US Congress Panel: 丰田误导消费者

“Toyota resisted the possibility that electronic defects could cause safety concerns, relied on a flawed engineering report and made misleading public statements。”

丰田不理会由于电子故障可能引起安全问题的可能性，反而依赖一份有问题的工程报告，并发表误导消费者的公告。

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国会听证会：丰田误导消费者

House panel: Toyota misled the public, dismissed electronic defects

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- Toyota Motor Corp. repeatedly discounted the idea that electronic problems could be to blame for sudden acceleration incidents, and the government's response was "seriously deficient," a House panel found.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and its investigations subcommittee chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, outlined their preliminary findings today, one day ahead of a hearing on Toyota's recall of 8.5 million vehicles worldwide for sudden acceleration issues.

"Toyota resisted the possibility that electronic defects could cause safety concerns, relied on a flawed engineering report and made misleading public statements," the committee said in a letter to Toyota Motor Sales USA president Jim Lentz.

The committee also said the government didn't adequately investigate.

"NHTSA's response to complaints of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles appears to have been seriously deficient," the committee said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Despite getting more than 2,600 complaints since 2000, which now allege at least 34 deaths, and conducting six separate investigations into the issue of runaway Toyota vehicles, "NHTSA conducted only one cursory investigation in 2004 into the possibility that defects in electronic controls could be responsible for these incidents."

The Transportation Department said NHTSA has the resources to conduct investigations.

"NHTSA has numerous engineers on staff with experience with electrical engineering and ETC issues, and also consults with outside experts whenever necessary," spokeswoman Olivia Alair said. "Since 1980, NHTSA has conducted 141 investigations related to throttle control issues.

"NHTSA is once again undertaking a comprehensive review of sudden acceleration, including the possible influence of electromagnetic interference, software anomalies or other electronic issues."

Toyota also rejected electronics as a problem, the committee found. "Toyota consistently dismissed the possibility that electronic failures could be responsible for incidents of sudden unintended acceleration," the committee wrote to Lentz.

An NHTSA investigator, Scott Yon, led the probe about the electronic throttle control system in Toyota vehicles. "The investigation was marred by highly questionable assumptions and was closed after the agency failed to find a defect trend." NHTSA doesn't have the expertise to investigate these issues, the committee said. The agency has no electrical engineers or software engineers on staff, it told the committee last week.

In June 2004, NHTSA told Toyota it had seen a 400 percent increase in complaints regarding vehicle speed after Toyota introduced electronic throttle controls.

Toyota's documents reflect that NHTSA investigators "were more interested in mechanical and human explanations for the incidents than electronic ones."

NHTSA allegedly didn't take other issues -- including floor mat problems -- seriously in 2007. Chris Santucci, a former NHTSA official who works for Toyota, said in August 2007 in an e-mail to colleagues that he went to NHTSA for a meeting. "When I told them (I was there) for the ES350 floor mats, they either laughed or rolled their eyes in di*****elief."

Toyota turned over more than 75,000 pages of records, including more than 20,000 pages written in Japanese.

The committee raised questions about Toyota's independent testing of electronics issues, saying it has "serious flaws."

The study tested six Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

Toyota didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment.