Toyota admite falla en frenos del Prius
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BBC Mundo
La revisión de millones de vehículos en todo el mundo le costará US$2.000 millones.
Primero fueron los aceleradores. Y ahora los frenos del modelo Prius. La automotriz japonesa Toyota no tiene respiro por estos días. Sin embargo, la empresa reportó beneficios por US$1.700 millones. Eso a pesar de que la revisión de ocho millones de vehículos en todo el mundo le costará US$2.000 millones.
Toyota admitió este jueves problemas con el pedal del freno del Prius, su último modelo híbrido. Dijo que había rediseñado el sistema de frenado para este modelo y que pronto anunciará medidas para los vehículos que ya están en circulación.
Los directivos de Toyota minimizaron esos posibles fallos, los calificaron de "un problema de software" y aseguraron que no se trata de un problema mecánico. Sin embargo, no descartaron una retirada de los vehículos.
clic Lea: "La reputación de Toyota se verá dañada"
La Agencia para la Seguridad del Tráfico de Estados Unidos (NHTSA, por sus siglas en inglés) abrió una investigación formal luego de que el Departamento de Transporte recibiera 124 reportes de fallas en los frenos del Prius, que habrían causado cuatro accidentes.
Pérdidas y ganancias
Retiradas de Toyota
Septiembre 2007, EE.UU.: 55.000 Camry y Lexus - alfrombilla
Octubre 2009, EE.UU.: 3,8 millones Toyota y Lexus - alfombrilla
Noviembre 2009, EE.UU.: la retirada por problemas con la alfombrilla alcanza los 4,3 millones de vehículos
Enero 2010, EE.UU.: 2,3 millones - acelerador (2,1 millones ya contemplados la retirada por la alfombrilla)
Enero 2010, EE.UU.: 1,1 millones - alfombrilla
Febrero 2010, Europa: 1,8 millones - acelerador
Febrero 2010, Japón/EE.UU.: 180 reportes de fallas en los frenos del Prius.
Esto ocurrió poco después de que el mayor productor de autos del mundo asegurara que la revisión a nivel mundial de ocho millones de autos y camiones debido a una falla en el pedal del acelerador le iba a costar a la compañía US$2.000 millones.
Y a pesar de la crisis, la companía anunció ganancias de casi US$1.700 millones en los últimos tres meses de 2009. Esa cifra, aseguran, ya incluye el costo de las revisiones y el impacto sobre las ventas.
Toyota revisó sus pronósticos para el año fiscal -que termina en marzo- y aseguró que ahora espera obtener una ganancia de casi US$1.000 millones, en lugar de una pérdida que había augurado.
Más temprano, las acciones de la empresa alcanzaron su nivel más bajo en 10 meses en la bolsa de Tokio debido a preocupaciones en torno a la seguridad de los vehículos.
La automotriz se encuentra en el proceso de retirar para revisión millones de vehículos que potencialmente son propensos a registrar una aceleración incontrolada.
Retirada en México
Híbrido popular
Toyota vendió unos 1,5 millones de vehículos Prius en 40
países desde el lanzamiento de la primera versión en 1997. Es modelo híbrido más popular en el mundo.
La retirada de sus vehículos anunciada en Estados Unidos y Europa podría extenderse a América Latina, Medio Oriente y África. De hecho, en México ya anunciaron el retiro de 30.000 autos.
clic Toyota retirará 30.000 autos en México
Los modelos que serán llamados a revisar en México son: Radford, Matrix, Camry, Highlander, Tundra, Sequoia y Corolla, fabricados entre 2007 y 2010.
La empresa identificó ocho modelos que se encuentran potencialmente en riesgo en Europa y EE.UU., pero dejó claro que en realidad sólo unos pocos presentan defecto.
Entre los modelos llamados a revisión se encuentran el Yaris, el Corolla y el RAV4.
"El resultado inmediato de los retiros ha sido un inmenso daño a su reputación ya desprestigiada como un fabricante de automóviles de calidad", señaló Jorn Madslien, periodista de negocios de la BBC.
Toyota's Chief Steps Forward to Apologize
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By HIROKO TABUCHI and BILL VLASIC
Published: February 5, 2010
NAGOYA, JAPAN — When Akio Toyoda took control last summer of the company started by his grandfather, his challenge was to lead Toyota out of its worst financial crisis in half a century.
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Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press
"I deeply regret that I caused concern among so many people," Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, said at a news conference on Friday. "We will do our utmost to regain the trust of our customers."
Related
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Lawsuit Over a Crash Adds to Toyota's Difficulties (February 5, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
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The Takeaway With Hiroko Tabuchi
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That, it turned out, was the easy part.
Since last fall, Mr. Toyoda and his top United States executives have been struggling to find the words to calm consumers about the safety of Toyota's cars, and it is proving to be a far more difficult task than fixing the company's finances.
After the first big recall of Toyota vehicles last fall, Mr. Toyoda said publicly that the company was a step away from "capitulation to irrelevance or death." The company, he added, was "grasping for salvation."
He briefly apologized last week while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. And with concerns growing about safety issues in more models, he apologized again Friday at a hastily arranged news conference, where he said Toyota would establish a high-level committee to study the problems.
"I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe," he said.
But his statements are unlikely to quell the mounting concerns of Toyota owners, as well as American government officials.
A House committee will hold a hearing on Toyota safety in Washington next week, when the company will again be pressed publicly about its handling of safety issues.
The company has recalled about nine million cars worldwide, and reports are growing of fatal accidents involving possibly defective Toyota vehicles.
Communications experts said that so far, the company has failed to convey confidence that it has a plan to fix its problems.
"I am shocked at how badly they have handled this," said Paul A. Argenti, a professor of corporate communications at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. "You would expect a company of this size and stature to roll out a plan to repair problems that have the potential to bring this company down."
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda had delegated the task of reassuring American consumers to executives from the company's United States sales arm.
Last November, one of the executives, Robert S. Carter, tried to halt the crisis by saying that Toyota's only safety problem was floor mats in its cars that could interfere with the accelerator pedal.
Mr. Carter was almost immediately rebuked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which called his comments "misleading."
Then, on Monday, another American executive, James E. Lentz III, took the lead in announcing that the company had developed a fix for accelerator pedals that could stick in 2.3 million recalled vehicles.
However, Mr. Lentz's appearances on the "Today Show" and other news programs raised questions as to why Mr. Toyoda or other senior Japanese executives were unavailable to address the crisis, said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a Yale University professor and president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
By putting Mr. Lentz out front, Toyota was sending a regional sales executive to do a job that needed to be handled by the top management of the entire corporation, he said.
"By all accounts he's a good guy, but he doesn't have any of the operational reach or responsibilities to speak to most of these issues," Mr. Sonnenfeld said. Mr. Lentz is not well known even in auto circles. For many years, Toyota's American face was James E. Press, who was familiar to the national media and adept at both pitching cars and defending the company from critics.
But Mr. Press left the company in 2007 to join Chrysler, and another experienced marketing executive, James D. Farley, departed that same year to work for the Ford Motor Company.
Mr. Lentz "is not a known quantity, and he wasn't able to reassure people that this problem was being addressed," said Arthur C. Liebler, a former Chrysler vice president and top communications adviser to Lee Iacocca.
Mr. Liebler recalled how Mr. Iacocca used his personality and fame to Chrysler's advantage when the company faced a scandal of selling used cars as new models in the 1980s.
"Lee attacked it head-on by saying, 'We screwed up, we made a mistake, and we're going to fix it,' " Mr. Liebler added.
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda's only public comment since the second major recall was an apology that came in a brief interview with a Japanese broadcaster on the sidelines of the economic forum in Davos.
"What is he doing in Davos anyway?" said Mr. Argenti of the Tuck School of Business. "If you've got a crisis of this magnitude, you get on a plane and you go to the scene of the problem."
At his news conference Friday, Mr. Toyoda signaled after about 30 minutes that he was ready to leave until reporters implored him to stay.
At one point, he balked at answering a question about whether the company has ever withheld information related to safety concerns. "Toyota is committed to safety," he said.
Asked why he would not be attending Congressional hearings, Mr. Toyoda said, "Whoever attends from Toyota, we speak with one voice."
At next Wednesday's hearing, that voice is expected to be Yoshimi Inaba, a veteran company executive who is responsible for all of Toyota's North American operations.
Mr. Sonnenfeld said Mr. Toyoda himself should be at the hearings.
"The person who's accountable is the C.E.O.," he said. "He needs to be here."
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Nagoya, Japan, and Bill Vlasic from Detroit. Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Detroit.
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By HIROKO TABUCHI and BILL VLASIC
Published: February 5, 2010
NAGOYA, JAPAN — When Akio Toyoda took control last summer of the company started by his grandfather, his challenge was to lead Toyota out of its worst financial crisis in half a century.
Enlarge This Image
Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press
"I deeply regret that I caused concern among so many people," Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, said at a news conference on Friday. "We will do our utmost to regain the trust of our customers."
Related
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Lawsuit Over a Crash Adds to Toyota's Difficulties (February 5, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
Post a Comment »
The Takeaway With Hiroko Tabuchi
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Toyota Motor Corp
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Readers' Comments
Share your thoughts.
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Read All Comments (242) »
That, it turned out, was the easy part.
Since last fall, Mr. Toyoda and his top United States executives have been struggling to find the words to calm consumers about the safety of Toyota's cars, and it is proving to be a far more difficult task than fixing the company's finances.
After the first big recall of Toyota vehicles last fall, Mr. Toyoda said publicly that the company was a step away from "capitulation to irrelevance or death." The company, he added, was "grasping for salvation."
He briefly apologized last week while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. And with concerns growing about safety issues in more models, he apologized again Friday at a hastily arranged news conference, where he said Toyota would establish a high-level committee to study the problems.
"I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe," he said.
But his statements are unlikely to quell the mounting concerns of Toyota owners, as well as American government officials.
A House committee will hold a hearing on Toyota safety in Washington next week, when the company will again be pressed publicly about its handling of safety issues.
The company has recalled about nine million cars worldwide, and reports are growing of fatal accidents involving possibly defective Toyota vehicles.
Communications experts said that so far, the company has failed to convey confidence that it has a plan to fix its problems.
"I am shocked at how badly they have handled this," said Paul A. Argenti, a professor of corporate communications at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. "You would expect a company of this size and stature to roll out a plan to repair problems that have the potential to bring this company down."
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda had delegated the task of reassuring American consumers to executives from the company's United States sales arm.
Last November, one of the executives, Robert S. Carter, tried to halt the crisis by saying that Toyota's only safety problem was floor mats in its cars that could interfere with the accelerator pedal.
Mr. Carter was almost immediately rebuked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which called his comments "misleading."
Then, on Monday, another American executive, James E. Lentz III, took the lead in announcing that the company had developed a fix for accelerator pedals that could stick in 2.3 million recalled vehicles.
However, Mr. Lentz's appearances on the "Today Show" and other news programs raised questions as to why Mr. Toyoda or other senior Japanese executives were unavailable to address the crisis, said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a Yale University professor and president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
By putting Mr. Lentz out front, Toyota was sending a regional sales executive to do a job that needed to be handled by the top management of the entire corporation, he said.
"By all accounts he's a good guy, but he doesn't have any of the operational reach or responsibilities to speak to most of these issues," Mr. Sonnenfeld said. Mr. Lentz is not well known even in auto circles. For many years, Toyota's American face was James E. Press, who was familiar to the national media and adept at both pitching cars and defending the company from critics.
But Mr. Press left the company in 2007 to join Chrysler, and another experienced marketing executive, James D. Farley, departed that same year to work for the Ford Motor Company.
Mr. Lentz "is not a known quantity, and he wasn't able to reassure people that this problem was being addressed," said Arthur C. Liebler, a former Chrysler vice president and top communications adviser to Lee Iacocca.
Mr. Liebler recalled how Mr. Iacocca used his personality and fame to Chrysler's advantage when the company faced a scandal of selling used cars as new models in the 1980s.
"Lee attacked it head-on by saying, 'We screwed up, we made a mistake, and we're going to fix it,' " Mr. Liebler added.
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda's only public comment since the second major recall was an apology that came in a brief interview with a Japanese broadcaster on the sidelines of the economic forum in Davos.
"What is he doing in Davos anyway?" said Mr. Argenti of the Tuck School of Business. "If you've got a crisis of this magnitude, you get on a plane and you go to the scene of the problem."
At his news conference Friday, Mr. Toyoda signaled after about 30 minutes that he was ready to leave until reporters implored him to stay.
At one point, he balked at answering a question about whether the company has ever withheld information related to safety concerns. "Toyota is committed to safety," he said.
Asked why he would not be attending Congressional hearings, Mr. Toyoda said, "Whoever attends from Toyota, we speak with one voice."
At next Wednesday's hearing, that voice is expected to be Yoshimi Inaba, a veteran company executive who is responsible for all of Toyota's North American operations.
Mr. Sonnenfeld said Mr. Toyoda himself should be at the hearings.
"The person who's accountable is the C.E.O.," he said. "He needs to be here."
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Nagoya, Japan, and Bill Vlasic from Detroit. Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Detroit.
Lawsuit Over a Crash Adds to Toyota's Difficulties
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By BILL VLASIC
Published: February 4, 2010
FLINT, Mich. — The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.
Enlarge This Image
LOVED ONE LOST The family of Guadalupe Alberto has filed a lawsuit against Toyota in her death. More Photos »
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A Death Prompts an Inquiry
Related
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Wheels: Apple Co-Founder: My Prius Has a Problem, Too
Toyota Posts Profit in Quarter Before Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Toyota's Chief Steps Forward to Apologize (February 6, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
Post a Comment »
The Takeaway With Bill Vlasic
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Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Mrs. Alberto's husband, Abraham, worked at General Motors. More Photos >
It was a Saturday afternoon, April 19, 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree.
Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly, leaving her family stunned at how such an accident could happen to someone who was in good health, never had a speeding ticket and so hated driving fast that she avoided taking the freeway.
Her car was not among the millions of Camry models and other Toyotas recently recalled for sticky accelerator pedals. And it also did not have floor mats at the time, which were part of a separate recall.
Instead, the crash is now being looked at as a possible example of problems with the electronic system that controls the throttle and engine speed in Toyotas.
Such computerized systems are part of a broader inquiry by federal regulators into problems with sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyotas, beyond the issues that have led to the company's recent recalls. Toyota denies there is a problem with such systems.
In a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Genesee County, Mich., Mrs. Alberto's family claims that Toyota and one of its suppliers, the Japanese firm Denso, were negligent in manufacturing an electronic throttle system that caused her death.
"We think Toyota has a safety problem with the electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models," said Eric Snyder, a lawyer for the family.
The case materials include a rare deposition from a Toyota executive about how the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed to categorize different accidents when the agency investigated throttle control issues in 2004 on certain models.
For example, according to the deposition, the 2004 investigation excluded incidents of high-speed acceleration lasting several seconds from a larger universe of low-speed incidents of engine speed increasing briefly.
In his deposition — part of the public case file provided to The New York Times by the Albertos' lawyer — the Toyota executive, Christopher Santucci, said the company did not provide details of high-speed incidents because federal regulators had not requested them.
He also testified that the electronic throttle control system in Mrs. Alberto's 2005 Camry was similar to the computer equipment in other Toyotas now under recall for sticky pedals and unsecured floor mats.
Toyota said on Monday that it had found no problems with its throttle control system, which it began using in 2002. "It is not an electronics issue," said James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota's United States sales division.
But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that federal regulators will "continue to look" into whether Toyota's electronic systems pose a safety concern.
Mrs. Alberto's accident has drawn comparisons to the fiery crash that killed an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, Mark Saylor, and three members of his family in August. In that case, witnesses said that the Lexus sedan that Mr. Saylor was driving was going more than 100 miles an hour before crashing near San Diego.
In both cases, witnesses said the cars appeared to be steadily increasing in speed until the accident.
Lilia Alberto, a daughter of Mrs. Alberto, said her mother was a cautious driver who never had a traffic violation. "Something caused this car to trigger the throttle to open all the way and make the car start speeding," she said in an interview.
In response to the lawsuit, Toyota wrote that it "denies any and all allegations of defect" and that the company was in any way responsible for her death. A company spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.
Mrs. Alberto was a Honduran immigrant who settled in Flint with her husband, Abraham, and family in the 1960s. Mr. Alberto worked for 26 years for General Motors at its huge Buick City factory, and his wife worked for 15 years at a G.M. truck plant.
After the couple left G.M. in the early 1990s, they ran a small, neighborhood grocery in a downtrodden section of Flint. The store has a large piece of bulletproof glass separating the customers from family members working the cash register.
The Camry was a Christmas present to Mrs. Alberto from one of her daughters, who thought her mother should stop driving her older-model Buick.
At first, Mrs. Alberto and her husband were chagrined to own a Toyota because of their deep ties to G.M. "I said, 'We don't want Toyota because we are from G.M.,' " Mr. Alberto, 82, said. "But they gave it to her as a present, and it was cheaper than the Buick LeSabre."
Despite her age, Mrs. Alberto worked regular hours in the store. "The day before the accident, she was in the store carrying cases of soda and stacking them," Douglas Alberto, a son, said.
At about 2 p.m. on that April day, Mrs. Alberto loaded her Camry with pots of spaghetti and shrimp to take to the store, where she planned to make dinner for her husband.
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By BILL VLASIC
Published: February 4, 2010
FLINT, Mich. — The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.
Enlarge This Image
LOVED ONE LOST The family of Guadalupe Alberto has filed a lawsuit against Toyota in her death. More Photos »
Multimedia
Photographs
A Death Prompts an Inquiry
Related
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Wheels: Apple Co-Founder: My Prius Has a Problem, Too
Toyota Posts Profit in Quarter Before Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Toyota's Chief Steps Forward to Apologize (February 6, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
Post a Comment »
The Takeaway With Bill Vlasic
Add to Portfolio
Toyota Motor Corp
Go to your Portfolio »
Enlarge This Image
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Mrs. Alberto's husband, Abraham, worked at General Motors. More Photos >
It was a Saturday afternoon, April 19, 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree.
Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly, leaving her family stunned at how such an accident could happen to someone who was in good health, never had a speeding ticket and so hated driving fast that she avoided taking the freeway.
Her car was not among the millions of Camry models and other Toyotas recently recalled for sticky accelerator pedals. And it also did not have floor mats at the time, which were part of a separate recall.
Instead, the crash is now being looked at as a possible example of problems with the electronic system that controls the throttle and engine speed in Toyotas.
Such computerized systems are part of a broader inquiry by federal regulators into problems with sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyotas, beyond the issues that have led to the company's recent recalls. Toyota denies there is a problem with such systems.
In a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Genesee County, Mich., Mrs. Alberto's family claims that Toyota and one of its suppliers, the Japanese firm Denso, were negligent in manufacturing an electronic throttle system that caused her death.
"We think Toyota has a safety problem with the electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models," said Eric Snyder, a lawyer for the family.
The case materials include a rare deposition from a Toyota executive about how the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed to categorize different accidents when the agency investigated throttle control issues in 2004 on certain models.
For example, according to the deposition, the 2004 investigation excluded incidents of high-speed acceleration lasting several seconds from a larger universe of low-speed incidents of engine speed increasing briefly.
In his deposition — part of the public case file provided to The New York Times by the Albertos' lawyer — the Toyota executive, Christopher Santucci, said the company did not provide details of high-speed incidents because federal regulators had not requested them.
He also testified that the electronic throttle control system in Mrs. Alberto's 2005 Camry was similar to the computer equipment in other Toyotas now under recall for sticky pedals and unsecured floor mats.
Toyota said on Monday that it had found no problems with its throttle control system, which it began using in 2002. "It is not an electronics issue," said James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota's United States sales division.
But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that federal regulators will "continue to look" into whether Toyota's electronic systems pose a safety concern.
Mrs. Alberto's accident has drawn comparisons to the fiery crash that killed an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, Mark Saylor, and three members of his family in August. In that case, witnesses said that the Lexus sedan that Mr. Saylor was driving was going more than 100 miles an hour before crashing near San Diego.
In both cases, witnesses said the cars appeared to be steadily increasing in speed until the accident.
Lilia Alberto, a daughter of Mrs. Alberto, said her mother was a cautious driver who never had a traffic violation. "Something caused this car to trigger the throttle to open all the way and make the car start speeding," she said in an interview.
In response to the lawsuit, Toyota wrote that it "denies any and all allegations of defect" and that the company was in any way responsible for her death. A company spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.
Mrs. Alberto was a Honduran immigrant who settled in Flint with her husband, Abraham, and family in the 1960s. Mr. Alberto worked for 26 years for General Motors at its huge Buick City factory, and his wife worked for 15 years at a G.M. truck plant.
After the couple left G.M. in the early 1990s, they ran a small, neighborhood grocery in a downtrodden section of Flint. The store has a large piece of bulletproof glass separating the customers from family members working the cash register.
The Camry was a Christmas present to Mrs. Alberto from one of her daughters, who thought her mother should stop driving her older-model Buick.
At first, Mrs. Alberto and her husband were chagrined to own a Toyota because of their deep ties to G.M. "I said, 'We don't want Toyota because we are from G.M.,' " Mr. Alberto, 82, said. "But they gave it to her as a present, and it was cheaper than the Buick LeSabre."
Despite her age, Mrs. Alberto worked regular hours in the store. "The day before the accident, she was in the store carrying cases of soda and stacking them," Douglas Alberto, a son, said.
At about 2 p.m. on that April day, Mrs. Alberto loaded her Camry with pots of spaghetti and shrimp to take to the store, where she planned to make dinner for her husband.
As she drove down her street, witnesses said her car began going faster and faster. The Camry ran at least three stop signs and then crossed a busy four-lane street, swerving to avoid oncoming traffic.
Enlarge This Image
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Mrs. Alberto's children, Lilia and Douglas, who worked at General Motors. More Photos >
Multimedia
Photographs
A Death Prompts an Inquiry
Related
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Wheels: Apple Co-Founder: My Prius Has a Problem, Too
Toyota Posts Profit in Quarter Before Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Toyota's Chief Steps Forward to Apologize (February 6, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
Post a Comment »
The Takeaway With Bill Vlasic
Add to Portfolio
Toyota Motor Corp
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Bailey & Glasser
Witnesses told police that Mrs. Alberto's car accelerated out of control before hitting a tree in April 2008. More Photos >
When the car hit the tree, neighbors told Douglas Alberto that it sounded "like a cannon had been shot off." He also said the speedometer on the Camry was stuck at 80 miles per hour.
The car, which is now impounded as evidence, had only 17,000 miles on it and had never needed service except for three oil changes, Lilia Alberto said.
In December, Mr. Santucci, Toyota's manager of technical and regulatory affairs, was deposed by the Alberto family's lawyers in Washington. He was asked about Toyota's role in cooperating with the national safety agency in a 2004 investigation of throttle control concerns.
Mr. Santucci, who had previously worked for the safety agency, said the company had discussions with the agency about limiting the type of acceleration incidents to be investigated.
"I recall them saying to us, Toyota, myself, that they were not interested in reports alleging uncontrolled acceleration that occurred for a long duration," Mr. Santucci testified.
In fact, the safety agency had decided to look only at cases of unintended acceleration in which drivers had not applied their brakes — ostensibly to rule out potential braking concerns from the scope of the investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, Olivia Alair, said on Thursday that incidents in which the brakes were applied raised questions of whether the driver had mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake.
"The shorter incidents without brake use seemed to involve pure cases of engine surging due to a possible defect," she said.
Mr. Santucci testified that limiting the vehicles to short-duration incidents was beneficial for both Toyota and the safety agency. "I think it worked out well for both the agency and Toyota, meaning Toyota provided what they were looking for," he said.
The government closed the investigation a few months later without any finding of a vehicle defect. "A defect trend has not been identified at this time, and further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted," the agency said in a document dated July 22, 2004.
Enlarge This Image
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Mrs. Alberto's children, Lilia and Douglas, who worked at General Motors. More Photos >
Multimedia
Photographs
A Death Prompts an Inquiry
Related
The Dozens of Computers That Make Modern Cars Go (and Stop) (February 5, 2010)
Wheels: Apple Co-Founder: My Prius Has a Problem, Too
Toyota Posts Profit in Quarter Before Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Answers to Questions About Prius and the Toyota Recalls (February 5, 2010)
Toyota's Chief Steps Forward to Apologize (February 6, 2010)
How Toyota Can Find Its Way Back
What lessons should the carmaker have learned from recall fiascoes of decades past?
Post a Comment »
The Takeaway With Bill Vlasic
Add to Portfolio
Toyota Motor Corp
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Bailey & Glasser
Witnesses told police that Mrs. Alberto's car accelerated out of control before hitting a tree in April 2008. More Photos >
When the car hit the tree, neighbors told Douglas Alberto that it sounded "like a cannon had been shot off." He also said the speedometer on the Camry was stuck at 80 miles per hour.
The car, which is now impounded as evidence, had only 17,000 miles on it and had never needed service except for three oil changes, Lilia Alberto said.
In December, Mr. Santucci, Toyota's manager of technical and regulatory affairs, was deposed by the Alberto family's lawyers in Washington. He was asked about Toyota's role in cooperating with the national safety agency in a 2004 investigation of throttle control concerns.
Mr. Santucci, who had previously worked for the safety agency, said the company had discussions with the agency about limiting the type of acceleration incidents to be investigated.
"I recall them saying to us, Toyota, myself, that they were not interested in reports alleging uncontrolled acceleration that occurred for a long duration," Mr. Santucci testified.
In fact, the safety agency had decided to look only at cases of unintended acceleration in which drivers had not applied their brakes — ostensibly to rule out potential braking concerns from the scope of the investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, Olivia Alair, said on Thursday that incidents in which the brakes were applied raised questions of whether the driver had mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake.
"The shorter incidents without brake use seemed to involve pure cases of engine surging due to a possible defect," she said.
Mr. Santucci testified that limiting the vehicles to short-duration incidents was beneficial for both Toyota and the safety agency. "I think it worked out well for both the agency and Toyota, meaning Toyota provided what they were looking for," he said.
The government closed the investigation a few months later without any finding of a vehicle defect. "A defect trend has not been identified at this time, and further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted," the agency said in a document dated July 22, 2004.
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