Toyota recalls more than 6 million vehicles.

[Stijloor]

Friends,

Here is the article....

http://www.autonews.com/article/201...?cciid=email-autonews-blast&r=4881D0215467F5X

 

[Steve Prevette]

It is worth considering Tom Peters' point of view on Toyota:

http://tompeters.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ExcellenceNOEXCUSES_2014_0327C.pdf

Search for "Case #11", it's near the end of the missive.

Makes me glad I am a Honda guy.

 

[Wes Bucey]

The arrogance of top Toyota managers when the unintended acceleration issue hit the news a few years back was a topic we beat to death back then, with many Covers jumping to the defense of Toyota against "greedy and careless" drivers who made claims. Isn't it instructive for those defenders to review their comments from back then in light of the massive fine Toyota has been assessed? Perhaps such big fines DO encourage top managers of ALL companies to be more responsive when they learn of suspect safety features. GM is certainly trying to get out in front of its recent ignition switch events.

 

[Ronen E]

The arrogance of top Toyota managers when the unintended acceleration issue hit the news a few years back was a topic we beat to death back then, with many Covers jumping to the defense of Toyota against "greedy and careless" drivers who made claims. Isn't it instructive for those defenders to review their comments from back then in light of the massive fine Toyota has been assessed? Perhaps such big fines DO encourage top managers of ALL companies to be more responsive when they learn of suspect safety features. GM is certainly trying to get out in front of its recent ignition switch events.

I'm not taking either side, I just want to say that IMO the fact that a company was fined by a court doesn't automatically say anything. When I served as an expert witness in a multi-million $ patent litigation in the USA, several years back, I saw first hand that sometimes whoever gets the upper hand in such cases is the one who has the better lawyers, not necessarily the better arguments.

BTW, our side won

 

[Sebastian]

Please forgive me gentlemans, but where in Cove I can find famous "switch" thread where "our side lost" ?

 

[Bev D]

Makes me glad I am a Honda guy.

weeeeellllllll. Having worked at Honda I can say that this is a human behavior cultural Problem that exists at ALL organizations from time to time. It seems that the bias is to minimize the potential effect or at least the specific causal mechanism's ability to create a severe effect that is part of our natural human condition. It is a continual struggle - despite catastrophic example after catastrophic example - to maintain a 'bias' for 'doing the right thing'.

a public example of this is the Columbia disaster after NASA supposedly learned their lesson from the Challenger disaster.

in my mind this isn't about arrogant managers or careless engineers or lax laws - it is a fundamental flaw in human nature. That is not an excuse, it is a redirection of efforts to make them effective.