It is official and final: the drivers were to blame for the unintended acceleration of Toyota

It has been… almost two years since we began talking about the case of the sticking accelerators on some models of Toyota around the world, something that was the talk of several months, and about which I still believe it was a very well-planned campaign to undermine the power of Toyota, first in North America, and then worldwide.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued its final verdict, which states that the drivers were to blame for such cases of unexpected acceleration. Put more plainly, they confused the brake pedal with the accelerator.

Over all these months, it had been claimed that the floor mats, the electronic accelerators and the poor resistance of the car’s control unit to electromagnetic interference were the culprits behind the accidents and the mass recalls that were closely monitored for months by the NHTSA. In every case, the Japanese manufacturer was able to prove that its cars were within the manufacturing standards and within the technical tolerances required.

The case of Toyota has been officially closed with the following outcome: thousands of cars recalled worldwide and a rather large gap in the Japanese brand’s revenues, due to customers diverting to other brands.

I don’t know whether those who invented this whole mess got the results they wanted, and Toyota has never officially said (nor will it) how much money all of this has cost it.

Via | Car and Driver magazine – June 2011