Toyota Motor Corp has said it hasn’t found evidence its electronic throttle control caused unintended acceleration after engineers and technicians investigated more than 4,000 US vehicles whose drivers made such complaints. “Toyota has not found a single case in which electronics would lead to sudden unintended acceleration,” Steve St. Angelo, North American chief quality officer, said in a conference call today. Toyota has reviewed 4,200 individual acceleration-related complaints so far, he said.
The world’s largest automaker is working to improve its brand image and quality after global recalls of more than 8 million vehicles for defects linked to unintended acceleration. Some media reports and safety advocates have suggested Toyota’s electronic throttle-control system plays a role in sudden acceleration, an assertion Toyota denies.
Customer complaints of sudden-acceleration incidents dropped 80 percent since April, Toyota said in a statement.
The Toyota City, Japan-based company said today that it’s added so-called brake-override control to 84 per cent of Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles on sale in the US and will be the first manufacturer to offer the safety technology across its line-up. The software is intended to ensure that should the accelerator become stuck, it will be shut off when the brake pedal is pressed.
About 5 million recall-related repairs to fix sticky gas pedals and replace floor mats at risk of jamming the accelerator have been completed so far, Toyota said today.