Cornered Toyota Begins To Battle Back

It probably should have not gotten to this point, but the Toyota Motor Corporation now finds itself battling its critics in order to salvage its once golden reputation.

Toyota Responds

After weeks of relentless government and media pounding, Toyota has been responding to these complaints by showing statistical proof that its cars are well within safety guidelines and that is has responded aggressively by temporarily removing from the market eight affected models and making repairs to customer vehicles.

In the Feb. 22, 2010 issue of “Automotive News,” Toyota division chief Bob Carter explained that it took just 13 complaints about sticky accelerators to lead Toyota to recall 2.3 million vehicles, suggesting that the criticism far exceeded what was warranted.

At the same time Carter made no mention of some 2200 other cases of vehicle acceleration dating back at least a decade. Research by consumer advocates including Sean Kane reveal at least two hundred Toyota wrecks over that time leading to as many as 19 fatalities.

Toyoda Testifies

Toyota President Akio Toyoda is set to testify this week before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week about the recall which has now reached some 8.5 million vehicles globally.

Perhaps most damning for Toyota is an internal document submitted to the oversight committee where the company boasted that it saved itself $100 million by negotiating “an “equipment recall” of floor mats involving 55,000 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES350 vehicles in September 2007.” (see ABC News: Documents: Toyota Boasted Saving $100M on Recall) Critics have fastened on that memorandum as proof that Toyota placed profit ahead of customer safety.

Social Bomb

Toyota’s unfolding crisis points to a weakness that goes beyond safety. And that is the company’s handling of a response in the face of withering criticism. Ever since the runaway Lexus story erupted last August, killing a California family of four, the automaker has been playing defense if responding at all. That poor response and lack of preparation has fueled criticism as Toyota has given people the impression that they are above the law or simply do not care.

While some of the criticism suggests opponents are piling it on, Toyota waited months while their critics mounted a serious challenge to the way the automaker goes about doing its business. Twitter became the launching ground for attacks against Toyota with Toyota’s PR team offering a tepid response or watching silently as a handful of tweets soon became a torrent.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Toyota Black Boxes May Hold Accident Clues

As much as the Toyota Motor Corporation desires to move beyond its recall issues, the Japanese automaker finds that there are enough hurdles in front of it to slow down its efforts.

Sales are down, customers are worried, and a recording device found in most Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models may hold important clues as to how these accidents happened. Unfortunately, Toyota has not been willing to share data found in these so-called “black boxes” mini and simpler versions of technology found in today’s jet airliners.

Black Boxes

Black box data is important because it often sheds light on what happened just before a car got into an accident. In this case, all of the runaway Toyota problems can be examined closer if Toyota would make its data available to federal regulators or law enforcement personnel.

General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have black boxes too, but their data can be read by third party sources including via a tool developed by the Robert Bosch Corporation.

Those tools are used by the police, accident attorneys, and investigators to help determine why a car crashed. Ford, GM, and Chrysler provide licensing to third parties such as Bosch which increases transparency. Toyota, however, uses a proprietary system which means that their data can only be shared and analyzed with their permission or by court mandate.

Event Data Recorders

In the Aug. 23, 2006 issue of “CNN Money,” Peter Valdes-Dapena explained that black boxes, which are also called event data recorders (EDR), can be found in most new cars. In fact, the NHTSA requires that car manufacturers tell owners in their manuals if an EDR is present.

Unlike an airliner black box an EDR does not record voices, but it does record what was going on with a car the few seconds before and after an accident. That information may be just enough to help investigators determine exactly what caused an accident.

New York Accident

In the Jan. 27, 2010 issue of the Syracuse “Post-Standard,” accident investigators were eager to get at one particular black box as a result of a fatal November 2009 accident in Auburn, N.Y. That car, a 2010 Toyota Camry, raced out of control injuring the Toyota’s driver, while killing a driver who was hit by the runaway Toyota.

That investigation has been delayed because NHTSA intervention is necessary to get Toyota to release its black box data.

Resources

The Wall Street Journal: Toyota Woes Put Focus on Black Box