The events that led Toyota to recall 10 million vehicles may go down in industrial history as the biggest mountain of a crisis ever made out of the smallest molehill of a technical glitch. We now have verifiable facts, rather than conclusions drawn by the media based on assumptions, innuendo and fear.
Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#22The events that led Toyota to recall 10 million vehicles may go down in industrial history as the biggest mountain of a crisis ever made out of the smallest molehill of a technical glitch. We now have verifiable facts, rather than conclusions drawn by the media based on assumptions, innuendo and fear.
Here's a list of relevant articles:
+ The Washington Post editorial - "NHTSA Report Clears up Mystery - and Hysteria - on Toyota Cars"
+ Harvard Business Review - "Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?"
+ Bloomberg BusinessWeek - "Toyota: The Media Owe You an Apology"
+ Automotive News "One Year Later: Let's Get Beyond Toyota Speed Scare"
+ Fortune "The Safety Police Go after Toyota Again"
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#23I'm sure that this is a common phrase, but one of my friends gave this advice to me: "Their perception is your reality." He was talking about management, and maintaining a good image to your employees, but the phrase applies to everything. People's perception was that Toyota had some terrible electrical problems, and the news media, being a for-profit endeavor, ran with it. So Toyota's perceived problems became reali…
"So Toyota's perceived problems became reality, and we needed to devote 10 months of the brightest engineering minds in the world to change that." Sadly, that's not how it works. People will forever remember that Toyota had horrible safety problems, and not that they were actually exonerated in the end.
Indeed. I still won't touch an Audi even decades after the 60 Minutes episode, even though it turned out to be false. Logically I know but logic only goes so far.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#24> Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned? How completely unreliable our media can be when it comes to anything not having to do with Jersey Shore or American Idol? Forgive the snark, but the idea that a company lost all that money, sustained such damage to their brand and image built over so many years simply because of a media that failed to do their jobs makes my blood boil.
Don't forget the government role--even if the media simply reported what Secretary LaHood said the coverage would have been over the top.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#25Also from NASA this week: No evidence your neighbor is a Communist.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the floor mat really a Toyota specific problem? What is so damn awful about their floor mats that you end up in an accident? I had a Ford and I put in rubber floor mats on top of the OEM carpet ones. No problem upon installation, but overtime they slipped up behind my pedals and I had problems with braking/acceleration. I stopped, got out, pull the floor mat back 3", and everything was fine. Now if I feel the floo…
It was a floor mat from a suv(bigger) put in a Lexus sedan. The reason the thing was such a media darling because it had all the trappings for news ratings: Borrowed luxury vehicle, police officer off duty, 911 call up until the end, 90 plus mph, flying off a cliff to a huge crash and fire that killed the whole carload of passengers. If it was an accelerator getting stuck and crashing into a pole from a red light it…
The first time I read this account, my immediate response was that the police officer was an idiot. Regardless of why the accelerator is stuck, it seems as though a trained police officer should know that you can shift a moving car into neutral with the flick of a wrist. Yes it might ruin the engine, but who cares.
The fact that he had time to call 911 and didn't do this first is shocking to me. I knew this trick since I was 16 - and cars aren't even my thing.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was a floor mat from a suv(bigger) put in a Lexus sedan. The reason the thing was such a media darling because it had all the trappings for news ratings: Borrowed luxury vehicle, police officer off duty, 911 call up until the end, 90 plus mph, flying off a cliff to a huge crash and fire that killed the whole carload of passengers. If it was an accelerator getting stuck and crashing into a pole from a red light it…
The first time I read this account, my immediate response was that the police officer was an idiot. Regardless of why the accelerator is stuck, it seems as though a trained police officer should know that you can shift a moving car into neutral with the flick of a wrist. Yes it might ruin the engine, but who cares. The fact that he had time to call 911 and didn't do this first is shocking to me. I knew this trick sin…
I've read that when the engine is racing, it can take some force to get the transmission into neutral. Don't know if that's actually true (never tried, and I usually drive a manual), but it would explain the failure.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the floor mat really a Toyota specific problem? What is so damn awful about their floor mats that you end up in an accident? I had a Ford and I put in rubber floor mats on top of the OEM carpet ones. No problem upon installation, but overtime they slipped up behind my pedals and I had problems with braking/acceleration. I stopped, got out, pull the floor mat back 3", and everything was fine. Now if I feel the floo…
My '09 Toyota Corolla has hooks that keep the floor mats in place. The only way to jam the mat underneath the brake pedal would be to do it deliberately.
as does my '03 4Runner.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#29The interesting part of this is that NASA did a study. I used to work for NASA as a contractor. I never met anyone with automotive engineering experience. Not that there weren't any, but wouldn't it make more sense to hire an automotive engineering consulting company to do a study? Come to think of it, I wonder who NASA hired to do the study. I bet dollars to donuts it wasn't government (NASA) employees. But people (…
I think some of the people working on all those rovers keep up with automotive technology. Also, when it comes to the specific systems involved they know more about sensors, robotics, and real time systems than just about any organization on the planet. PS: NASA engineers were contracted to conduct research into whether electronic systems or electromagnetic interference played a role in incidents of unintended accele…
Well, those rovers don't have engines. But the interference makes a lot of sense. Radiation/interference is a major issue for space electronics.
Interesting side note: The Hubble Space Telescope used a basically stock (totally stock?) intel 486 in its computer - mainly, I'm told, because they came out of the box with remarkable radiation resistance. I was a mechanical guy, however, so don't quote me on that.
Re: Toyota's Recall Crisis: What Have We Learned?
#30>> So who won in this debacle? The author does not mention the advantages that would come to GM as a result of this recall. Since the gov is an owner of GM, you could argue there was a potential conflict of interest here. See this ->>> "GM isn't wasting any time taking advantage of Toyota's weakened position after its massive recall and sales stoppage. The General has just announced new incentives for current Toyota…
I remember also reading a piece in Stratfor about how the American leadership was disappointed with Japanese diplomacy. This sort of boring stuff is actually important in real-world policy enforcement.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JziQfDN...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:t5XDNqP...