If you remember there was a professor who testified to Congress about Toyota's having an electrical issue causing acceleration issues. See the facts about him and the info behind his testimony
News Briefing Update: Test Vehicle Was ‘Rewired and Reengineered’
"Speculation is easy. Science takes a lot more effort," Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said at a news briefing at TMS headquarters in Torrance, Calif., on Monday. The briefing was held to raise serious concerns about the validity, methodology and credibility of unintended acceleration claims that Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert made at a Congressional hearing and on ABC News late last month.
It was a "convincing rebuttal" by Toyota, according to longtime auto journalist Bill Visnic of automotive Web site Edmunds.com. "Toyota really chipped away at the evidence provided by Dr. Gilbert during the Congressional hearings."
Gilbert’s study was commissioned by Sean Kane, a paid advocate for trial lawyers who are suing Toyota.
"We did what Dr. Gilbert and ABC should have done to test the real-world relevance of Dr. Gilbert’s findings," Michels said. "[His test] was completely unrealistic. He rewired and reengineered a vehicle in multiple ways, in a specific sequence."
At the briefing, engineers also showed that Gilbert’s manipulation of vehicle electronics created substantially similar results in vehicles from other manufacturers. This included live demonstrations on models from Ford, Subaru and BMW. "You cannot rewire a circuit and expect it to behave the way it was designed," said J. Christian Gerdes, a mechanical engineering professor at Stanford University and director of the university’s Center for Automotive Research.
The bottom line for Motor Trend writer Kim Reynolds? Gilbert's hypothesis looked "truly filleted."
To read Toyota’s news release on the matter and view related materials, including the report on the Gilbert study from consultant Exponent, please
visit:
http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/electronic-throttle-control-154300.aspx.
