Opinion: Five Questions For Ray LaHood

It took ten months. It was about the best minds in the nation. They performed extensive tests. And God knows what it all cost. But when it was over, the results were entirely predictable. could not find the U.S. Department of Transportation's nothing wrong with Toyota vehicles, they leave suddenly would accelerate out of control.
The results were predictable, because the country went through the same old, almost a quarter century. Only then we went to Audi. And in both cases, each car company has to have some kind of mysterious gremlin cause to accelerate his car would suddenly charged out of control.
But there is a significant difference between the two studies. At that time, Department of Transportation pushed it to driving errors. Officially, they called it "pedal misapplication." But this time, the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood would not do that. He said it was caused by mechanical problems, ie, sticky pedals and floor mats piled up.
Too bad that the secretary does not have the courage to call it what it is. By identifying the cause of the problem, more people are going to lose their lives.

Report: Toyota pushing to dismiss sudden acceleration class action over NASA findings

Toyota has called down a lawsuit, the unintended acceleration as the cause of several accidents and a higher than normal reduction in resale value. Due to the recent findings of NASA, Toyota has now rejected more ammunition for their legal efforts to these allegations.

The automaker already tried this case have already been released in November 2010. At the time, presented the Judge James Selna the suit went to the detection of Toyota was dismissed. But this time, Toyota has conducted the research jointly by the space experts from NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that there is no electronic blame for the phenomenon of unintended acceleration debt armed.

Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota?

What price a good reputation? That's what Toyota will be in the coming months and years to learn how it wrapped up by the security scandal, the company since it announced the first recall of unintended acceleration in October 2009.Going into recession, certainly no company better suited appeared again fighting for the perfect storm as the Japanese giant, which has positioned itself as a market leader in quality, reliability and dependability, or talk in the industry, QRD, and the benchmark for green mobility had weather. Once displaced General Motors as the world's king-of-the-Hill, seemed to Asian automakers unstoppable.

But nearly seven years ago I wrote a column suggesting Toyota may be the next GM if they are not careful, and even as the company's sales growth continues, there were subtle signs of trouble in sight - especially in his slipping on the quality charts .

But few of the sudden acceleration of crisis, or the number of additional would be recalled that, months have followed expected for months. In 2010, it was not a single Toyota model that is not on the recall list, landed at least once - some several times.

Mommy blogger makes trouble for Toyota

Toyota has seen more than its fair share of negative press over the past year and a half, but the Japanese automaker is ready to "Mommy Blogger" pay to spread positive messages? Mom website reported love Crissy to have an e-mail with a $ 10 Amazon gift card in exchange for a contribution, that the fact National that the Highway Traffic Safety Administration no software problems that found the company unintended acceleration suffering led Highlights .
The e-mail that supposedly came from a company called Mama networks cited Toyota damaged reputation by "helping to spread the good news." The email asked for a blog post about NHTSA Release with links to some articles, some Love on social networking sites and "thumbs up" votes for YouTube videos.
For his part, denies Toyota, something to do with the offer, adding that the company has "committed to the highest standards in dealing with the media, journalists and bloggers, and we find any kind of payment for editorials or blogs, unethical and illegal under FCC rules. "
Dear Crissy since an update indicating that the website published by both Network Mommy and Toyota, both of which are not connected with each other to claim contacted. Mommy Networks has since been increased to a mea culpa on his site and well Crissy Toyota Post.

Report: Toyota image gets big boost after NASA findings revealed

It does not take much to change the opinion of the masses, obviously. Automotive News reports that it lasted only for two days for Toyota to a rebound of his call to NASA engineers cleared to see the company of any error in its electronic vehicle software. As you may recall, who have so-called Department of Transportation in some of the best minds of the country's space program, a look at the issues surrounding the series of unintended acceleration liability claims against Toyota vehicles. The engineers could not find anything that would indicate an electronic problem as the culprit.

What did they find? As it turns out, NASA investigation, said at the same offender, as both Toyota and the Department of Transportation. Instances of unintended acceleration have been caused by sticky pedals, floor mats interference or good old-fashioned pedal misapplication is.

Automotive News reports that, according to YouGov / brand index, a company that saw the customer perception of the most popular brands contain, Toyota a significant boost to its reputation in the days following the announcement.

Toyota, meanwhile, says that the company does not view the results as a victory. Instead, the news just validation of what the car companies believed to be true all the time.

Feds find no evidence of faulty electronics in Toyota models

The continuing saga of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles has taken a new turn today as Transport Minister Ray LaHood issued a statement that no evidence was found for electronic problems in Runaway Toyotas.
"The jury is back. The verdict is in. There are no electronic-based cause of unwanted high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period." LaHood said in prepared statement. This finding is at the end of a 10-month investigation conducted jointly by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA, which was conducted by asking the Congress.
Over 280,000 separate lines of code in the electronics of the potentially affected vehicles Toyota were embedded by NASA, which may cause any acceleration of any errors contained outliers examined, the report said.
This is not to say that the government has found that Toyota is not at fault in any way. LaHood added, "Our conclusion - that Toyota, the problems were mechanical, electrical not come -. undertaken according to final, thorough and intensive research effort ever '
This mechanical problems, namely sticky throttle and pedals, which was caught under faulty floor mats "will remain the only known causes for this type of unsafe incidents of unintended acceleration," said NHTSA. It should prove interesting to see how the courts - to respond to these findings - both public opinion and law.