Who is responsible for the property damage in the example you gave? The car manufacturer? No. The water bottle manufacturer? No. You. You were the driver behind the wheel.
It's still the driver's fault for not reacting properly. You could have unexpected acceleration or deceleration (which is just as dangerous in some circumstances) due to a lot of different problems; throttle stuck open, O2 Sensor goes wonky and tells the ECU to adjust the fuel mixture in a way that makes your car run rich and stall out, tire blows out causing your car to swerve severely to the right. In all of these cases it is up to the driver to react properly.
NOW, if they had proven that there was a design/manufacturing defect in these cars that Toyota knew about and did nothing about (like in the GM faulty ignition switch case), that's a different story. That would mean the manufacturer put customers at risk deliberately and not only should they pay financial penalties for that, but there should be jail time involved.
However, in the Toyota unintended acceleration case, not only was it very few drivers, they were never even able to establish a cause for the unintended acceleration. The software "experts" that testified for the plaintiffs only said that basically the software is badly written. It was never demonstrated that a specific piece of code caused unintended acceleration.
Instead, what is the obvious answer is that panicking drivers hit the throttle when they meant to hit the brakes. Especially since at least one of the drivers testified that they hit the brakes and it was unable to stop the car, which is total baloney.
EDIT: Also let me just state as a disclaimer I do not work for Toyota, never have, don't know anybody who does, I don't own any Toyota cars and never have. I just can't deal with people spreading bullshit.
> It's still the driver's fault for not reacting properly.
But in the scenario I gave the driver DID react properly. The break was applied and the car brought to a halt. It didn't stop damage being done or a dangerous situation from occurring.
Same thing with sudden acceleration. A driver can react appropriately and the condition can still be incredibly dangerous or even deadly.
> Instead, what is the obvious answer is that panicking drivers hit the throttle when they meant to hit the brakes.
Saying something is "obvious" when it is disputed just makes you sound arrogant and dismissive. Many experts don't agree with your "obvious" conclusions.
> Especially since at least one of the drivers testified that they hit the brakes and it was unable to stop the car, which is total baloney.
You're again contradicting the experts. They said that it is possible for the car to ignore brake input, but were unable to determine how corruption could have occurred to cause it.
I'm not saying I know for a fact that unintended acceleration occurred and that the brake was ignored, I do not, nobody does. But I think the way you're dismissing it and stomping all over a dozen or more experts is absurd. You cannot know it didn't occur any more or less than they know it did. You certainly don't have the expertise for your "obvious" conclusions to be meaningful.
> EDIT: Also let me just state as a disclaimer I do not work for Toyota, never have, don't know anybody who does, I don't own any Toyota cars and never have. I just can't deal with people spreading bullshit.
Right... And you essentially saying that the conclusions of experts in the field is wrong without any proof, cite, or good explanation definitely isn't "bullshit."
The fact you need a disclaimer saying "I am not a shill" (paraphrasing) means you yourself must know how absurd you're sounding here.
> You're again contradicting the experts. They said that it is possible for the car to ignore brake input, but were unable to determine how corruption could have occurred to cause it.
No one who is actually an expert in cars would say this because the cars in question did not have purely drive by wire brakes. There's literally no way the car could "ignore" brake input unless the hydraulic system failed, which the driver should have noticed the moment they got in the car.
It's still the driver's fault for not reacting properly. You could have unexpected acceleration or deceleration (which is just as dangerous in some circumstances) due to a lot of different problems; throttle stuck open, O2 Sensor goes wonky and tells the ECU to adjust the fuel mixture in a way that makes your car run rich and stall out, tire blows out causing your car to swerve severely to the right. In all of these cases it is up to the driver to react properly.
NOW, if they had proven that there was a design/manufacturing defect in these cars that Toyota knew about and did nothing about (like in the GM faulty ignition switch case), that's a different story. That would mean the manufacturer put customers at risk deliberately and not only should they pay financial penalties for that, but there should be jail time involved.
However, in the Toyota unintended acceleration case, not only was it very few drivers, they were never even able to establish a cause for the unintended acceleration. The software "experts" that testified for the plaintiffs only said that basically the software is badly written. It was never demonstrated that a specific piece of code caused unintended acceleration.
Instead, what is the obvious answer is that panicking drivers hit the throttle when they meant to hit the brakes. Especially since at least one of the drivers testified that they hit the brakes and it was unable to stop the car, which is total baloney.
EDIT: Also let me just state as a disclaimer I do not work for Toyota, never have, don't know anybody who does, I don't own any Toyota cars and never have. I just can't deal with people spreading bullshit.