Toyota does U-turn on vehicle EDRs

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. attorneys are saying Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. has switched its position opportunistically on automobile recording devices.

The electronic black boxes installed in cars that record engine behavior and gas pedal and braking applications were frequently criticized by the company, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

With dozens of court cases filed against the company in the wake of recalls for problems with unintended acceleration, Toyota is now using evidence gleaned from boxes in selected crashes to claim driver error caused the accidents.

"It sounds duplicitous when all along Toyota has been saying this is unreliable, and now they are using it as their defense and they are not releasing the data to the public," said Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety senior counsel Henry Jasney.

Texas attorney Steve Van Gaasbeck said Toyota wants it "both ways."

"Sometimes they've claimed it's unreliable, other times they say they can't even access the data, and now they're holding it up as proof that they're innocent," he said.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said the company's position had switched because "the technology in event data recorders has been developing over many years."

"I'd say if we were asked today whether we had confidence in them, we'd have a different answer," Michels said.