US: Toyota Was Right About Acceleration

Maybe it was the floor mats after all? A government investigation has concluded that Toyota was right: there was no electronic glitch causing its cars to accelerate uncontrollably. “The jury is back, the verdict is in,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared. “There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period.” LaHood was “sometimes defiant” at the news conference, according to the Washington Post.

But don’t expect the report, which was based on tests by NASA engineers, to end the controversy. “Our experts tell us that the report is just wrong,” says the lawyer in a class-action suit against Toyota. The Center for Auto Safety also criticized the report, noting that the government only tested nine cars, making them very unlikely to find a problem that only occurred in one out of every 100,000 vehicles. (More Toyota recall stories.)