Did ABC News alter report on runaway Toyota tests?
Did ABC News doctor its report on how a Southern Illinois University professor was able to rig a Toyota Avalon to become a runaway with unintended acceleration?
Gawker.com is reporting that ABC News confirmed to them that footage in a news report showing professor David Gilbert's test car being driven by reporter Brian Ross was altered. Footage of the tachometer revving while driven was replaced by a shot of it revving while parked, because the driving shot was too blurry. ABC says this doesn't change the fact that a similar acceleration occurred, but Gawker says it was done to "make it look scarier."
Toyota is disputing the tests, producing a report Friday from its testing firm Exponent that says it was able to produce the same result on a wide variety of cars from different makers, none implicated in the unintended acceleration scandals. Thus, the report obtained by Drive On concludes:
The way the Avalon was rigged to produce unintended acceleration for the tests is highly unlikely to ever occur on its own in the real world, Exponent says.
It was reported that Gilbert may meet with the research group to review the tests. It was not reported if the other vehicles did not return an error code, like the Toyota that Gilbert had tested.
More than 60 Toyota owners have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about cars already repaired under the two major Toyota recalls, saying they aren't fixed and their throttles can still race out of control. This brought up a new slew of questions regarding the company's fixes and its throttle control system.
Toyota announced Thursday that it followed up with a number of the cars it could track down from the verified complaints and thoroughly tested them. The company's findings have been forwarded to NHTSA for review, but no word has been released yet from the government. Toyota said it found no defects with the repairs or the electronic throttle control.
--David Thomas, Cars.com's Kicking Tires and Chris Woodyard/Drive On
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