TORRANCE, Calif. — Embattled Japanese auto giant Toyota launched a broad counterattack Monday aimed at refuting research that suggests electronics might be at the heart of acceleration problems that have led the automaker to recall more than 6 million vehicles.
Toyota’s prime target was Southern Illinois University engineering professor David Gilbert, who testified before a congressional panel last month and appeared on an ABC News report showing how he short-circuited the electronic acceleration system in a Toyota Avalon to create runaway acceleration, and suggested such an event could happen under normal driving conditions.
“We did what Dr. Gilbert and ABC should have done to test the real-world relevance of Dr. Gilbert’s findings,” said Toyota spokesman Mike Michels during an elaborate news conference at its North American headquarters.
Gilbert’s experiment was “completely unrealistic. He rewired and re-engineered a vehicle in multiple ways in a specific sequence that is impossible to occur,” Michels said.
The criticism was echoed by Christian Gerdes, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford and the director of the school’s Center for Automotive Research, which is funded by Toyota and several other automakers.
Though careful not to personally attack Gilbert, Toyota and its consultants argued that engineers can rewire and re-engineer anything to make it fail.
“We could rewire this building and cause it to go into flames,” said Subodh Medhekar, principal engineer with Exponent, the outside company Toyota has hired to diagnose the runaway acceleration problem.
In an e-mailed response to the presentation, Gilbert wrote: “Over the next several days, I will examine their expanded results and conclusions along with my own. I will visit Exponent next week to get a first-hand look at the information presented today and discuss their methods and procedures. I hope to complete my review of all the information within the next few weeks.”
“Toyota really chipped away at the evidence provided by Dr. Gilbert during the congressional hearings,” Edmunds senior editor Bill Visnic said.
Asked whether the company thought it had a software problem, Toyota said it was confident that it does not. Nevertheless, Exponent and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are looking into Toyota software.
