Toyota Motor will once again defend its position over the recall scandal in the US at a senate committee hearing later today. Two company vice presidents will also make assurances that safety steps will be taken to rebuild consumer confidence in the company.
In prepared statements, Shinichi Sasaki and Takeshi Uchiyamada, who both serve as executive vice presidents of Toyota, will argue that the problem with Toyota’s electronic throttle control system has not led to cases of unintended acceleration in its cars.
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Uchiyamada’s statement reads: ”As a result of our extensive testing, we do not believe sudden unintended acceleration because of a defect in our ETCS has ever happened.”
Sasaki meanwhile will give details of the safety steps being taken. These will include giving Toyota’s North American business greater authority over recall decision-making. The company will also increase its focus on ”safety designs”.
The company’s overhaul of its quality assurance policy will look at vehicle design, manufacturing sales and service. Safety will be emphasised in its designs with added focus on driver behaviour and real world driving conditions.
Toyota will also pledge to improve the way that it gathers consumer information and establish new technical offices in the US.
There are also plans to launch an independent review panel to assess quality control changes.
This is the third hearing in Washington into the Toyota recall debaclé. Toyota has previously apologised for the defects in its cars that led to the mass recalls. However, it has always defended itself over allegations that it has tried to cover up the defects.
Despite these reassurances today’s committee is once again expected to probe the Toyota executives about when it learnt about the problems and how it then went about addressing them.
