Toyota Hearlings on CNN Video on Internet

Let's spread the bandwidth a little: live stream from Capital Hill

 

OMG, what a circus. Toyota USA CEO is a marketing guy and the whole thing is like a Dilbert cartoon. The CEO guy has no idea what he is talking about.

But the real problem seems to be electronics and inherent to all Toyota cars built since 2002, including the Prius. Apparently the chip design in the accelerator circuit is faulty, with the supposedly two independent circuits not actually being independent and therefore not sending and error signal when there is a malfunction in the acceleration sensor or circuit, hence the two-circuit failsafe mechanism failing. So, it's not the floor mat or the sticky pedal. (It turns out that the sticky pedal only sticks at small throttle opening and can't explain sudden or violent acceleration.)

 

Deceit, arrogance and coverup. It is a Circus and Lentz is an idiot.

 

So, basically, Toyota still has no clue what is causing the unintended sudden acceleration. Changing the floor mats (claim: it traps the pedal) and changing the washer on the gas pedal (claim: washer gets too shiny and smooth from wear and moisture causes it to stick because it's too smooth) apparently is primarily for PR.

The way these big companies are run is so idiotic. The Toyota USA chief has no enginering background whatsoever. And the whole Toyota operations seem to be highly incompetent about addressing customer concerns and trying to find the real cause of the accelerator problem.

According to the expert testimonies, iIt also turns out that Toyota may be the only company in the world that employs a substandard accelerator circuit that is not entirely failsafe. After hearing this and the problems I'm having with the steering on my 2009 Corolla, I think Toyota has completely lost the sense of quality in their manufacturing. The company is being poorly run, producing low-quality (not necessarily unreliable but failing in major areas like accelerator, brakes, and steering, the three most important areas that a car a car) vehicles. Complete overhaul of the company is needed.

 

I'm not sure where you got all the stuff about the electronics, but this story appears to support this.

Toyota Says Recalls May ?Not Totally? Resolve Issues (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

 

Its electronic and Lentz has sort of admitted at it.

 

At the congressional hearing, there were two experts talking about their tests. The guy who did the tests works at the Southern Illinois University. He tapped into the electronics of the accelerator circuit. What he found that the two independent circuits actually are not that independent and communicating, and, by slightly changing the voltages, he was able to generate a full-throttle signal without causing an error code. He was saying that no other car manufacturer's accelerator circuit has this flaw and all other manufacturers ensure that something like this can never happen through failsafe electronics. Toyota somehow came up with a design that is far from being failsafe.

 

Playing devil's advocate, would any auto executive be willing to say unintended acceleration would never happen again in his products? I don't think so.

 

Under intense questionoing CEO Lentz admitted that the floor map and sticky pedal don't address 70% of the complaints filed with NTHSA on Toyota sudden acceleration.

He also admitted that sticky pedal does not cause sudden acceleration because it only sticks at a small throttle opening. It only gives low power to the engine when it happens.

So, the bottom line is that Toyota doesn't know the cause of the problem yet and/or doesn't want to admit it at this moment yet. Especially after recent independent research, it's seeming more and more likely everyday that the problem is electronic and affects all Toyota cars and trucks built since 2002, and it requires substantial resources to remedy. It will probably cost the company in the order of $10 billion to fix it.

 

Lentz did not rule out any other possibilities and that include the electronics aspect.

And note that there were other speculative assumptions even within this spectrum which includes EMI, sensor, circuitry layouts, software...etc

In Dr David Gilbert's testimony, his 3-hours test result on the Toyota ECT is based on probing of the electronics circuit and triggering the situation when the detection system fails to work.

According to him, his test scenarios can happen in the real-world situation. However, Lentz later claimed Toyota/ is able to replicate similar response on other makes.

So here's the contention: How to truly replicate the alleged electronic-related SUA in a laboratory environment ?

PS: Dr Gilbert have my respect in the way he presented his findings and shown apparent personnel concern. He himself own a Toyota.

 

I watched the last 10 mins and can't understand that why Toyota could be so ill prepared. Even I could have handle some of the questions that Mr Lentz replied "I don't know the answer".

 

You aren't alone.

While the opposing panel has 2 technical experts to present and support their arguments, I was bewildered when only Mr Lentz is presenting the case with no experts to back him up!(not even a single Exponent representative.)

Somehow, even with his MBAs and marketing background, Mr Lentz obviously isn't the right man for that session. This 1st hearing basically sets the tone for Mr Toyoda in today's session.

I just don't wish to see any more tears shed in the coming ones.

 

Lentz will be the fall guy. It sure showed Toyota's operation everything of value, engineering, etc is done in Japan. the US office is acts as a sales office and atm for the home office. any more questions as to whether or not toyota is a japanese company?

 

No sir, no question asked.

But no thanks for the reminder that Toyota is a non-American coy.

I wasn't aware of that.

 

I image that this is because if there are further developments in the recall of cars, then the company has plausible deniability (no liability). Of late I have noticed how many times people in front of congress either "are not aware" or "don't remember" the details of events. Hypothetically, if technical people talk, then there's the question of "why did a technical person who worked on/oversaw x project not know about a fault that you apparently knew about since 1996?" (made up year).

 

A fall guy is someone only a little involved. Lentz has his name all over some of these things for years. I especially like that in his opening statement he said that it took awhile to figure out the problems because they didn't understand how "customers were using their products." Sounds like he is still blaming people for driving the cars wrong. If heads roll at a minimum he should be included.

 

He did filled in more details later on.

Today, LaHood is saying the same thing.. "I'll have to get back to you on that".

 

Maybe that's how you got it but the way I understand was, as he stated... The company lost focus of its customers. They were not engineered from the customer's point of view. For example the push Start button that has to be held for 3 seconds to shutdown.

 

The title of the BBC's article is kind of funny:

BBC News - US Congress questions Toyota boss Akio Toyoda

EDIT: It used to be "Toyota Boss Appears for Grilling at US Congress"