The U.S. Department of Transportation released results from the joint National Highway Traffic Safety Administration/NASA study on sudden vehicle acceleration in Toyota cars requested Spring 2010 by Congress. Short version: NASA engineers found no electronic flaws in Toyota vehicles capable of producing the large throttle openings required to create dangerous high-speed unintended acceleration incidents. [more inside]
posted by 2bucksplus on Feb 8, 2011 - 69 comments

What do you do when your 40 year old, 1 of 377 351 343 ~350, vintage Japanese sports car's original body is too far gone to repair? If you are Shin Yoshikawa, the man who wrote the book on the 2000GT, you hand fabricate a new body (and some trim) completely from scratch in aluminum. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral on Jun 22, 2010 - 32 comments

Toyota executives are currently testifying before Congress about the safety issues that have led to the recall of millions of vehicles. They insist that "We are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles." Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) says "I would not consider... of value" their report in support of this claim.
posted by Joe Beese on Feb 23, 2010 - 142 comments

Manufacturing cars doesn't have to be a dirty business
Hats off to Toyota, which along with Honda, has a no-bullshit commitment to the environment.
posted by magullo on Jun 3, 2003 - 7 comments

Like some people, I'm obsessed with traffic. I was very happy to hear that Toyota is developing chips to drive smart cars, since groups of people in cars can't seem to drive very well on their own. I've studied traffic for years (living in LA means lots of "time in the lab") and have actually tried no-stopping experiments and observed merging behavior. People seem to use their brakes too much, or over-react to people ahead tapping their brakes. I can't wait until the day traffic flow can be controlled by computer, LA might be livable again. Just to prove to others that this is in fact a thinly-veiled simpsons newsgroup, Homer and Bart benefited from similar driving-assistance technology in episode #AABF13.
posted by mathowie on Feb 9, 2000 - 2 comments