Toyota CEO Jim Lentz Questioned On Lack Of Safety Measures In Toyota Cars

After losing a motion to prevent him from appearing, Toyota Motor Corporation’s CEO for North America, Jim Lentz took the witness stand in a lawsuit filed by the survivors of a woman who was killed when her Camry allegedly sped out of control and hit a tree after it was hit by another car, whose driver is a co-defendant in the case. One issue in the court case is why Toyota did not equip Noriko Uno’s car with a brake override system that automatically closes the throttle when the brakes are applied.

Lentz answered questions posed by the plaintiffs’ attorney in regard to how the company marketed the system when it did start making it available. Toyota branded the system as “smart stop”, apparently rejecting “safe stop”, according to internal Toyota documents plaintiffs obtained as part of the discovery process.

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pepito66 - 8/28/2013 4:25:37 PM

+1 Boost

This is nothing new.

quizz - 8/28/2013 8:26:46 PM

+1 Boost

Toyota is no different than the next Fortune 500 company run by accountants and attorneys. If Tesla grows to become a high volume company, it will be just like the rest.

Occarnut - 8/28/2013 10:09:48 PM

+1 Boost

The elephant in the room here and one that Toyota can never acknowlege is that is that Toyexus drivers simply CANNOT DRIVE. Anybody with a pulse and that is alert on the road can see that they have no regard for road ettiquette and are unaware of their surroundings. Spend time on any road or freeway and you will see that they consistently (yes I can sterortype here) hang in the left lane below the average speed of traffic forcing other frustrated drivers to engage in dangerous manuevers to get around them, leave waayyyyy too much space between themselves and the car ahead of them causing more dangeroud manuevers as people try to fill the space and in general do a thousand other irresponsible moves...hardly any speed related so they assume they are good drivers. Toyta could never say such a thing though all know it. A quick study of Toyexus demographics reveal an aging (Lincoln-esque) owner base..more Lexus than Toyota..but a problem that us other drivers have to suffer through. I dismiss the market share "aregument" because at even a 50% marketshare (exageration) I still seee dumb moves by 95% of Toyexus' on the road.So no wonder they cannot react to an emergency situation..they can barely handle every day traffic flow. Go ahead and blast my post..but then keep your eyes open on the road and you will see that I am correct...unless of course..you happen to be a Toyexus driver.

Thegeek - 8/28/2013 10:42:54 PM

+1 Boost

OccarNUT, you are not only misguided, but your very ignorant indeed. You are saying that Toyota and Lexus drivers simply cannot drive. First, I must express that your English and spelling is atrocious. Your very first sentence reads "is that is that Toyexus drivers..." Did you ever take an English or spelling course in school? Obviously you did not. You are obviously jealous of how successful Toyota is. You cannot understand why there are so many Toyota vehicles on the road, including so many older ones with probably well over 150,000 miles. You are saying that GM (Government Motors), Ford, Chrysler, VW or whatever, drivers, all CAN DRIVE, correct? You are saying there are no left-left dicks that drive Government Motors, Ford, Chrysler or VW, etc. You are indeed very ignorant not only in English and spelling, but obviously very ignorant regarding motor vehicles as well.

Agent009 - 8/29/2013 10:33:53 AM

+1 Boost

The omission of the features in the US was stupid.

Think about it, It is a common feature. You actually have it in other countries, you omit it in the largest market in the world where EVERYONE is lawsuit happy.

The bean counters obviously never looked at the risks