House Oversight Committee Issues Subpoena for Toyota Documents
18 February 2010
The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued a subpoena for “all documents relating to Toyota motor vehicle safety and Toyota’s handling of alleged motor vehicle defects and related litigation” in the possession of Dimitrios Biller, who served as the National Managing Counsel for Toyota’s American operation from 2003-2007.
Earlier this month, news reports surfaced regarding accusations Biller had made regarding Toyota’s efforts to hide “evidence of safety defects from consumers and regulators, and fostered a culture of ‘hypocrisy and deceit.’”
As ABC News reported, Biller was quoted as saying: “You have to understand that Toyota in Japan does not have any respect for our legal system…they did not have any respect for our laws.” Biller has claimed that his accusations are verifiable based on documents that are in his possession.
Toyota had filed an injunction preventing Biller from disclosing those documents, however, the Oversight Committee’s subpoena supersedes the injunction and Biller plans to fully cooperate with the subpoena.
The Committee is conducting a comprehensive, fact-based investigation with the intent of collecting and analyzing as much relevant information as possible. The only way we can ensure that the safety needs of American drivers are being met is to examine, in a bipartisan fashion, exactly who knew what and when, and if appropriate and immediate action was taken to mitigate any danger to the American public.
— Committee Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) and Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Chairman Towns also invited Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Corporation, to testify at a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, 24 February titled, “Toyota Gas Pedals: Is the Public At Risk?”
In the letter to Toyoda, Chairman Towns wrote:
There is widespread public concern regarding reports of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota motor vehicles. There appears to be growing public confusion regarding which vehicles may be affected and how people should respond. In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it. To help clarify this situation, I am inviting you to testify…
Yesterday, Towns and Issa wrote to several major auto insurance companies asking whether any of these companies reported sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) incidents to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Letters were sent to Geico, State Farm Group, Progressive Group, Allstate Insurance and Farmers Insurance Group.
Toyota (and other foreign builders) may have to build Politically acceptable cars to compete in our land.
This is a new twist in global trade. If push any further it may put an end to interstate, intercontinental and international trade.
Since similar games can be played both ways,
time will tell who will be the long term winners and losers. Trade protectionist has very few long term winners because it protects lobbies, pressure groups and inefficiencies resulting into lower quality and higher prices. Look at what happened to USSR products.
Posted by: HarveyD | 18 February 2010 at 02:57 PM
Let's see - GM is government-owned and Toyota will be legally judged.
Sounds like GM culture - may the best car win..
Posted by: kelly | 18 February 2010 at 03:55 PM
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The Obama administration takes over GM. The Obama administration hauls GM's largest competitor in for hearings about "their dangerous cars." The Obama administration suddenly issues a slew of recall notices on the Obama administration's largest competitor, Toyota. The Obama administration who has had the president of SEIU (union) in the White House more than any other person hauls in it's competitor who does not utilize unions.
No, nothing to see here...
Chicago politics at their best!!!
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Posted by: The Goracle | 18 February 2010 at 04:44 PM
When you can't compete any more in free world trade, use your lobbies and law makers to trump up cases, run down the competitors products and pass news laws to restrain their sales.
If that's not enough, finance election style multi-media campaigns to convince local buyers that the national products are much better than imported units.
If sales of the national products are still going down, impose new 30+% import tariff and fight it out in the world courts for the next 10+ years.
Apply stricker regulations against diesels, AWD, over-efficient ICE/HEV units and other technologies that local lobbies and unions are not supporting.
To make more friends, get the Supreme Court involved to legalize all means used.
Posted by: HarveyD | 18 February 2010 at 06:42 PM
Before any further indictment against the US gov., let's consider this class-action lawsuit:
"A lawsuit was filed against Toyota in Texas on Friday seeking class-action status on behalf of car owners who have experienced acceleration problems, allegedly due to defects in the Japanese car manufacturer's Electronic Throttle Control System with Intelligence ('ETCS-i') and Electronic Throttle Control System 'ETCS').
Plaintiffs Albert Pena and Sylvia Pena maintain that the 2008 Toyota Avalon they purchased as a new car has ETCS-i and ETCS defects that, in two separate incidents, caused a crash, and unexpected accelration when the car should have slowed down.
Husband Albert maintains that last month his Toyota "unexpectedly accelerated at a stop sign, causing a collision."
Wife Sylvia charges that when she was driving their Toyota Avalon, the couple's car "suddenly and unexpectedly accelerated while attempting to slow down to make a turn.
The Pena's contend that Toyota's ETCS-I and ETCS technology was responsible for problems with their car, since it control's their Toyota's throttle:
by electronic signals that are sent from a sensor that detects the position of the gas pedal to an electronic control module that determines how much throttle opening is being requested and in turn sends electronic signals to a throttle control motor that opens the throttle plate.
The lawsuit says that Toyota used to have a "redundant mechanical linkage" that, in the event of a ETCS-i failure, would disconnect the electronic throttle control system immediately switch over to allow the driver to control the throttle manually. Around 2001, the lawsuit states, Toyota and Lexus did away with this redundant mechanical linkage.
They charge that Toyota and Lexus owners have filed more than 2,000 complaints with the carmakers and government agencies concerning sudden unintended acceleration."
Since this is going to be a high-profile case, I would expect that the allegations have factual basis. Microprocessors can freeze or lockup, requiring reboots. Direct mechanical linkages on vital controls are a must. Even with triple redundant control systems, the V-22 tilt-rotors and Airbuses have crashed due to computer malfunction!
Posted by: Roger Pham | 18 February 2010 at 07:35 PM
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Yes, and remember back in the 1980's when Volvo (I believe) was run through the shredder for making cars that would SUDDENLY accelerate when all of the drivers were stepping on the brake? Yes, without pressing on the gas, but pressing on the brake, the car would take off, plowing through whatever was in front of it.
Afters years of litigation, bad press, etc., it turns out that the drivers were actually stomping on the gas, not the brakes. There was no Volvo engine powerful enough to overpower the brakes and cause the car to take off.
Of course all of the claims were legitimate, right? When stomping on the gas the cars should have known not to go, right?
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Posted by: The Goracle | 18 February 2010 at 09:13 PM
@The Goracle,
Did those Volvo involved have electronic throttle (drive by wire)? Or do they simply have a cable connecting the gas pedal directly to the throttle plate?
It would be interesting to have data on the incidences of reported "sudden acceleration" for all automakers, with normalization to the number of vehicles sold for each automaker, in order to see whether there are statistically-significant higher percentage of Toyota with acceleration problem than the rest of the auto industry. I hope that the defense lawyers for Toyota will look into this as part of their defense strategy.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 18 February 2010 at 10:02 PM
If GM had cars that did this and killed people, you would see an outcry. The fact that it is a Japanese company should make no difference. Killing and injuring people with a faulty product is a serious matter.
Posted by: SJC | 19 February 2010 at 10:44 AM