Toyota was asked in 2007 to consider installing software to prevent sudden acceleration

[Omaha Steve]

Source: LA Times

By Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian

Federal regulators in 2007 asked Toyota Motor Corp. to consider installing software to prevent sudden acceleration in its vehicles after receiving complaints that vehicles could race out of control, company documents show.

Yet the automaker began installing the safety feature, known as brake override, only this January after a widely publicized accident involving a runaway Lexus ES that killed four people near San Diego.

Safety regulators acknowledged late last week that they pressured Toyota anew last fall to consider the override software in the wake of that crash, which set off a chain of events leading the company to issue nearly 10 million recall notices worldwide.

Brake override -- software that automatically drops a vehicle's throttle to idle when both the brake and accelerator pedals are depressed simultaneously -- is designed to stop a car even if its engine is accelerating. Lawmakers and safety experts have questioned whether sudden acceleration is responsible for at least 56 deaths and hundreds of injuries in Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the last decade, and since late January have been scrutinizing the automaker's response to the issue.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-toyota-brake14-2010mar14,0,1892566.story

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See the full 2 page story.

[Kurska]

1. ASKED? WE ASKED? We should have TOLD.

Is our government so god damn gutless.

[LakeSamish706]

2. They certainly were in 2007... If we had given W. another few years he probably would have

completely finished the job of destroying the country.

[jody]

3. Agree a government protecting We the People would have TOLD but we have a Corporate State.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. "Is our government so god damn gutless"

uh, yeah. Over the last 30 years, name legislation that has actually helped out "We the People". I can think of only two- FMLA and Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

[Edweird]

4. That's gonna leave a mark.

[d.gibbs]

5. $100 million "savings" vs. $5 billion loss and counting

[defendandprotect]

7. Lack of regulation . . . !!! Dangerous for all of us -- including capitalism . . .

if we all survive long enough, we'll see capitalism commit suicide!!

[liberal N proud]

8. Exactly

[Blandocyte]

9. So this would be the free market at work?

What a freakin' crapload.

[ingac70]

10. kick.

[ingac70]

11. kick.

[No Elephants]

12. When "we" "asked," was "our" humbl "request" publicized, or did we politely keep it a secret?