- Toyota won't face the first trial in federal court over sudden-acceleration problems in its vehicles until February 2013, a judge ruled late last week.
- A Toyota Camry will be at the center of the first lawsuit, a personal injury/wrongful death case.
- The so-called "bellwether" lawsuit concerns a crash that killed two people in Utah.
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Toyota won't face the first trial in federal court over sudden-acceleration problems in its vehicles until February 2013, a judge ruled late last week.
A Toyota Camry will be at the center of the first lawsuit, a personal injury/wrongful death case. The so-called "bellwether" lawsuit concerns a Utah crash in which two people were killed.
"The conduct of a trial in the first quarter of 2013 will markedly advance these proceedings," said U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna in a posting on his court's Web site. "The court believes that selection of a personal injury/wrongful death case in (sic) most the likely type of case to meet that goal."
The first trial is set for February 19. A second bellwether trial is tentatively set for May 21, 2013. The court said it hasn't yet decided "whether one of the first two bellwether cases should be some form of economic-loss class action."
The tentative order said that the first bellwether trial — Van Alfen v. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. — would address claims by the families of two people killed in a November 5, 2010 crash in Utah. Paul Van Alfen died when his 2008 Toyota Camry crashed into a wall. Passenger Charlene Lloyd died the next day.
Judge Selna also ruled last week that only California car owners — not those in other states — claiming economic loss can take advantage of the state's favorable consumer-protection laws. The action drastically cuts the size of a potential class action against Toyota filed on behalf of consumers and calls into question speculation that the Toyota litigation could cost the automaker upward of $3 billion if it lost the federal case.
The bellwether case could lead to other trials or limit future litigation.
"We are pleased that the initial bellwether will address plaintiffs' central allegation of an unnamed, unproven defect in Toyota vehicles, as every claim in the (multi-district litigation) rests upon this pivotal technical issue," said Celeste Migliore, a Toyota spokesperson, in an e-mail to Inside Line. "In our view, a decision on this core claim and the related causation issues will greatly speed the entire MDL.
"We...remain confident that scientifically reliable and admissible evidence will demonstrate that no defect exists in our electronic throttle control systems."
Toyota recalled millions of vehicles in the U.S. starting in 2009 following claims of defects and incidents of sudden unintended acceleration. The automaker was hit with record federal fines for dragging its feet on the recalls and was the center of a congressional investigation.
In February, NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said their investigation into possible electronic defects in Toyota vehicles found no causes for unintended acceleration other than sticking accelerator pedals and floor mats that jammed the pedals.
Inside Line says: Legal proceedings are moving forward in the high-profile Toyota lawsuits.
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laibach says:
10:47 AM, 06/14/2011
Frank,
* And yet consumer complaints have shown no pattern except a reaction to hype, say Nitsa and NASA.
* NASA hasn't scoured other automakers' potentiometers for tin whiskers, so Toyota is in a vacuum.
* There's no reason why NASA or especially Ray LaHood would ignore something potentially dangerous and pull Toyota out from under the bus.
wizznh says:
10:02 AM, 06/14/2011
NASA did find a fault with the Camry pedal assembly. Here's what they found (begins on page 114 of the NASA/DOT report):
6.6.2.3 Evaluation of Consumer VOQ #10304368
In general, the NESC assessment focused on failures that would not generate a DTC. However,
while reviewing the VOQ data, the NASA and NHTSA teams encountered a VOQ (NHTSA
VOQ #10304368) related to a defective potentiometer accelerator pedal, where the consumer
stated that she still possessed the defective assembly. After contacting the consumer, NHTSA
was able to obtain the defective pedal for analysis. The NESC team was able to inspect, analyze,
simulate and test the defective potentiometer (resistive) accelerator. The investigation revealed a
resistive short between the sensor outputs (between VPA1 and VPA2) and an unexpected (not as
described by the manufacturer) ETCS-i response under some system conditions. Further
investigation of the accelerator pedal revealed the cause of the pedal resistive short as a tin
whisker. This section describes the team's activities associated with this particular defective
accelerator pedal.
The second path shows after an ignition key cycle the DTC and MIL remain; however, the
vehicle responds differently depending on how the accelerator is pressed. When the accelerator
is pushed slowly, the vehicle has a jumpy response, and is capable of full throttle without throttle
brake override. When the accelerator pedal is pushed quickly, the fail-safe limp home mode is
active including brake override.
Scientists I know at NASA are very concerned that there are Camrys on the road today with pedal assemblies which can grow tin whiskers which can short and cause sudden unintended acceleration. There's more in the report, you just have to search for the term "whisker".
Also, ask yourself, why can it be ok for the throttle to override the brake?
Did you know that when the throttle is at the full open position, at 45 mph, that it takes (NASA measured it) 600 pounds of pressure on the brake pedal to stop the automobile and that at full throttle, there is no vacuum boost to the brakes (i.e. no power brakes).
I believe the design is flawed. The brake should always diengage the throttle signal.
dgmail says:
03:11 AM, 06/14/2011
Time for Turd-ota to buy somemore political influence.
laibach says:
03:05 AM, 06/14/2011
dgs4, when you publish the emails of a company, any company, or any person for that matter, you're bound to find things that don't look good. Let's not be naive. Can we see every email you've ever sent? Don't think so.
dmpete says:
02:42 AM, 06/14/2011
This is nothing more than a witch hunt.....w/ Toyota riding the broom. Nothing has been proven by many independent sources. But at the end of the day it will cost them millions of dollars, to get out of this even if they win, they won't win, bc the media has an agenda. It's agenda is to dethrone the #1 car maker in the world....(you know the title GM used to hold). It's a classic case of media driven mass hysteria.....
dgs4 says:
10:25 PM, 06/13/2011
While Toyota is probably innocent of the these charges, it still doesn't excuse their scummy behavior regarding the emails from top management boasting about saving $100M by successfully negotiating with the government on a limited floor mat recall. From what I remember, the document cited millions of dollars in other savings by delaying safety regulations, avoiding defect investigations and slowing down other industry requirements. Yeah Toyota, you're a real class act!
Also, this lawsuit doesn't address Toyota's other crime, their absolutely horrible vehicle portfolio. There is no way anyone would know cars like the Supra and MR2 came from the Toyota of today, if it was not part of automotive history. Unless of course you consider that new $375,000 super car that NOBODY (well, I guess a few people) can afford to buy. Great move Toyota, maybe one day you'll even remember how to build a sports car for us poor slob common folk who aren't filthy rich.
laibach says:
06:27 PM, 06/13/2011
The reason why Kirsch's comments about low-speed acceleration didn't make headlines is because he and LaHood concluded that there's nothing to talk about, and LaHood surely wanted to emerge from the weeds with something more than aphids.
laibach says:
06:06 PM, 06/13/2011
1. High-profile "911" crash in California, caused by an incompatible rubber mat
2. Fear-mongering by "safety advocates" funded by plaintiffs
3. Hypochondriac consumers start complaining
4. The press piles on, spurring more complaints
5. Badly-timed recalls by Toyota, which fanned the flames
6. Congress yapping
7. LaHood yapping
What's missing? An acceleration problem.
frankok1 says:
05:24 PM, 06/13/2011
There is another government panel investigating UA for all vehicles.
http://www.trb.org/PolicyStudies/UnintendedAccelerationStudy.aspx
At last meeting NASA's Kirsch summarized the redacted NASA reports - from last page in:
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/UA/030311Kirsch.pdf
"NASA detailed analysis and testing did not find evidence that malfunctions in electronic throttle control caused large unintended accelerations, as described by some consumer reports.
NASA found a way that the electronic throttle control can fail, that combined with driver input, can cause the throttle to jump to 15 degrees open, but consumer reports of this condition is very low and it leaves evidence of occurrence.
NASA found ways that the electronic throttle control can fail that results in small throttle openings up to 5 degrees."
I cannot understand why Kirsch's report received so little press. No proof of high speed UA by NASA but those smaller ones could explain many of the low crash incidents in parking lots etc. There is no reason why drivers are misapplying pedals in many different Toyota models
http://www.autoobserver.com/2011/02/rav4-complaint-exception-in-new-toyota-recalls.html
, but not in many others such as GM's that have had very very low numbers of cases per vehicle sold. I would bet there still is an electronics / computer error.
Brake pedal override will help overcome them but one has to still "hit" the brakes.
NASA/NESC analyzed SOME of the code - appears to have used a good checker - but may not have been the source code:
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2011/releases/02-14-11.html
Wonder if it is as good or better than MISRA
http://www.oregonsae.org/Meetings/misra_C.pps
There are a couple million lines of code and I still believe NASA just didn't find the RARE gremlin for as they called "large unintended accelerations". Perhaps the 10 investigators that will have the secret source code in the big CA trial will find it.
Ultra-Secret Code Is The Heart Of Toyota's Throttle Control System
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
excerpt
Selna indicated that he favored allowing the plaintiffs to access the source code through Toyota's server and not allowing the plaintiffs' analysts to have a copy on their own servers.
The judge also proposed allowing Toyota to alert the court and request an emergency hearing if it believed plaintiffs were accessing the code in an improper way.
Plaintiff attorneys hope to begin analyzing the source code for Toyota's electronic throttle control system in April and expect the process could take up to 10 months, plaintiffs' attorney Mark Robinson told the court. The plaintiffs will hire 10 engineers who will examine the source code in two shifts in a specially designated and secure room in Maryland, he said.
The room will be guarded and will have a surveillance camera and a screener at the door to monitor who comes and goes, and any material that is not shredded at the end of each day will be placed in a safe. Those wishing to enter the room will submit to scans of their irises and hands.
tdiluv says:
04:43 PM, 06/13/2011
Why have the case at all, ohhhhhhh thats right, it's to keep a few hundred lawyers employed to help the economy!