2010 Toyota Camry

2010 Toyota Camry

Recently, we reported on the U.S. House Committee’s investigation into Toyota and the ensuing subpoena that covers some 6000 legal documents. That piece of news doesn’t seem to help Toyota’s quest in their recent advertisements to ensure people that they are doing everything they can to correct the problems and are committed to their customers. To try and back this position up, Akio Toyoda, said last week that all future models will include a brake-override system.

The brake-override system that will be equipped to future models is supposed to cut the engine when both the accelerator and brake pedals are pressed simultaneously. Now, hopefully, this fail-safe system will be of an intelligent design because there are some drivers that still practice left-foot braking and there are even others that apply the brake and the gas at the same time. We haven’t seen a detailed explanation of how the brake-override system will work, but we are waiting on rotors and calipers.

Another addition to future vehicles that Toyota feels is necessary is an improved on-board event data recorder. Think of the data record as an automotive version of the “black box” flight data recorder. According to Toyota’s executive vice president, Shinichi Sasaki, the companies “investigative capability has not been fully satisfactory.” However, this also raises the question of what information this “black box” will record and how can Toyota legally use it? It hasn’t been unheard of for car companies to comb the registration list of local car racing organizations to try and void warranty claims, which begs the question of what the data recorder will record?

 

Stay tuned for more information as we learn it here at CollegeCarGuide.com.[Source: L.A. Times]