The second Toyota hearing this week, before the House Oversight Committee on Wed. Feb. 24, was similarly unproductive in its effort to address complex issues in a highly simplified public hearing. At least Akio Toyoda’s use of an interpreter slowed the pace and made it slightly more difficult for the committee members to bowl over the witnesses. That said, the only substance at the hearing reiterated the written testimony of Akio Toyoda and Yoshimi Inaba, so reading those will give you the gist of the almost 2.5 hour handling of Panel 2. During the first panel, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in the witness seat from 11:10 am to 2:05 pm, and he behaved in a way that only a former congressman could.
In blustery fashion, Secretary LaHood defended his department, said that NHTSA has the necessary expertise, and replied “I’ll get back to you later for the record” any time specificity was required. Unlike the corporate witnesses, he was largely treated with courtesy and deference as a former fellow congressman, and even allowed himself the luxury of sarcasm, as when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) asked NHTSA to provide data on how effective recalls are in terms of the number of vehicles that actually get brought in to be fixed. “Of course we will, but we are a little busy right now so I hope you’re not going to stipulate [within] 24 hours,” LaHood responded. (News stories that followed the hearing reported that Secretary LaHood repeated his assertion that recalled vehicles are not safe, but his point was more that consumers need to follow through on recall notices and get the repairs made.)
Panel 2 - Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, and President & COO of Toyota Motor North America Yoshimi Inaba
The two Toyota executives expressed deep regret, and explained that: the company had gotten its traditional priorities of Safety, Quality, and Volume confused; had not done a good enough job of keeping the customers’ perspective at the forefront; and had lacked sufficient communication between regional operations. They outlined organizational measures taken to prevent such problems in the future. Mr. Inaba also described the recent recall measures, noting in his testimony, “In both of these cases, Toyota thoroughly and carefully evaluated the technical aspects of these issues. However, we now understand that we must think more from a customer first perspective rather than a technical perspective in investigating complaints, and that we must communicate faster, better and more effectively with our customers and our regulators.”
Both men reiterated that there has been no indication of problems in the electronic throttle control system. When asked about Dr. Gilbert’s testimony from Tuesday (see Wednesday's post ‘Impressions from the Congressional Hearings’), Mr. Toyoda expressed a willingness to have an open forum to work together and Mr. Inaba said they would be glad to listen to his input, but that it appears it involved cutting into the circuitry and manipulating it.
A sampling of questions from the committee members:
What Did You Know and When Did You Know It?
• When did Toyota first learn it had a problem with unintended acceleration and why did it take almost a year to bring it to the attention of regulators and even longer to report it to the public?
• Did your good reputation make regulators less inquiring or make you less demanding of yourselves?
• How do you say to your customers that they can trust you now when it seems there is no end to the series of promises that come short of reaching the goal of safety?
• [Regarding the presentation from Toyota’s Washington office citing favorable outcomes] This is one of the most embarrassing documents I’ve ever seen. Can you assure the committee that this will not be the approach of the company?
• How did Toyota lose its way? You say the company grew too fast. Some smart lawyer gave you those words.
Clueless Questioners
• Problems were detected sooner in Japan and Europe. Are you giving the American market the same level of attention as the Japanese or European markets?
• If you have one pedal mechanism that is resulting in problems and another that is not, going in the same vehicle, why not put the good pedal in all of them? Why don’t you have the same specifications?
Crazy Expectations of Mid-Hearing Commitments
• The Attorney General of New York announced an agreement with Toyota today that if a customer is afraid to drive his vehicle, the dealer will pick it up, repair it, and reimburse the customer for related charges like taxis. Will you commit to doing this for customers nationwide?
• Dealers are taking care of customers, but what about the families of people who died, will you assume their medical and funeral costs?
• I drive a Camry hybrid. Can you assure me that it will never be recalled, for any reason?
• Do you agree that the government should require all automakers to report total malfunctions, all incidents, no matter where in the world they occur? Yes or no?
At this point, we decided to forego watching the last panel, consisting of advocates and victims, which began at 5:36 pm.