Embeddedgurus.com: An Update on Toyota and Unintended Acceleration

[Bruce Nunnally]

On December 13, 2013, Toyota settled the case that was set for the next trial, in West Virginia in January 2014, and announced an “intensive” settlement process to try to resolve approximately 300 of the remaining personal injury case, which are consolidated in U.S. and California courts.

Toyota continues to publicly deny there is a problem and seems to have no plans to address the unsafe design and inadequate fail safes in its drive-by-wire vehicles–the electronics and software design of which is similar in most of the Toyota and Lexus (and possibly Scion) vehicles manufactured over at least about the last ten model years. Meanwhile, incidents of unintended acceleration continue to be reported in these vehicles (see also the NHTSA complaint database) and these new incidents, when injuries are severe, continue to result in new personal injury lawsuits against Toyota.

In March 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a $1.2 billion settlement in a criminal case against Toyota. As part of that settlement, Toyota admitted to past lying to NHTSA, Congress, and the public about unintended acceleration and also to putting its brand before public safety. Yet Toyota still has made no safety recalls for the defective engine software.

Read More: http://embeddedgurus.com/barr-code/2013/10/an-update-on-toyota-and-unintended-acceleration/