WP + Autoblog: Report: Toyota had 'attack plan' to discredit congressional testimony witnesses

It would seem that the real story is that this is all they've got. Otherwise it'd be a story about how Toyota covered something up, etc..

 

Report: Toyota had 'attack plan' to discredit congressional testimony witnesses — Autoblog

washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post piece claims there was:

I just looked through the Toyota Pressroom and only found:
Newsroom : Statement by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. at the Opening of the Multidistrict Litigation in U.S. District Court, Santa Ana, Calif. / Toyota

Ordinarily, I would expect to find such releases in the Pressroom but the most recent one that mentions Kane is dated March 23, 2010. Where is the claimed Toyota statement?

Somehow this reads like someone on the Committee is trying to give standing to Gilbert and Kane. Gilbert's test was flawed in part by the poor editing by the ABC report. Worse, there was a delay of his specific protocol versus his conclusions. This delay did not help his credibility when it came out there were two flaws and Toyota testing showed many vehicles subject to the same attack.

As for Kane, I didn't find much in the way of current facts and data at his web site when I looked at it two months ago. It looks like he is trying to eek out a living selling his recommendations book, which may have some value but not if it just rehashes his web page. So I went back and did a quick survey to find this April posting:

Toyota Sudden Unintended Acceleration: Manufacturing Doubt with the Help of Exponent |

What I found was a 'guilt by association' manufactured by trying to co-flate Exponent with Tobacco prosti-scientists. Worse, I didn't find Kane's claims addressed the engineering data. Kane wants to see a "fault tree" but does not explain what it does nor its success rate. For example, NASA lost two space shuttles and their crews in just under 150 missions. What role did their fault trees play?

A fault tree is a technique that engineers use to identify potential weaknesses and help in fault isolation. It is a common technique in NASA spacecraft operations because once in orbit, you don't have a lot of time or resources to fault isolate an 'in orbit' problem. The results of an automotive fault-tree analysis are found in the maintenance manuals that take symptoms and derive the probable failure mode. But it is no magic bullet, contrary to Kane's claim, and worse, he ignores the maintenance manuals.

So my problems with these reports come down to two elements:

• Where is the 'Friday Toyota Statement'? - It isn't in their online pressroom.
• Where is Kane's engineering data? - It isn't in his April article.

IMHO, it reads like someone on the committee wants to stroke the public interest. If the comments from Autoblog are a clue, it isn't working.

Bob Wilson

 

Thanks,

You've brought up how this reads like an attempt to muzzle Toyota from defending against their critics. It is a defense that doesn't appear to exist . . . a strawman or Potempkin attack assembled by the committee.

Bob Wilson

 

I did a Google News search and apparently the May 14, Washington Post article, is the single source. But I also found this article (sorry, no way to trim it: )

PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: Waxman takes Toyota to task for defending itself

Bob Wilson

 

MEMO

To: Toyota USA
Subject: Fault-tree Analysis

Please send a full set of Prius maintenance manuals to the Congressional committees with a cover note saying something along the lines of:

Dear Committee Chair,

We have enclosed our typical, fault-tree analysis, in our publicly available maintenance manuals for our popular Prius cars. We use this format for all of our vehicles so Toyota, Toyota dealers, independent repair mechanics and owners can use the embedded fault tree to diagnose and correct problems. We would be happy to have our team teach the committee and staff as well as any NHTSA staff on how to use these fault-trees.
​

Humm, what do you think, over the top?

For good measure, I sent this to the Washington Post asking for more details:

Bob Wilson

 

Sounds like a simple case of The best defense is a good offense.

 

Okay, so in the midst of adversarial hearings and when being attacked Toyota was in the process of formulating a public relations campaign defending themselves....and this is a story or suprising to anyone because...????

 

Yeah, like Toyota actually *needs* to do any work to debunk
Gilbert et al. He took care of that with his own incompetence.
.
_H*

 

Ok,

Now we have an answer why this curious spurt of activity:
Toyota Discrediting Detractors Online - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston

So this is just a raw power play to try and gather more 'press' of the likely to be boring hearings. There will be, this is an attempt to make it 'entertainment.' Toyota can (and should) make it deadly dull:

Answer every question fully with as much detail as possible. Let the Congress critters become the bullies in the hearing. . . . "If I may answer your question fully . . ."
​

Bob Wilson

 

Slowly we are getting leaks about this planned ambush:

Hearing to probe Toyota response | detnews.com | The Detroit News

So the agenda will be to try and manufacture the illusion of Toyota squashing the criticisms of Gilbert and Kane. I still like the idea of a stack of Prius maintenance manuals and hand them to the Committee with "Here is our fault tree embedded in the maintenance manuals we provide our dealers and sell to independent service companies."

When the Committee member says, "We don't like your fault tree."

Answer, "please provide us the specifications and an example of the fault tree you want. We along with every automotive manufacturer will no doubt be happy to comply once it is issued as an NHTSA regulation or legislation. But this is what we, Toyota does following our best engineering practices."

Bob Wilson

 

Ok, I'm a little anal about quality . . . no I'm a lot anal about quality. So I was happy to read Toyota's written testimony for Thursday:

Newsroom : Written Testimony of James Lentz President and Chief Operating Officer Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Committee on Energy & Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations / Toyota

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's hearings.

My expectation is they will attempt to manufacture some 'feud' between Toyota and Gilbert/Kane. I suspect it will be seen as a 'feud' of their making. I also suspect we'll see more attacks on Exponent along the likes of Kane's April posting. The obvious answer is to thank them and "we'll get back to you after we understand the proposal."

Bob Wilson