alt Hacker NewsAh yes, where Toyota was found guilty of not being a US company.
The only thing they did in the recall was the same floor mat anchor as so many other cases.
"NASA engineers found no electronic flaws in Toyota vehicles capable of producing the large throttle openings required to create dangerous high-speed unintended acceleration incidents. The two mechanical safety defects identified by NHTSA more than a year ago – “sticking” accelerator pedals and a design flaw that enabled accelerator pedals to become trapped by floor mats – remain the only known causes for these kinds of unsafe unintended acceleration incidents. Toyota has recalled nearly 8 million vehicles in the United States for these two defects." -- transportation.gov
Cosmic rays and other wild theories over the simple theory of driver error. Even with a stuck throttle, the brakes will still stop a car (not to mention shifting into neutral still works).
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Ok, but their engine controller was found to have 12,000 global variables and no one could ever say conclusively that the pedal issue was real or not.
The issue was not that no one found the flaw, it’s that no one could prove it wasn’t there.
Not to mention that in an emergency, you can always turn the key to kill the engine, and then put it back into pre-igntion (to unlock the steering column). You won't have power-assisted braking or power-steering, but with a bit of adrenaline-fueled strength, it is definitely preferable to being in a car that is stuck accelerating.