BREAKING: FBI Raids Toyota Suppliers

WXYZ ^ | 02/24/10 | Editors

[Kieri]

(WXYZ) - The FBI is confirming raids at the offices of three Michigan auto suppliers who do work for Toyota.

Search warrants were served Tuesday evening at Yazaki North America, DENSO International and Tokai Rika. Yazaki sells electronic components and DENSO makes accelerator pedals.

Denso has released the following statement about the situation "DENSO International America, Inc. (DIAM), U.S. subsidiary of DENSO Corporation, was inspected on February 23, 2010 by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice in regard to U.S. antitrust laws. DIAM is cooperating with this investigation."

Stay with Action News and WXYZ.com for the latest on this breaking news.

[Candor7]

Obama is about to nationalize another auto manufacturer, which BTW does not have UAW unions, therefore its OUT , Gonzo, Worth Bumpkiss on the Obama scale of things.!Chavez is a mere piker compared to Obama.

You can imagine what the IRS will be doing to Americans soon enough.

Obama is playing "get the Japs." That will make our Pacific rim more secure!Righty-O then!

The damage Obama is doinng to our nationis incalculable.Everyone except the kool aid drinkers wants him gone. That includes the Japanese.There are better ways to handle the Toyota defect issue.

Alinski rules: no crisis will go unexploited.

Soon we be back to riding horses at this rate.

Obama's administration is full of hate.

[theDentist]

Did Government Motors put them up to this?

You know, I wondered the same thing when I saw this story. I wonder if some official in Gov't decided to hurt Toyota's name and see if that would create a boost for GM...

[naturalized]

[hennie pennie]

>>>> "I have a number of Japanese friends from the old school and this public humiliation they are forced into is worse than death.

Osama and his Commie and union minions are in for a huge comeuppance." <<<

I couldn't listen or watch any of it, I was so mortified that our country would treat anyone from Japan in this manner, I simply didn't believe it.

Doesn't anyone in our government have ANY clue how this kind of public thrashing is perceived in Toyoda's home town????????

Maybe the Japanese have BHO's birth certificate??? MAYBE something good will result from the reckless behavior of our Congress?

[jwparkerjr]

Gosh, there are just so many possibilities involved. A few lines of code hidden among the thousands of lines of valid code could do so much harm and be very difficult to identify. And it certainly doesn't help that most drivers are not going to be able to deal with the emergency and keep track of what worked or didn't work, especially if it ended in a high speed crash. What a great way to cause all sorts of marketing and regulatory problems for a car company. Sort of like the makeup thing in one of the early Batman movies. To me the first step would be to ID the conditions that could result in the unexpected acceleration. Some things are not even suspect, you can rule those out. But there are still dozens of ways to cause mischief. It would be possible to include a subroutine in the code that opens the throttle regardless of the position of the accelerator pedal. The subroutine would then be called by some random process so that it's impossible to guess when the conditions will be right for the subroutine to be called. And it wouldn't have to be present in every single combo of control module and software. Just sprinkle the bad ones throughout the millions of setups that are installed every year. Wow. And, to make matters worse there are probably several sources for the various control modules and the software that controls them. I am so thankful it's THEIR problem to solve and not mine.

[AmericanInTokyo]

THIS>>>IS>>>>WHY>>>>I>>>>HAVE>>>>>BEEN>>>>PLEADING>>>>> with anyone who will listen, that Sarah Palin needs to make a trip to Japan after this whole Toyota Tataki thing engineering by GM/UAW/Hill Dems/Obama dies down (which it will what with the news cycle and clever Japanese outwaiting the impatient and easily distracted with something new liberal American ambulance chasers) and for Sarah-san to take some direct potshots on this patently amateurish D.C. administration and them SCREWING UP SEVEN WAYS TO SUNDAY nearly 60 years of relatively good, keystone US-Japan Relations in the strategic Pacific.

This is NO accident.

I hope the Governor herself is lurking here.

[Musketeer]

Ralph Nader is a proud owner of a Corvair.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Ohhhhh, believe me, friend, they will get even alright. They will even the score, and maybe even more so, through on-gaeshi and adauchi...If I were the US Ambassador to Japan, Obama's personal friend and fundraiser, I would resign and GIT OUT OF DODGE quick. Either that, or load up with boxes upon boxes of Maalox fedexed from D.C.

Obama is going to be left out in the wind with his ..... flapping on this one. What an idiot. He has no idea what he is tangling with. Chicago bumpkins. They'll be learned a lesson yet! Just watch.

[AmericanInTokyo]

One thing is for sure over here in Japan. Now the Japanese media, starting with major circulation daily SANKEI NEWS, is starting to let into Obama with relative ferocity for a Japanese news reporting organization

Certainly the other shoe is yet to drop!

Here, original in Japanese. It is a late hour now. Somebody might want to Bablefish it for FR.

[KC_Conspirator]

I smell this as well.

[evad]

Law enforcement sources say the raids are part of an ongoing anti-trust investigation of the companies. They say this is not a criminal investigation and not related to the current acceleration problems. Department of Justice spokesperson Gina Talamona said, "The Antitrust Division is investigating the possibility of anti-competitive cartel conduct of automotive electronic components suppliers. We are coordinating with the European Commission and other foreign competition authorities."

Is there anyone stupid enough to believe this crap?

[OrangeDaisy]

Lots of the Toyotas allegedly having the problem have keyless ignition. Different manufacturer’s keyless ignition have different steps to be turned off. My first instinct would be to put the car in neutral, which is the correct action. Here are Toyota’s instructions.

What if you experience a sticking accelerator pedal while driving?
Each circumstance may vary, and drivers must use their best judgment, but Toyota recommends taking the following actions:
• If you need to stop immediately, the vehicle can be controlled by stepping on the brake pedal with both feet using firm and steady pressure. Do not pump the brake pedal as it will deplete the vacuum utilized for the power brake assist.
• Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.
• If unable to put the vehicle in Neutral, turn the engine OFF. This will not cause loss of steering or braking control, but the power assist to these systems will be lost.
o If the vehicle is equipped with an Engine Start/Stop button, firmly and steadily push the button for at least three seconds to turn off the engine. Do NOT tap the Engine Start/Stop button.
o If the vehicle is equipped with a conventional key-ignition, turn the ignition key to the ACC position to turn off the engine. Do NOT remove the key from the ignition as this will lock the steering wheel.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I'm asking how this smears Toyota. The feds didn't raid Toyota, they raided several companies that supply Toyota, on an issue that (on its face) has little to do with Toyota and whose resolution is likely to help Toyota, if anything (collusion between Toyota's suppliers would likely increase, not decrease, Toyota's costs - get rid of the collusion, and you lower the costs).

If you think this is some part of a smear of Toyota, please explain how this is so. What's the FBI/DoJ's angle here?

[mbarker12474]

This will smear Toyota because 10,000 local radio stations and 10,000 local newspapers and hundreds of local TV news stations will have lead paragraphs reading:

“FBI... raid... Toyota... automobile... Toyota... recall... dangerous...Congress... Toyota... hearings... Toyota... acceleration.... Toyota.... problem...”

[NavVet]

“Hey Mr. Toyota, that’s a nice car company you got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.”

- B.H.O.

[ventana]

Wow! I was not taught that in Drivers Ed.

I have a Toyota Camry. It engine raced on me!
Yup. About six or so months ago. I came back home and told my hubby about it.

I was going up an incline and all of a sudden the car just was accelerating all by itself. I’m thinking, it’s the floor mat. Now, these floor mats have crept up before and tamped on the accelerator. But I had gotten new ones for that reason. No, the car was accelerating. I pulled the matt back, I stuck my foot underneath the accelerator thinking it might be stuck, I pumped my brakes (I now know this is a no no) and that did squat.

Then, and I only recall this in retrospect, I shifted into neutral. Yes, I have a standard shift car because I like a standard shift. Then the car revved down.

Maybe it’s a plot. Maybe Obama’s behind it. Maybe it’s GM, I don’t know. I just know what happened to me last summer: my car accelerated seemingly on its own. V’s wife.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

But those same 10,000 local radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations would already have lead paragraphs reading “Toyota... automobile... Toyota... recall... dangerous...Congress... Toyota... hearings... Toyota... acceleration.... Toyota.... problem...”

If there is a legitimate antitrust inquiry into these suppliers, should the FBI/DoJ have held off on these raids because they might generate continued bad press against Toyota?

I guess I just don’t see this as fitting into some grand conspiracy against Toyota.

[Hennible Cobb]

Could it be that you are naive, COC??

Obama declares ownership of GM. It’s now Government Motors. GM’s sales are plummeting.

Toyota is the number-one selling vehicle in this country, chief competition to Gubmint Motors.

Ray LaHood, Obama minion and transportation head, dredges up these old complaints about Toyota, media accomplices cooperating ad nauseum.

Now, with synchronized timing — coincidentally — Eric Holder, Chicago Crony, sends the FBI into primary Toyota suppliers.

You don’t even get a whiff of the stinking Chicago corruption?

Mr. CoC, you fail the primary Sherlock Holmes course! Try again next spring.

[your local physicist]

Did you have the cruise control turned on at the time your Camry started accelerating up the hill? If you have your cruise control running on a relatively flat road and then you start climbing up an incline, your car will slow down at first and then the cruise control will automatically accelerate the vehicle to maintain the speed you were driving at when you set the cruise control on. I don’t know about your case but I suspect that some of this “sudden acceleration” occurs when people have the cruise control turned on and don’t understand that after you slow down at first when you reach a hill, the cruise control takes over and accelerates your vehicle up a hill to maintain your set driving speed.

Some people who have been drinking may even forget that they have the cruise control turned on.

[Hennible Cobb]

“Is there anyone stupid enough to believe this crap?”

Why yes, there is someone stupid enough to believe that crap. I won’t mention any names, but his initials are COC.

But I’m sure he’s a nice guy.