NHSTA, Toyota & the Truth...somewhere

[Old Tele man]

...anybody read these:

Black Box Data Doesn't Exonerate Toyota in Sudden Acceleration |

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081906562.html

[NeilBlanchard]

There have been at least 3 studies that all do exonerate Toyota.

[roflwaffle]

I remember those guys. They're kinda goofy. How can anyone besides a driver actually see any mechanical interference? Even for them it's hard to notice. The only incident I know of where the driver observed mechanical (floormat) interference was the businessman who had the Lexus that CHP officer and his family were killed in (prior to their accident of course), and even then he had to drop it into nuetral and pull off to the side of the road before he was able to see that the pedal was trapped and yank it out.

The recent NHTSA EDR data summary is interesting and worth further examination, but it clearly cannot be extrapolated to the thousands of incidents of SUA in which an EDR didn’t activate and witnesses report racing engines without driver input or mechanical interference.

[Old Mechanic]

The truth can be determined statistically, by comparing similar incidents and complaints in non Toyota vehicles.

If the data shows a 400% (just an example) increase over the average of all vehicles, then it can be fairly concluded that there is something going on specific to Toyota.

Some of the news reports, especially the man who got his to the dealership with the engine still racing uncontrollably, are the most compelling evidence I have seen. Not sure if that incident was later refuted or attributed to something other than a vehicle systems failure.

When the news media jumped on the wagon the statistics would naturally become corrupted, when drivers used the "my car went crazy" excuse for their own mistakes, so the data should be collected from reported incidents prior to media exposure.

regards
Mech