All Entries in the "Auto News" Category
Who’s Lying – An Anonymous NHTSA Employee or The WSJ?
Last week, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the early results of the NHTSA investigation into “runaway” Toyotas found that the problem was driver error. This wasn’t shocking information – we’ve been saying that driver error is the cause of these incidents for months.
However, this story has taken an interesting turn. An anonymous source at the Department of Transportation (the branch of the government that oversees NHSTA) told Just-Auto.com last week that the story in the WSJ was planted by Toyota.
Mike Ramsey, the reporter at the WSJ, has denied this allegation and said that he viewed NHTSA data when making his report. Toyota has denied these allegations as well.
The facts are that either:
- An anonymous NHTSA employee incorrectly claimed that Toyota planted a story, or
- A reporter at The Wall Street Journal did someone at Toyota a favor and ran a story that was completely false
The question is, who’s lying?
NHTSA Study Shows Toyota Throttles Are Just Fine
As we have been saying for the better part of a year, so-called “runaway Toyotas” with electronic throttles are actually driver error. From the Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration and found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren’t engaged at the time of the crash, people familiar with the findings said.
The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes.
Wow! No kidding?! If only we had all listened to noted safety expert Richard Schmidt back in November 2009, who said that
…the problem almost always lies with drivers who step on the wrong pedal. “When the driver says they have their foot on the brake, they are just plain wrong,” Schmidt said. “The human motor system is not perfect, and it doesn’t always do what it is told.”
It turns out that Toyota’s electronic throttles are just &$%^&# fine, thank you.
Toyota May Expand San Antonio Plant
According to an interview of Toyota North American COO Yoshi Inaba by Jason Buch of the San Antonio Express-News, Toyota will be increasing production at the San Antonio plant in the next year or so. This increased production is a result of two factors:
- Tundra sales are picking up. After a dismal 2009, Tundra sales in 2010 are up 26% year to date. This increase is significantly higher than GM’s 2010 YTD sales increase, which are only up about 11%. Ram sales are down 10% so far this year, and it remains to be seen if the Tundra can outsell the Ram 1500 this year. (See all of the latest truck sales figures on PickupTrucks.com)
- San Antonio now builds the Tacoma. Following the closure of the NUMMI plant, Toyota moved almost all of their Tacoma production to the same plant that builds the Tundra.
If sales continue to increase industry-wide, and if Toyota trucks continue to sell well (the Tacoma especially), it’s likely Toyota will have to hire more workers, pay more overtime, and eventually increase capacity of the plant. Obviously, this is good news for San Antonio…but it’s also good for the USA. After all, the Tundra is the most American pickup available today. Building more trucks in America is always a good thing.
Five Things Toyota Can Teach Lebron James
Unless you’re living in a cave in Waziristan, you’ve undoubtedly learned that Lebron James has abandoned Cleveland for South Beach. After two years of nauseating speculation, LeBron finally announced his decision last night. [Sidebar: Staying in Cleveland would have been the right thing to do in my opinion – they have been destroyed because of him.]
Image copyright Keith Allison
The thing is, all this publicity and media love for LeBron has many parallels with Toyota’s rise to fame in North America. James has thrust himself into the spotlight, and playing in Miami with two other superstars is only going to raise expectations. Consider the following:
In-Car Alcohol Detection Technology Follow-Up – TruTouch
Last week we asked for your opinion on in-car alcohol detection systems and whether or not they should be mandatory safety equipment. In order to keep that post to a reasonable length, we left out some information about an infrared skin alcohol detection system that seems very promising.
