Toyota rebuked for issuing inaccurate and misleading information about a safety recall

Toyota Motor Corp. received a reprimand from federal safety regulators for stating earlier this week that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that “no defect exists in vehicles with properly installed floor mats.” In the agency’s official statement to correct the misinformation, it said matter-of-factly that Toyota vehicles have a “very serious defect.”

The NHTSA, a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said that Toyota issued “inaccurate and misleading information” about a safety recall involving 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. NTHSA said that the accelerator and floor pan design of the vehicles created the risk for entrapment of the accelerator by the floor mats. Toyota has asked owners to remove the floor mats but NTHSA calls this as an interim measure that doesn’t correct the defect.
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agent507 - 11/6/2009 3:49:14 AM

+2 Boost

Here are my 2 cents:

The accelerator pedal in the affected Toyotas is mounted on top, underneath the cockpit. So, the "door stopper" effect is possible if the floor mat does not allow the applied accelerator pedal to swing back, once it is stuck. Therefore removing the floor mat is kind of a interim solution.

In many other cars you can see that the accelerator pedal is some kind of a “unit”, that sits directly on the floor carpet, and is mounted to the floor panel. There is physically now way that something can get stuck underneath to keep it floored.

There are ways to design a product where “misuse” (as I would call it) is possible. Now, if something gets stuck under an accelerator pedal designed the way described in paragraph 2, all that would happen is, that you cannot accelerate any more, but not the other way round.

wins555 - 11/7/2009 9:54:10 PM

+1 Boost

Driver error? Cruise control was engaged? Not familiar with the loaner vehicle?