According to Toyota’s company earnings results, it is estimated that Toyota’s unintended acceleration will affect almost 8.5 million cars world wide and could end up costing the company almost $2 billion. Analysts say that this is a conservative estimate and that the cost will more likely be almost $6 billion, if you include repairs for recalls, lost sales and the ever growing lawsuits being filed against the company.

Still, amongst all the bad publicity, Toyota has done a good job cutting costs over the past year, and it is still a leader in environmental technologies. Most analysts predict good profit growth next year as demand grows in markets like China.

“Toyota has announced plans to deal with the recalls, and is working to address the problems promptly,” said Noriyuki Matsushima, an auto analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan. “We think the recall story is likely to die down by April if its quality dealerships can quickly repair the problems while providing reassurance to customers.”

For now, Toyota’s incentives appear to be working. Dealers are reporting surging sales and expect to post a net profit of $885 million in the fiscal year ending March 31, coming back from a loss last year.

David Strickland the administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that the agency is considering mandatory installation of “black boxes” on all cars and trucks. These “black boxes” similar to flight recorders in aircraft will record critical automobile information leading up to an accident. The NHTSA had first encouraged black box technology in 2006, but because of Toyota’s unintended acceleration problems, the NHTSA hopes to make this technology mandatory and the information from these “black boxes” readily available.

Some feel the addition of this technology will only drive up the price of automobiles which will be passed down to the consumer. Others feel it will reduce our privacy rights by allowing our vehicles to be so closely monitored resulting in benefits for the insurance companies and auto makers but not necessarily the drivers of the automobiles. Even today, with technology such as “On star”, the consumer does not have the choice whether they want it on their vehicle and though it can be deactivated, consumers still wonder what information is being transmitted, and how can this information be used against us.

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.

According to reports filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), complaints of unintended acceleration were filed in the last two weeks from Toyota owners that claim that they are still experiencing unintended acceleration even after their recall has been done. In addition to these reports of sudden acceleration, complaints of unusual vehicle behavior, such as erratic check-engine lights, have also been reported.

Although the allegations are unverified, there are concerns that the millions of recall notices issued by Toyota may not fully address the problem. During Toyota’s congressional hearing, congress members voiced their concerns that the problem was not mechanical and that the onboard computer may be the problem.

“There is already doubt out there that the solutions Toyota has put forward really fixed the problem of unintended acceleration,” said Aaron Bragman, auto industry analyst at IHS Global Insight. He cautioned, however, that the complaints should be thoroughly investigated.

Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore said she was not aware of complaints that sudden acceleration had recurred despite receiving the repair, but said the auto maker will closely monitor the NHTSA database.

“We very much would like to have any of those individuals who claim they’ve had unintended acceleration after the fix go back to the dealership,” Migliore said. “If there was an accident, we want to see the vehicle and the driver and the accident report.”