Toyota has begun mailing out letters to owners of certain Toyota/Lexus models to notify them of the the potential for an unsecured or incompatible driver's floor mat that could interfere with the accelerator pedal.
The letter tells owners of the following vehicles to take out their driver's floormat and not replace it with any other floormat until Toyota develops a remedy.
• 2007 - 2010 Camry
• 2005 - 2010 Avalon
• 2004 - 2009 Prius
• 2005 - 2010 Tacoma
• 2007 - 2010 Tundra
• 2007 - 2010 ES350
• 2006 - 2010 IS250 and IS350
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota are working together to understand how a floormat can cause the throttle to get stuck in the wide-open position. The recent disaster with the loaner Lexus ES350 has prompted the NHTSA to look into the design of Toyota's gas pedals.
The pedals have a single pivot point and an arm made out of plastic. Vehicles such as my Pontiac Grand Prix have a second pivot at the actual pedal, allowing it to rotate a few degrees upward. This seems like a cost-cutting design at Toyota, but would not be an issue if people just learned how to install floormats.
Being an engineering student with experience, I often see how engineers in the corporate world can only do so much given the cost constraints that they have to prevent things like this from happening. If you can not properly install floormats, then you shouldn't be taking almost 2 tons of steel on the road.
The incident with the Lexus ES driver was not his fault entirely though. According to reports, the dealership was using all-weather floormats on top of the cloth mats. Now that's just stupid, and the dealership should be at fault for the death of this car load of people.
One thing I would blame Toyota engineers for though is not displaying directions for turning the engine off while the vehicle is in motion, using the Power button. It's a new technology and many people still don't know how to use it.
So what do you think? Is it Toyota's fault, the dealerships or drivers'?
Comments
I know from the driving instructors I've had they never told me; if something like this happens to shift into neutral or turn off the engine. It seems silly but if your never taught something how can you react in the correct manner in time. I've had trouble with my rubber winter mats stopping my brake pedal from releasing, but I cut a notch and i'm all good now.
Toyota should do what VW does and make the mats snap into the floor so they don't come loose.
Also I like that there is a floormat ad on this page.
Toyota actually does have that, but the issue was that there was a rubber mat placed on top of the fabric one that was already snapped in.