Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs
Thursday, March 11, 2010

When former in-house defense attorney Dimitrios Biller resigned from his top post at Toyota, he walked out with 6,000 internal documents, including memos and e-mails potentially damaging to his former employer. "Not potentially, they are. They are very damaging," Biller said.

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Lawyers everywhere are salivating

I hope that poor guy in California who's in prison for a sudden acceleration accident that happened while returning from church with his family is exonerated, released, and gets a multimillion dollar settlement.

In the video, Biller, Toyota's top U.S. liability attorney, says Toyota kept their "Book of Knowledge" and other pertinent documents in Japan so they'd be out of the reach of U.S. courts.

CEO Toyada: "Oh, what a feeling. Sinking feeling."

"He says he quit because of what he alleges were "criminal acts" by Toyota -- specifically, withholding information the company was legally required to turn over to plaintiffs' lawyers during litigation."

If this is true, its a potential catastrophe for them. I wonder if he's got enough money to defend himself from Toyota. And if he doesn't, if we're going to see these documents a la the Pentagon Papers.

No doubt Congress will be taking a long, hard look at them.

Toyota would be foolish to sue him. They're already in a world of hurt, and this only makes it look worse for them it seems.

Toyota's hiding damning internal documents from the U.S. court system by keeping them in Japan smells of inherent knowledge by Toyota of safety problems, which aren't limited to this sudden acceleration problem. Cars that have rolled over had roofs collapse that shouldn't have. That's just two issues. They'd better be ready for that can of worms to open up.

This is getting pretty ugly. So, do all the Obama haters still think this is dirty pool from GM and the US government?

If Toyota doesn't come clean soon they'd better start tooling up to build a new car:

The Toyota Kamikaze.

For them to have offered up the explanation car mats were to blame when a car suddenly accelerates to 90+ MPH flies in the face of the most simple logic: If you're doing 40 MPH, how does your accelerator pedal get stuck and suddenly you're doing 90+ MPH? Isn't logical. It's happened to hundreds of owners.

It'll be interesting to find out eventually what Toyota's internal documents have to say. My guess is it has to do with the computer software. Why car manufacturers did away with cables from the pedal to the throttle is curious anyway.

Keep Moving Forward.

He says he quit because of what he alleges were "criminal acts" by Toyota -- specifically, withholding information the company was legally required to turn over to plaintiffs' lawyers during litigation.

Ouchie.

When yer business practises are so shoddy that they give a corporate lawyer an attack of conscience you know you got troubles.

Be Well.

Toyotas criminal act is defying the american auto makers.

Toyotas issues are nothing compared to domestic vehicles.

Seems like the govt. wants to level the playing field.

#10 | Posted by yougothurt

So, they beamed some Top Secret death ray to screw up Toyotas so they'd suddenly accelerate to 90+ MPH?

Toyota got greedy. They've actually conceded that. Now they might have to give up some of the money they consciously decided to steal. Wait...I feel tears....

An analyst stated the other day that Toyota is desperate to make this problem into a very simple mechanical issue and not a computer problem. If people begin to think that HAL is running their cars, the Toyota make is dead.

If people begin to think that HAL is running their cars, the Toyota make is dead.

"Let up on the accelerator please HAL.
Let up on the acclerator please HAL.

I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."

GOAT

I haven't heard an explanation from anyone at any auto company why they did away with throttle cables.

I wonder what's up with that?

I wonder what's up with that?

Fly by wire technology is supposed to be sexy and cool.

Remember the old jokes going around about what would happen if your car was a Microsoft design?

Well.......

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the

computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating, "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they painted new lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.

For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car unless you bought "CarNT," but then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -- but it would only run on five percent of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "general protect ion fault" warning light.

8. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying.

9. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the antenna.

10. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally Road maps even though they neither need nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 percent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

11. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

12. You'd have to press the "start" button to turn the engine off.

People who crash their Toyota's because the gas pedal stuck are so fucking stupid. What is so hard about, i don't know, PUTTING THE CAR IN NEUTRAL?

Sure, You're on the freeway with a car right in front of you. Within a couple seconds you're going a hell of a lot faster that it is. You have time to put it in neutral before you rear end them? Good luck.

Not counting the centrifugal force knocking you back against your seat.

This is getting pretty ugly. So, do all the Obama haters still think this is dirty pool from GM and the US government?

#6 | Posted by RingMaster

That would depend on who, if anyone, from the U.S. government has been helping them to hide information.

The problems weren't happening before the GM takeover?

Or. We just didn't get to hear the many separate accidents pre-GM being discussed by the U.S. government as a related issue like it is now?

Was Toyota formerly protected, for political or other reasons, by the same government now throwing them down stairs?

That's the question being asked by the government doubters you referred to.

If so, and they were Bush people. Then we nail their asses for it just the same.

If these cars were speeding out of control on
their own volition, it would stand to reason that
the rate of accidents involving Toyotas would be
significantly higher than other makes. If so,
wouldn't the auto insurance industry been aware
of this before anyone else?

"Sure, You're on the freeway with a car right in front of you. Within a couple seconds you're going a hell of a lot faster that it is. You have time to put it in neutral before you rear end them? Good luck."

YES, I understand how my car works!

I am on the road with unskilled drivers like yourself everyday. It takes paying attention, but I do it.

Oh, there is my problem. I pay attention. I guess I shouldn't pay attention and blame everyone else for my shortcomings.

Where'd Toyota get their outside counsel from, Phillp Morris?

I shared your sentiments initially YGH, but you never know until you have been in that situation. I have pretty good aim when I am shooting at a stationary target but if someone broke into my house I don't know how well I would be able to shoot in that situation.

"I bet a funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is, while you're in midair, you still hit those brakes Hey, better try the emergency brake"

-Jack Handey

#23- YouGotHurt -- Are you a Toyota executive? Because blaming drivers for not thinking fast enough when their cars accelerate for no reason is just crazy.

...if someone broke into my house I don't know how well I would be able to shoot in that situation.

Andy, sure glad I'm not your neighbor ;-)

-O'Path~

hey cbob, self preservation. take some responsibility for yourself and quit depending on others to coddle you.

If anything I own begins to malfunction I turn it off. I don't wait for it to blow up or melt down. I Then I will question the reasons. Allowing ones car to crash because a person could not muster the tiniest bit of brain power that it takes TO PUT A CAR IN NEUTRAL is CRAZY.

If anything I own begins to malfunction I turn it off.

Let's hope you are never on dialysis and the machine makes a funny beeping noise or some other indication of the beginning of a malfunction from the machine.

I haven't heard an explanation from anyone at any auto company why they did away with throttle cables.

I wonder what's up with that?

There is no more carburetors to control. The prius gas engines is fuel injected and air flow is controlled by a computer and mass airflow sensor. In the case of the Prius, it's driven by an electric motor which is controlled by a pair if solid state potentiometers. The gas engine only runs in series with an ac generator/motor which actually determines the car's speed. The transmission is also nothing like a conventional transmission. Is is an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (ECVT).

It also utilizes a computer controlled regenerative braking system that uses the generator to slow the car along with the ABS disc brakes.

In other words, the only way to control the speed both up and down is a computer chip which has nothing to connect a cable to.

My 3.4 ltr V6 Chevy Venture is also EFI fuel injected (not TBI) but it still has a cable that controls the air allowed into the throttle body so it acts more like a carburetor, but in the Prius it just doesn't work that way at all.

As cars get more complicated, shit happens more unpredictably. Like my pilot friends say about helicopters when I ask them why the prefer fixed wing aircraft;...too many moving parts to worry about.

Simple solution would be to install a fuel cutoff valve, manually controlled.

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