Today at 1:00 p.m. EST Toyota will be holding a web-cast to show consumers that the problems with their vehicles is not electronics related.
During the Toyota Congressional hearings, David W. Gilbert, a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, had told congress that he was able to recreate Toyota’s unintended acceleration by manipulating its vehicles electronics. Toyota will try to duplicate this scenario and debunk it.
Toyota is calling in the director of Stanford University’s Center for Automotive Research to try to argue the claims. Toyota said Stanford professor Chris Gerdes will show that the malfunctions Gilbert produced “are completely unrealistic under real-world conditions and can easily be reproduced on a wide range of vehicles made by other manufacturers.”
Toyota also has hired a consulting firm to study whether electronic problems could cause unintended acceleration. The firm, Exponent Inc., released a report saying that it has found no link between the two.
The webcast is part of a campaign by Toyota to discredit critics, repair its damaged reputation and begin restoring trust in its vehicles.