Toyota’s president to testify before Congress

Well this event should be interesting. How much you want to bet the Congressional committee will drill the Toyota executives on how they got to Washington - they should have driven a car from Japan instead of taking a private jet.

Let the media frenzy begin...

Keith

 

I rather doubt that. Such a line of questioning will inevitably backfire.

A much more fruitful line of questioning would be why do they encrypt their black box data when no other manufacturer encrypts their black box data. Or, how do you know that the repair for sudden unintended acceleration will truly solve the problem? My favorite - why are you not making any repairs to earlier production models that exhibit problems, such as the Gen II Prius cars?

 

I'd like to know why they hired NHTSA reps to halt investigations of their products.

as discussed here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...-hired-toyota-helped-halt-investigations.html

and "every manufacturer does it" doesn't make it right.

 

Honda and Nissan also uses EDRs that only they can read. Not sure about the Europeans.

 

That could come off as a middle-fingered wave.

 

Congressmen and women should be used to that.

 

He should arrive in PHV Prius and leave in FCHV.

 

This should be interesting

 

I am surprised that Toyoda will attend.

That said, I wonder what terms accompanied the "invitation."
As to saving face, an invitation is wholly different than
compulsory attendance under a subpoena.There is at least the
suggestion of mutual good faith.

There may be additional terms negotiated in advance out of the
limelight, such as:
* Questioning/testimony through interpreters
* Committee questions provided in advance
* Time limit on the appearance
* Questioning limited to Chairman , Vice Chairman, and Committee
Counsel
* Submission/acceptance of a written introductory statement
* Opportunity to add post-hearing comments to the Congressional
Record that amend, correct, and/or extend the recorded testimony.

It would be meaningful to understand the roles that the Committee
members will play, especially the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Their
roles will depend in part on:
* Party
* Home district; Michigan, California, Kentucky?
* Major campaign contributors; UAW, Detroit 3, Toyota?
* Re-election status

Let the games begin...

 

So, if two other manufacturers encrypt the black box data, that is a justification for Toyota to do likewise? There is a saying about that kind of logic - you are being too cute by half.

 

Not when the person doing the waving is the head of a company whose products are being recalled left and right. Giving the middle-fingered wave in this circumstance is almost certain to invite never-ending scrutiny until every product sold by Toyota in the past 10 years has been found to be completely free of any defect. Does Toyota want to be under a magnifying glass like that? I tend to doubt it. And all over a wave.

 

Why shouldn't they encrypt the data? There is probably a lot of information that competitors would just love to get their hands on.

Having said that, I imagine that one could attach a scan gauge or similar and simply dump the data traffic to disk.

Cheers

 

Like what - throttle position? Whether the driver had their seat belt on? Whether the ABS was engaged at the time of the accident? Was VSC engaged at the time of the accident? When did each system commence operation? Lots of secret sensitive information there. But real interesting from an accident investigation effort.

And of what use is that? To prove that the data providing components are working? :crazy: An accident investigation wants to know what happened leading up to the accident; not whether the data provdiing components are actually working.

Cheers.

 

Newsroom : Statement from Akio Toyoda Responding to Invitation to Testify Before the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform / Toyota

Rep. Edolphus Towns is the sponsor of H.R. 734 Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. I am sure Towns will use this opportunity to "Bell the Hybrid."

Bob Wilson

 

You stated the following:

I replied that your statement. A statement you made that was inaccurate. Several other manufacturers use proprietary black box data. Honda and Nissan are among two of the others using their own data cipher. My understanding (but currently not confirmed) is that several major European manufacturers also has restricts their EDR data.

 

You are still being too cute by half. The fact that other manufacturers encrypt their data does not excuse the practice. I expect that there will be a regulation or legislation passed to specifically forbid the encryption of black box data - one more legacy of the 'Toyota Experience'. As far as Euro manufacturers that encrypt their data, which ones are you referring to? I know BMW requires a specialized reader; but the reader can be purchased by anyone who wants to pay the price at the local BMW dealer's parts counter. That is a huge difference from there being only one laptop in the entire U.S. that can read the encrypted data on the Toyota black boxes.

 

Rep. Towns is likely to ask questions about belling the hybrid; but he has quite a way to go to try to link Toyota with the fact that his legislation hasn't passed the House, much less the Senate.