescale floor mat recall. The "sticky" throttle pedal recall is a separate issue and was not a factor in any of the 75 "unintended acceleration" crashes.
The DOT's findings don't let Toyota off the hook for any of the recent recalls, but for the moment, they suggest it might be a good idea to take a step back from the fear-mongering over electronic throttles. Mind you, there are good reasons to dislike drive-by-wire, but now it appears that Toyota Camrys and Priuses have met the same fate as the Audi 5000, and last time we checked, that car had a throttle cable.
Wall Street Journal (sub.req'd)
kevm14 says:
01:08 PM, 07/13/10
However, this won't damage Toyota's reputation like it damaged Audi's and that is mainly because Toyota's are much more reliable than Audi's. A lot more dull, though...and I wouldn't buy either so don't go by me...
fuhteng says:
01:40 PM, 07/13/10
What a shock. Idiots can't drive, and when they have an issue they blame someone else. Sadly, it is the American way.
fuhteng says:
01:41 PM, 07/13/10
What a shock. Idiots can't drive, and when they have an issue they blame someone else. Sadly, it is the American way.
csubowtie says:
01:51 PM, 07/13/10
As much as I like seeing Toyota's perfect reliability (as opposed to domestics) take a hit, I can say I am not at all suprised by these findings. I find it much easier to believe that idiots couldn't drive properly than to believe well educated engineers failed on such a basic level. Many follow up reports proved there are numerous ways to stop a toyota or any other car even with the throttle pinned. And yet our good 'ol American Legislaters are going to work on laws dictating more mandatory safety crap for the OE's instead of focusing on the clear and obvious problem that is today's apathy and lack of responsibility in the general public.
desmolicious says:
02:40 PM, 07/13/10
How are recalls determined?
I ask because the Lexus 250 hybrid was recently recalled because it could spill gas in a collision.
But the new Mustang often leaks gas through its filler in hard cornering. And yet there is no recall for that.
bimmerjay says:
03:41 PM, 07/13/10
Was this really a surprise? No one, not even Toyota, was able to duplicate the problem of UI. And the "sticky" pedal problem shouldn't have caused the accidents that were coming out of the woodwork.
As usual it's the fault of the moronic American public.
brn says:
03:44 PM, 07/13/10
All but one? Bullshit.
I'm willing to believe that most were not the fault of Toyota. I'm not willing to believe that all but one are a specific case of hitting the wrong pedal. Some were stuck gas pedals. Some were probably people lying. Some were something else.
ed124c says:
03:47 PM, 07/13/10
Suspicions confirmed.
All the opportunists who cried "unintended acceleration" should pay damages to Toyota-- and that includes a lot of so-called experts as well as some members of Congress.
I hope this is the end of it.
jonthecarguy says:
04:15 PM, 07/13/10
Not surprised. People are idiots! This was an opportunity for most people to grab a buck and the Toyota haters to have something the squawk about.
jonthecarguy says:
04:17 PM, 07/13/10
Oh and I wonder if ALL the media that slammed Toyota over the past few months will report these findings as much...???
m89 says:
04:20 PM, 07/13/10
I'm glad that they finally realized it was poor driving that caused those incidents, not sticky gas pedals. Still, I do believe it was a good wake up call for Toyota as they clearly were not investigating this issue throughly in the first place until the government got involved. It was a costly lesson for Toyota, but one that needed to be learned. A good way to prevent a floor mat from sticking to the gas pedal though in the first place would be to have a bottom mounted gas pedal (like Mercedes-Benz and BMW) which makes it almost impossible for the mat to get stuck by the gas pedal.
Also on a sidenote, I agree with the article's writer that there are many good reasons to dislike drive-by-wire. For example, I've been driving my mother's Mazda 3 lately instead of my older Merc as she has been unable to drive, and I find that most electronic throttles (at least most of the ones I've driven including the Mazda) don't feel as connected to the engine as a cable throttle pedal does. Mind you the Mazda 3 itself feels very artificial to drive in the first place compared to a lot of cars, however it's not the only newer model car out there that feels artificial and isolated on the road.
acbayard says:
07:01 PM, 07/13/10
@brn
The pedals don't get "stuck" - they are slow to return after full depression, which usually don't cause accidents.
roadburner says:
07:39 PM, 07/13/10
This won't stop the shysters from trying to win a litigation jackpot.
Worthless parasites.
greenpony says:
08:00 PM, 07/13/10
L
O
L
stovt001 says:
08:48 PM, 07/13/10
What about the guy who managed to get the car into the dealership by shuffling between drive and neutral, and left it revving with the dealer, who confirmed it. Did the invisible passenger mix up pedals too? I find it hard to believe that only one incident was linked to a malfunction. Every other media outlet reporting on this is reporting that some of the incidents were driver error, which we all knew. The ones outside the reality distortion field were reporting on a huge surge in UA incidents with Toyota vehicles before this became a mainstream panic to be exploited. The problem is, now everyone is going to take this as proof that nothing ever goes wrong with a Toyota, ever, and once again we'll be subjected to the insufferable fanboys and media telling us that Toyota should be the only company allowed to make cars because they're more reliable than anyone else.
mschmal says:
04:34 AM, 07/14/10
When you specifically market cars to non-car people, you can expect them to be lousy drivers.
lostboyz says:
05:05 AM, 07/14/10
This is only talking about the cars that ended up crashing, it doesnt say all the reports of unintended acceleration.
This isn't news either, 90% of all unintended acceleration cases for the past 20 years have been from people pushing the wrong pedal.
chochmastergen says:
06:22 AM, 07/14/10
This shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm sure everyones done this before in one way or another. Pulling into or leaving a parking spot and hitting the gas instead of the brake or putting it in reverse or neutral instead of drive. Happens to everyone at some point. For these people it just happened going down the road at speed.
What's also not surprising is that people would want to capitalize on a perceived opportunity to cash in. Just look at that Prius guy from awhile back who faked his runaway Prius.
I don't care for Toyota anymore than the next guy, but anyone who tried to get money out of them from this should have the book thrown back at them.
roadburner says:
07:31 AM, 07/14/10
An idiot woman in Louisville, KY is trying to shakedown GM with a preposterous story about her "runaway" Chevy Equinox:
http://www.whas11.com/home/Driver-of-alleged-runaway-car-describes-ordeal-96529259.html
Note that she claims that she's not interested in a monetary settlement. By sheer coincidencet she retained one of Louisville's prominent trial attorneys- and he's already in the process of trying to collect from GM.
inlinesix says:
08:29 AM, 07/14/10
Stupid people are everywhere!
1487 says:
10:24 AM, 07/14/10
if I'm reading this correctly its saying that the black boxes confirm that the brake pedals were not being pressed while the throttle was wide open. All that proves is that people who claimed the brakes wouldnt stop the car werent telling the truth. I'm not sure how the black box data proves that all these indidencts were caused by the drivers. Even if that were the case none of those elated over this news have bothered to offer an explanation as to why Toyota owners would be much more likely than other drivers to have this nonexistent problem.
Are we to believe that Toyota owners conspired to lie in order to bring down Mighty Toyota?
lostboyz says:
10:35 AM, 07/14/10
@1487
there are plenty of UI cases every year, and almost all of them are determined to be user error. Its when you get correlating data that NHTSA investigates it, but when they announce an investigation there are people that will come out of the woodwork that want to claim UI as well. There was even some guy in prison who killed someone while driving his 95 camry, he wanted to claim UI on the same issue. This article isn't saying there is no problem, its saying that it has (obviously) been blown way out of proportion by both oppurtunist toyota owners and media outlets.
andrew20 says:
10:55 AM, 07/14/10
Driver's license test should include IQ test.
andrew20 says:
10:56 AM, 07/14/10
Driver's license test should include IQ test.
brn says:
03:41 PM, 07/14/10
I was just watching NBC news. It turns out the Feds are still conducting tests and as such they are far from drawing a conclusion. The Wall Street Journal was completely out of line by publishing any kind of conclusion.
bodyblue says:
04:25 PM, 07/14/10
"All but one? Bullshit."
BINGO
hollowtek says:
04:46 PM, 07/14/10
+1 @ fuhteng. you stole the words right out of my mouth.
jm1212 says:
07:27 PM, 07/14/10
well, at least they went above and beyond with fixing the problem and made Lexus models that dont stop and have steering that takes on a life of its own.
hollowtek says:
11:30 PM, 07/14/10
What can I say? This is just what to expect from a country with a corporatocracy.
to626n says:
01:48 AM, 07/15/10
1487,
Since this article does not completely elaborate the DOT's findings, no one can say how they finally came to the conclusion that all but one of these incidents were the drivers fault.
Having said that, no one has been able to reduplicate unintended acceleration in any Toyota vehicle period. You would think if it were possible then someone would have figured it out by now and claim Edmunds' $1,000,000 grand prize.
brn says:
05:17 AM, 07/15/10
"Having said that, no one has been able to reduplicate unintended acceleration in any Toyota vehicle period. You would think if it were possible then someone would have figured it out by now and claim Edmunds' $1,000,000 grand prize."
I've said it time and time again. Toyota has replicated the sticking gas pedal. In fact they replicated it before the issue ever hit the media here. That's the reason they're in trouble. The Feds understand that stuff doesn't always work as designed, but they get pissed if you hide it.
Edmunds owes Toyota $1,000,000.
bimmerjay says:
12:36 PM, 07/15/10
"Toyota has replicated the sticking gas pedal."
And they couldn't get the cars with "sticky" gas pedals to accelerate unintentionally. At worst the engine returns to idle more slowly, as if you simply had less-sensitive switch or slower throttle calibration program.
Which is why it remains that the "problem" has not been able to be duplicated. Edmunds owes Toyota nothing.