Toyota apologizes for managing security issues

The sales manager of Toyota Motor Corp.. the United States, James Lentz, yesterday presented the apologies of the company’s management of safety issues at a hearing before the U.S. Congress.

“In recent months, we have not lived up to high standards that our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota,” Lentz said in testimony prepared in advance.

“Simply speaking, we have taken too long to tackle a range of security issues rare but serious, despite the efforts we have provided in good faith.”
He noted that the problem has been compounded by poor communication both within the company and with regulators and consumers.

“We recognize these errors, we apologize and we have learned from those mistakes,” said Lentz. “We understand now that we must think differently in reviewing applications and communicate faster, better and more efficiently with our customers and our regulators.”

His comments came as the U.S. Congress this week launched two sessions of hearing about Toyota. On Wednesday, the House committee responsible for oversight and reform of government should hold a hearing session during which the Toyota President Akio Toyota, will testify.

Tuesday the Committee on Trade and Energy of the House followed the testimony of Hentz has also argued that electronic problems did not contribute to a sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles.
“We are confident that there is no problem with the control system of the accelerator system in our vehicles,” said the director of Toyota USA. “We designed our system of automatic control of the accelerator with various failsafe mechanisms to extinguish or reduce engine power in case of system failure.

However, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, said during the hearing that the government inquiry Toyota includes the assumption of an influence of electrical problems in the sudden acceleration.

“We continue to investigate all possible causes of unintended acceleration. Even if the reminders are important steps towards this direction, we do not maintain that they respond to all questions on this issue,” LaHood tempered.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s president acknowledged that the auto giant had stumbled seriously.

“It seems clear that in recent years we have not listened as carefully as he should, nor respond as quickly as we had the concerns of our customers,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

“I promise that Toyota will establish a new standard for transparency and speed in responding to security issues,” he vowed.