Page 179 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

devoted to countering misinformation that was being reported.
For example, in late March, CNN reported that it had uncovered
a secret internal document from 2002 that showed that Toyota
knew about electronic defects that could cause sudden accelera-
tion in its vehicles. The “secret” document was in fact a public
document called a technical service bulletin (TSB) that was avail-
able on Toyota’s Web site and through several other databases
maintained by the NHTSA and independent auto mechanics.
Furthermore, it was a bulletin related to a transmission function,
not to sudden acceleration.*
The most important sources of information for changing
public opinion were the news media and the NHTSA—Toyota’s
claims of innocence would never be sufficient to change pub-
lic opinion, no matter how much data the company was able to
present. Unfortunately for Toyota, the NHTSA had adopted a
very cautious attitude toward disclosing the results of any investi-
gation or its work on sudden acceleration in general, presumably
because of the earlier accusations that it had coddled Toyota. Ul-
timately, because of the pressure on the NHTSA and questions
about its capability to carry out a full-scale investigation into ve-
hicle electronics, the agency began working with NASA and the
National Academy of Sciences in separate efforts to study the evi-
dence concerning the possibility of SUA in general and in Toyota
vehicles in particular. The NHTSA decided to hold the results of

* When there is an issue in a vehicle that is not considered a safety hazard, but
that affects customer satisfaction, it is standard in the industry to issue a techni-
cal service bulletin to all dealers. It outlines the problem and gives instructions
on how they should repair it. Customers are not broadly notified of a TSB, but
cases are dealt with one by one as the customers come in for service. This TSB
covered an update to Camry transmission software that for some drivers caused
uneven acceleration between speeds of 35 and 45 mph.

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