Friends,
Toyota USA President Jim Lentz testified in front of Congress today and let members of the country’s most hated profession ask him pointed, self-aggrandizing questions filled with OUTRAGE! Lentz brought the statements, though, including this prepared thing…
“We are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles. We have designed our electronic throttle control system with multiple fail-safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure. We have done extensive testing of this system and have never found a malfunction that caused unintended acceleration.”
Throttle-by-wire systems scare the snot out of me as a rule. Look, the robots are clearly out to kill us, that’s a given. The idea that a company as gigantic, wealthy and pervasive as Toyota can’t design an economical car without resorting to cutting the mechanical throttle linkage is pretty troubling to me. Can’t figure that out? Really?
Maybe they have let their customers down—by being punks.
– bob