Archive for December, 2012

2012 Explained – Toyota

Thursday, December 27th, 2012 Nigel Jones

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt have noticed the paltry number of articles posted by me this year. While there have been a number of contributing factors, one of the more significant has been Toyota. I have been part of the team that has spent a large part of 2012 examining the engine control module hardware and firmware for Toyota cars and light trucks in light of reports on unintended acceleration. Yesterday, a tentative settlement was announced in the class action lawsuit. Other litigation concerning personal injury is still pending. As a result of the pending litigation, together with various protective orders (confidentiality agreements) I can’t comment or provide any details. For those of you that are interested, here are some key links.

Settlement announced: Approximately 5pm EST on December 26th 2012

Statement by the plaintiffs.

Statement by Toyota.

Information about the settlement.

The proposed settlement

Update: The federal judge has given provisional approval to the settlement.

For a primer on Toyota’s engine control module, you can read the lengthy report published by NASA. Readers of this blog will find appendix A the most illuminating.

Anyway, it is my hope that I will be able to blog considerably more frequently in 2013.