When the unintended acceleration cases became the center of a national media frenzy, it was Toyota that turned the attention to the data found within their “black boxes” in order to prove driver error, not vehicle problems were at fault in many cases.
Now, according to the Washington Post, cases held before the unintended acceleration incidents show Toyota looking to dismiss the data from their event data recorders (black boxes), suggesting that they were unreliable.
One incident in 2007 involved a Toyota Tundra which struck a tree, killing the 29-year old driver. After the slain driver’s parents and a U.S. senator extensively campaigned to get Toyota to examine the black box, it was first found that the truck was traveling at 177 mph – an impossible speed for the truck by a vast margin. Another reading from the same box then suggested a speed of 75 mph.
In another instance involving a Toyota Echo in 2008, Toyota directly used the stance of claiming the lack boxes were too unreliable to be used in a lawsuit against the automaker. “The data retrieved from the EDR is far from reliable,” said a Toyota court filing. “The EDR was not intended to be used a reconstruction tool in the field. It has not been validated as a reliable reconstruction tool or crash data recorder for crash events in the field.”
To further demonstrate their point, Toyota pointed out that the black box indicated both seat belts were unbuckled at the time of the accident, even though both Toyota and the victim’s attorneys agreed one of the occupants was in fact wearing their seat belt. Toyota used this example to prove that the data was unreliable.
“The Toyota EDRs are so unreliable that even Toyota has challenged their reliability in court,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety. “Given the demonstrated errors, NHTSA can’t rely upon them in its investigation.
Toyota attempted to dismiss black boxes just before touting their findings
The Washington Post also pointed out that as recently as the beginning of the unintended acceleration cases Toyota itself mentioned in the Q&A on its own website that the tool used to read the black boxes had not been “scientifically validated,” and then added, “At this time, Toyota does not have confidence that the readout reports it generates are accurate.”
Just a couple weeks ago, however, in response to a series of lawsuits filed against the automaker regarding unintended acceleration, Toyota responded with this statement, “Toyota firmly believes that the system is completely safe and that reliable scientific evidence will demonstrate the safety of our vehicles in the investigations currently underway and, ultimately, to the court.”
As the NHTSA investigation into unintended acceleration causes nears an end, Toyota needs to decide one way or the other if it wants to rely on the data coming from the black boxes, or if it is unreliable – because as far as the law and the public is concerned, you can’t have it both ways.
References
1.”Event data recorders used…’ view
