Toyota Off the Hook? Sort of

Toyota Off the Hook? Sort of

"So, Toyota was exonerated," I was asked often this week by various consumers and industry watchers.

Well, yes - and no, I explained.

Indeed, Toyota won a huge victory when the U.S. Department of Transportation's 10-month study, which involved NASA engineers, concluded no electronic flaws caused Toyota's unintended acceleration problems. In fact, the DOT's ruling on the Toyota case undoubtedly caused the the entire auto industry, which is exponentially adding electronics to its vehicles every year, breathed a huge sigh of relief on that ruling.

I'm satisfied with that conclusion even if the consumer advocates Clarence Ditlow and Joan Claybrook, who date back to the Carter Administration and currently have their own agendas, are not. The two quickly criticized DOT's report, implying the research wasn't adequate, even though NASA rocket scientists pored over thousands of pieces of software code and data and performed rigorous tests on cars. That's good enough for me, and I'm encouraged one of the DOT's recommendations is to continue to monitor electronic control systems.

Still, the fact remains - as the same report noted and I pointed out to people who suggested to me that Toyota is completely guiltless - is Toyota still had mechanical defects that contributed to its unintended acceleration problems.

The DOT report noted the known causes of the problems - the only known causes - were mechanical defects. Those mechanical defects were identified by DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration more than a year ago as sticky accelerator pedals and a design flaw that allowed accelerator pedals to become trapped by floor mats. Those flaws forced Toyota to recall nearly 8 million vehicles in the U.S. Follow-up actions that sprung up from the DOT study are research into the placement and design of accelerator and brake pedals along with driver usage of pedals.

Clearly, many of the unintended accelerations complaints against Toyota - as it was with Audi and likely is with other automakers - is the result of driver error. But automakers with high numbers of complaints, as Toyota had, should be asking why their cars have so many errors. What is it about their driver population, their design, their pedal mechanisms that contribute to driver error?

Another outgrowth of the DOT study may be the requirement of brake override systems on all cars, a feature Toyota somewhere along the line decided against, likely due to cost, and has since committed to putting in all of its cars.

And while as not to rehash here, not even Toyota denies the fact that it could have handled the entire situation better, from listening to consumer complaints and forcing decision makers in Japan to listen to how they handled the media.

So Toyota executives should celebrate the DOT's verdict. Just don't get drunk on the champagne.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.