Just to clarify, we are not suggesting that the above cash was caused by the Prius or that it had faulty brakes. It’s more of a symbol of how Toyota’s direction is looking at the moment. Case in point, investigations galore. (And yes, that is a Tesla roadster involved in the crash).
President of Toyota Akio Toyoda is currently in Washington to testify against allegations that Toyota knew of recent sticking gas pedal and faulty brake issues prior to the recall, yet chose not to act. He is also offering apologies to all Toyota customers, especially to those injured or even killed in Toyota’s that needed to be recalled. The NHTSA is investigating Toyota’s actions in the matter.
The Canadian government seems to be following suit as they plan to hold similar hearings commencing March 3, with the full support of the opposition parties.
Although the purpose of the hearing isn’t exactly to place blame on anyone (how Canadian of them), the government wants to know how this happened, how it went undetected and what can be done to prevent a similar situation in the future.
All we can say is if Toyota knew of these problems and chose not to act, then they are getting what’s coming to them. They should’ve taken a page from David Letterman and came right out with it -it would’ve blown over a lot sooner. If they honestly didn’t know a thing before hand, then that means there needs to be a serious overhaul in every single department in Toyota to ensure this does not happen again.
