Toyota lost significant ground in a recent survey about its image on safety, quality, and value.
Toyota announced today that it is launching a safety research center at the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Toyota researchers and engineers from North America and Japan will work with North American universities, hospitals, research institutions, and federal agencies on projects aimed at reducing the number of traffic fatalities and injuries on U.S. roads.
The University of Michigan, Virginia Tech and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute are charter partners in the new Collaborative Safety Research Center or CSRC.
Toyota said in a statement that during the next five years about $50 million in funding will come from the Japanese company, roughly the same amount as the fines accessed against Toyota in 2010 by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its failure to promptly act on safety defects. (See Toyota Motor Fined Another $32.425 Million for Safety Defects)
Toyota is the only major automaker that did not post U.S. sales gains in 2010, the result of what was the most challenging time in the 53-year history of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm, to put it mildly. Toyota stopped all U.S. new vehicle sales in January 2010 to conduct reputation-damaging recalls for stuck gas pedals and unintended acceleration safety defects.
A Consumer Reports survey just released said Toyota lost “significant ground to Ford in consumer regard over the last two years.” This comes from the Consumer Reports’ 2011 Car Brand Perception Survey. “Now, the two brands rank a close first and second in overall perception, with Ford having a clear advantage in the factors that matter most to car shoppers: safety, quality, and value,” according to CR.
In one unintended acceleration lawsuit, the settlement alone saw Toyota paying $10 million to the heirs of a California Highway patrolman who was killed along with relatives when a Lexus left the road out of control because the wrong floormats had been installed at a dealership and jammed the accelerator pedal. Toyota engine control software at the time did not override the accelerator in favor of the brake, if the engine control computer was receiving conflicting inputs from the “drive by wire” system, unlike the software at other major automakers.
Toyota is in the process of reprogramming its controls, after paying record fines of almost $50 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its delayed handling of safety defects related to stuck accelerator pedals, as well as other safety problems.
As a result of flat sales, Toyota lost its Number Two U.S. Sales spot to Ford Motor in 2010. Sales of the Toyota brand also dropped below the Chevrolet and Ford brands for the first time in many years.
Still, Toyota remains solidly in third place for corporate sales, trailed by more than 500,000 units at Honda; 700,000 at Chrysler, and 800,000 at Nissan.
Chuck Gulash, a Senior Executive Engineer at the Toyota Technical Center, will serve as Director of CSRC. He will report to Shigeki Terashi, who is a managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation and the president of TTC.
The research focus will include ways to reduce the risk of driver distraction – a growing cause of accidents – and protecting children, teens and seniors. These groups account for about 30% of U.S. traffic fatalities.
In addition, CSRC will analyze accident and human behavior data to support to evaluate and speed deployment of active safety systems.
