On Thursday, a U.S. judge dismissed the criminal charges against Toyota Motor Corp after the automaker completed a mandated three years of probationary monitoring. As part of its $1.2 billion settlement, where it admitted to intentionally misleading the public over dangerous unintended acceleration and building vehicles with faulty parts, Toyota was assigned former U.S. attorney David Kelley as an independent safety monitor.
“It is a long road ahead,” he said upon his appointment in 2014. “If you look at the deferred prosecution agreement there is a lot of ground to cover.”
The agreement gave Kelley sweeping powers to hire staff and review all of Toyota’s policies and operating procedures for communicating safety issues internally and to regulators. Kelley and his staff were required to be payed standard consulting fees and rates by Toyota, but this will be their last week on the job.
Adhering to the settlement terms, the Justice Department agreed to move for dismissal of any further criminal charges. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in New York concurred with the motion and ruled to close the case entirely.
Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin told Reuters the company was pleased the court accepted the recommendation. “Over the past three years, we have worked hard in the spirit of continuous improvement to make Toyota a stronger company that serves its customers better,” he said.
While not all civil claims have been settled, Toyota spent an estimated additional $1.63 billion in lawsuits related to the case. It also invested in itself to make significant changes to its safety practices and policies following a recall crisis so vast that it was temporarily forced to suspend sales of half its fleet in 2010.
“Regrettably, the payment of a $1.2 billion fine and the appointment of a monitor appear to have concluded the government’s investigation into this tragic episode,” Judge Pauley said on Thursday.
[Image: Toyota]
Shakedown complete, but there are still plenty of incompetent drivers on the road who will mash the wrong pedal.
“…myriad problems with Toyota’s software development process and its source code – possible bit flips, task deaths that would disable the failsafes, memory corruption, single-point failures, inadequate protections against stack overflow and buffer overflow, single-fault containment regions, thousands of global variables. The list of deficiencies in process and product was lengthy.”
Jack B talked about this some in one article about ABS module.
http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/toyota-unintended-acceleration-and-big-bowl-%E2%80%9Cspaghetti%E2%80%9D-code
Regarding @NormSV650’s link, the skid marks were likely made when the parking brake locked the wheels, and the driver mashed the gas thinking it was the brakes, and dragged the tires.
That code is “spaghetti” doesn’t mean it’s wrong. That code is “ravioli” (neat encapsulated objects) doesn’t mean it’s right.
Poorly written code does not mean that it doesn’t function as it is supposed to do. Is it harder to test an maintain? You bet. But it doesn’t guarantee failure. I’ve seen some poorly written code that simply works. Its rare. I don’t know the complete story, but was it proven that the throttle ran away because of code? I had an 89 Camry where the throttle got stuck from a gunked out throttle body. I had to throw on the emergency brake.
The point I’m making is that its too easy to blame software failure when software and electronics have replaced physical mechanical components that had no built in safety measures either.
Regarding software, exactly my point. I’ve seen spaghetti code just work. Verifying it is like tracing a rats nest of wires, and I prefer neat code from a maintenance and aesthetic point of view.
But I’ve seen buggy neat (object-oriented code) because derived objects unintentionally inherited said bug.
Engineers recognize no system is 100% perfect, so they build in multiple levels of redundancy. A home is fire-safe because building materials are fire resistant, there are smoke detectors, circuit breakers, and sprinkler systems.
For cars, it’s my understanding that even if the software failed, the brakes and engines are paired so that brake force is greater than the force of acceleration.
And just to stir the gearbox a bit, this wouldn’t and couldn’t happen in a manual. I can’t recall reading about a case of unintended acceleration with a stick.
That said, I don’t even think this could happen in an automatic.
My mother managed it in my ’82 Audi Coupe manual. She hadn’t driven a stick since she sold her ’65 Volvo 544 a dozen years earlier. Changing my car and hers around in the driveway, she managed to stuff the Coupe through the garage door, claiming she was braking and it wouldn’t stop! To cap it all, when we went back inside the house to call insurance, wasn’t there a an unintended acceleration piece on Audis on the radio! So, of course, it wasn’t her fault, no sir, despite the problem being on Audi 5000 automatics, if there was in fact a problem at all. There wasn’t.
Just like this Toyota thing. From their report: “NASA did not find an electronic cause of large throttle openings that can result in UA incidents. NHTSA did not find a vehicle-based cause of those incidents in addition to those causes already addressed by Toyota recalls.” Which as I remember involved carving off half the gas pedal with a rusty carpet knife and little else beyond reflashing the code for the electronic throttle to avoid simultaneous gas and brake application.
This Norm guy seems like a gadfly and worships at the altar of Buick, which never made a mistake in its life of course.
Toyota had no electronic throttle body fail safes so they were definitely not monitoring and reporting them.
From your own quote:
“…NHTSA did not find a vehicle-based cause of those incidents in addition to those causes already addressed by Toyota recalls…”
…in addition to those causes already addressed by Toyota recalls…
e.g. wrongly shaped gas pedals with inadequate tolerances between the floor and the pedal. No throttle/brake failsafe. And improperly designed all-weather floor mats when combined with ill-designed gas pedals also jammed.
Again, Jack wrote a very long piece on this several years ago on TTAC.
Absolutely, and Toyota drivers seem to be the worst. I saw this just last week, as an elderly Lexus driver drove over a curb in our parking lot and pushed a brick wall onto cars on the other side. He admitted confusing the pedals, but will not drive two footed, which could lessen his ability to doi it again. None of the other gents who witnessed or heard about it would change, either, including one whose mother had the same experience.
Jack B wrote a LONG piece on this a few years ago here on TTAC. This was anything but a shake down.
“Freddy, I was once run over by a Toyota… oh what a feeling”
..what a rush!
Tell that to the cardboard dummy…ouch.
https://youtu.be/6mzRiWO-ktU
A Tøyøta once bit my sister
Durango ate my baby.
Mind you, Toyota bites kan be pretti nasti.
Toyota turned me into a newt!
A newt?
[long pause] … I got better.
I always found it very interesting that as soon as the govt took over GM in 2009, all of a sudden Toyotas were going to kill you by accelerating into the car in front of you. The hysteria in the MSM was laughable.
Just a timing coincidence I’m sure. The fact the feds had an incentive to drive down sales of a major GM competitor had nothing to do with the mass hysteria.
And funny enough, once the feds sold their stake in GM, the problem magically went away. Amazing how that worked, huh?
I agree, there was no question there was cooperation to take the focus off of the bailout car companies.
The floor mats were killing people. But internal memo saying how much cost of a recall they saved along with a few deaths…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248177/Toyota-recall-Last-words-father-family-died-Lexus-crash.html
Now new car floor mats have a warning on them stating specifically not to install more than one on the driver’s side. It’s actually kind of funny with a floor hinging accelerator.
It is a timing coincidence. Toyota was recalling cars for stuck pedals in Europe before the scandal hit. They had the same problem with the same parts in the US, but denied it. If Toyota had fessed up sooner, they would have been in a lot less trouble.
Btw: Chrysler had the same part (yes, Toyota and Chrysler source the same parts) and the same problem, but thanks to a brake override, the issue was mitigated.
Our litigious system needs to be reformed, but expect trial lawyers to fight tooth and nail to keep their shakedown economy.
“Unintended Acceleration Saga Ends”… Although there wasn’t any [Unintended Acceleration]. What a country!
Toyota had no way to retrieve dtc codes except one or two readers in the US. They have been well documented computer problems from the ecu a d even Jack B. has a BCM computing story about them over heating.
Why do people say there wasn’t any unintended acceleration? Even Toyota fessed up to it years ago!
Where there a lot of people trying to take advantage of the negative publicity? Yes and they should be penalized for it. None of that negates the fact that there was an issue.
If there was an issue… why then the remediation for it was
1. Cut gas pedal in half
2. Do something with floor mats(recall/replace/remove)
3. Install override software
1 and 2 solve issues that floor mats will not interact with gas pedal. I am well familiar with this issue. I remember in my minivan floor mats didn’t have hooks and one time it ended up under brake pedal. It wasn’t good.
My current Toyota had all 3 of these and I have not done any of them. Still works fine.
The pedals were sticking without the involvement of the mats (thought that could happen also, on any car). They were sticking on their own. That’s why the override was needed.
My recall was to cut off piece of the pedal, not to replace it because it sticks. You know, my family runs as many as 15 Toyotas and non had issues of unintended acceleration.
I am pretty much sure stepping on the wrong pedal is the cause of “unintended acceleration”.
That said I have a 2009 V6 RAV4 and the scariest part to people who use this vehicle occasionally is the rather 1750 RPM cold idle speed. When you let your foot off the brake at that RPM you do get unexpected acceleration.
Of course the high idle RPM is government (probably EPA/CARB) mandated to speed up engine and exhaust heating to reduce, however minimally, pollutants over the drive cycle.
Wasn’t one of the odd things about this sorry saga that even if the throttle is fully open the brakes are still powerful enough to bring the car to a halt without too much difficulty – which would suggest that pressing the wrong pedal is the most likely explanation?
Indeed. Here is a quote from one auto publication that in 2009 tried to reproduce the alleged unintended acceleration in several similarly powered cars (about 270hp).
“With the Camry’s throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet—that’s a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry’s throttle closed.”
I never remember seeing those test highlighted in the the numerous media accounts describing the ordeal of these unintended acceleration victims.
Kind of funny that a V6 Camry with the throttle wide open braked to a stop from 70 mph in a shorter distance than a Ford Taurus with the throttle at idle. That is automotive safety information that should have made the headlines.
I am glad that this publicity has not hurt Toyota sales over the years but Toyota purchasers of course pay more to pay the various fines, oversight costs and settlements.
Oh and I forgot to mention shifting into neutral if you have a with a runaway engine.
In many cases, you are correct. That doesn’t mean it was the issue all of the time.
Let’s go back to the trooper died. The person that turned in the car before him, reported very poor brakes. Can very poor brakes overpower the engine? Maybe not. Was the rental company more at fault for letting the car back on the road? Probably.
Yes, many reports of UA were BS. That doesn’t mean all of them were.
IIRC, the trooper and family died because the floor mats were double stacked and pinned the accelerator pedal. He pumped the brakes in an effort to stop the vehicle, but that depleted the vacuum boost so his brakes were less effective and overheating. He would have been better off standing on the brakes.
Turning off the engine was also confusing as the Lexus was push button start and required a 3 second hold, something that was not widely known. Shifting into neutral was an option, but that’s only 2nd nature to people who drive sticks.
In this case, I can see Toyota was at fault.
I don’t think it was Toyota so much as the dealership. It’s worth noting that the previous driver of the loaner had complained about the brakes, so it’s quite possible they were badly worn before the trooper got it.
Not to mention that a cop is going to drive like he doesn’t have to obey any speed limits.
True. It was the dealership that double stacked the floor mats. And didn’t follow up on the brake complaint.
Toyota is at fault to the extent of insufficient training of its dealers and simplifying the ignition off mode — which I believe was addressed.
But Toyota is being blamed and punished unfairly for the other cases of sudden unintended acceleration. It’s one of those frustrating cases where being in the right is insufficient. Toyota is better off paying and moving on, and hoping history judges them better (like Audi was).
rudiger, Toyota memo brags about limited floor mat recall savings.
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/100222-toyota-memo-brags-of-saving-100m-with-limited-recall
While I’m not a Toyota fanboi, I was very sympathetic to Toyota at be beginning of this fiasco. Yes, there were floormat problems. Yes, the cars could’ve been stopped by holding down the start button, or standing on (not pumping) the brakes. But I personally thought that the lawsuits were bogus, just like the lawsuits filed against Audi.
However.
In one privately-funded lawsuit against Toyota, some embedded-software experts studied Toyota’s software for 18 months. They documented that Toyota’s software was un-maintainable “spaghetti code”, and that Toyota did not use a source-control system. And they identified a critical task they called “Task X” in court testimony. According to their analysis, if Task X died, the car would accelerate with no input from the accelerator pedal.
The prosecution installed an ICE (In-Circuit Emulator) in two of the afflicted Toyotas, set the cars running on a dynamometer, and used the ICE to clobber some global variable with a bad value. Task X died as a result. With the car running almost 70MPH on the dyno, they pressed Resume on the cruise control, and, with Task X dead, the car accelerated beyond 90MPH with no accelerator. In this scenario, the brake pedal would still disengage the cruise control, and they did so, as 90+MPH on a dyno sounds pretty scary to me.
But they proved their points: a) Task X could be killed with some trivial memory corruption, and b) when Task X died, the car would likely accelerate with no driver input.
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319966
After the above loss, Toyota settled all the remaining unintended-acceleration cases:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-25/toyota-settles-oklahoma-acceleration-case-after-jury-verdict