Toyota is also considering fixing the accelerator pedals of vehicles in a ”safety recall” it issued in the United States over the risk that a loose driver side floor mat could slip forward and jam the pedal, sources close to the matter said on Wednesday.
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Toyota is considering both altering the pedal’s shape and modifying a computerised control system on the vehicles – some 3.8m units – to enable drivers to stop if they get out of control and accelerate to high speeds because the pedal is jammed by the floor mat, they told Kyodo News.
If Toyota went ahead with the equipment fixes, it would cost the automaker several tens of billions of yen, the sources said.
Toyota on 6 October told the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of its decision to recall seven models including the Camry sedan, the top-selling passenger car in the United States, as well as the Lexus ES350, IS250 and IS350 sedans.
It has been urging owners to remove floor mats, including rubber mats customers might have bought at automobile accessory shops.
The NHTSA had received reports of some 100 related incidents, including 17 crashes and five fatalities, involving Toyota vehicles.
Toyota has argued that this recall is essentially different from the usual recall automakers implement for their vehicles with a safety-related defect.
It also said no similar floor mat problem has been found in the same models sold in Japan, adding that detailed causes of the accidents have yet to be identified.
Therefore, Toyota is considering fixing the vehicles as a voluntary maintenance measure, rather than mandatory, without acknowledging that the vehicles carry the alleged safety-related defect, the sources told Kyodo.
In August, a California man and three members of his family were killed in a high-speed crash of a dealer owned Lexus ES sedan. Before the crash, the driver made an emergency call to report that the accelerator pedal was stuck.
