(Official correction: Toyota said it was responding to a report on the 2007 Washington accident first carried by the Washington Post in August. In fact, the Los Angeles Times had reported the incident in July)
By Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has discovered and fixed a bug in the software that reads data from crash recorders and informed U.S. safety regulators of the problem in June, executives said on Monday.
The disclosure comes as the world's largest automaker battles to distance itself from a series of recalls this year that damaged its reputation for quality and raised concern about reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last month that it had found no evidence of new defects based on an examination of 58 event data recorders popularly known as "black boxes" -- from Toyota vehicles.
In more than half of the recorders that U.S. safety regulators examined, there was no indication that drivers applied brakes.
Toyota has said repeatedly that it has found no evidence of any fault with electronics or throttle controls on its vehicles that would necessitate further safety action.
Since last year, the company has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for unintended acceleration related to sticking gas pedals and loose floormats that could jam the accelerator.
Toyota has also been cooperating with a U.S. government-led investigation of its safety systems that has included U.S. space agency critics.
But safety advocates and lawyers for Toyota owners and crash victims have challenged whether the automaker's crash recorders are reliable as evidence in that probe.
Takeshi Uchiyamada, the Toyota executive in charge of product development and research, said on Monday that the automaker had confidence in the reliability of its vehicle recorders.
