The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should examine possible flaws in electronic systems of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles, including unshielded wiring, as it investigates sudden acceleration incidents, consumer advocates and engineers said.
Toyota's cars relay electronic signals using wires that are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference, including plastic connectors attached to the engine control module, Keith Armstrong, an electrical engineer based in Stafford, England, said today at a Washington news conference.
"Thirty years of empirical evidence overwhelmingly points to sudden acceleration being caused by electronic system faults undetectable by inspection or testing," said Armstrong, who has testified in product liability cases. The conference, called a "Toyota Truth Media Briefing," featured Thomas Murray, who wrote a book on Toyota's electronics, a lawyer who sued Toyota and Ford Motor Co. and a driver in an acceleration accident.
Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has recalled about 8 million vehicles worldwide for defects that may cause sudden unintended acceleration. The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker has cited accelerator pedals that may stick or become snagged on floor mats for the sudden acceleration, with no evidence of failures in electronic-control systems.
Toyota has sold more than 40 million cars with electronic throttle controls and is "very confident" the system isn't causing unintended acceleration, the company said in an e-mailed statement. Murray has sued automakers in unintended acceleration cases since 1994, and courts have rejected the theory that electromagnetic interference causes the crashes, Toyota said.
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