Former Toyota Lawyer: Toyota hid flaws from regulators

This is sure to raise a stink.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a former top lawyer for Toyota claims the automaker regularly hid evidence of safety defects from consumers and regulators, and fostered a culture of "hypocrisy and deceit." ....

Biller also said that Toyota's gas pedal was not the real cause of random acceleration incidents. "It's the electronic throttle control," he said. Biller said he based his opinion on information he'd learned while at Toyota, but could not disclose the evidence because "that would be privileged information."

Remember that Toyota tried to blame the supplier of brake pedals for its problems.

Why would anyone buy a Toyota at this point?

The Detroit Three had there problems, but they really seem to pale in comparison to this. If I had to choose between a 1970s Chevy that might catch fire easily during a crash, and a late model Toyota that just won't stop, I'd choose the 70s Chevy.

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This is such a gift to GM, Ford

Honda is now looking at recalls. This is such a gift to GM, Ford and even Chrysler because Toyota was perceived to be safe, low maintenance, high MPG....

and here comes the #2 brand, Honda....with recalls! Wow.

I mean if GM architected the engineering bugs themselves through industrial sabotage, this couldn't be timed better or be better for their business. (I'm not saying GM somehow managed to generate software bugs in Toyota's firmware, just saying this is a gift to them).

(the software bugs probably came because some idiot at Toyota and Honda decided it was a grand idea to outsource their firmware design, or try to pay engineers $15/hr to write it...a practice common from the 3 big!)

There wasn't any software

There wasn't any software bug - just a lack of a safety feature. The Germans had a slight issue with the Audi 5000 and it's un-intended acceleration and you'll find that on their cars the brakes trump the throttle control so hitting the brakes always cuts fuel.

The idiots that got into accidents with their Toyota's ought to have their licenses shredded. They could have put it into neutral, they could have turned the ignition off - either would have shut down the engine.

Yes it's a shame that not all cars have a kill switch (ignition key) which will kill a run away engine (due to sticking throttle, bad sensor reading, computer gone funky, throttle motor sticking at extream...). Hopefully all mfgs will now implement this.

Unintended acceleration hasn't just bitten Toyota or Audi.

After more than a handful of Fords and having driven others as rentals I own my first Toyota. I slag the thing because my Chevy Sprint had better milage. The Toyota has 2x the power so it can't touch the milage of a Metro/Sprint/Swift.
Going from my Ford to the Toyota Echo was night and day. The Echo has brakes that work - while every Ford I've ever driven has brakes that could never lock the wheels except in winter or on gravel.

I'd buy another Suzuki Swift / Toyota Echo / Honda Fit over anything that the "big" 3 produce. This Toyota problem is MINOR compared to other flaws over the years. When they implement the software upgrade there will be three, not two, ways to deal with a run-away engine/computer. That's if the driver has a clue how to operate their vehicle.

Sadly what I want isn't available for sale - sub 40 hp 4 door that seats, ideally 5 or a hybrid with a max 10 hp IC engine. You have to spend $30k to best the milage of a late 80's or 90's Swift/Sprint/Metro and that's only the case if that precious hybrid is driven in non-winter conditions (the IC engine runs all of the time in the winter)!!

This whole thing is minor and the big three have NOTHING in the way of fuel efficient vehicles and their quality/reliablity sucks (speaking of someone who had a fun time finding shorts due to insulation falling off of wires INSIDE THE CABIN of a 7 year old Ford or the freekin' automatic transmission failures the inability of various Fords to deal well with failure of the speed pickup on the transmission...!

firmware is the bug

at least in the breaks it is. Well, this is an econ site and this PR, regardless of reality is going to hurt Toyota/Honda.

I'm with you on why people don't put the car in neutral but if one cannot turn off the engine manually, that's bad, bad, bad! Kind of like electronic windows...if you cannot do a manual override that's bad!

I mean calling 911 on your phone while your car is hitting 80 instead of turning off the engine and putting it in neutral is brain dead to me.