Toyota was facing “very, very serious credibility problems” in the wake of its safety crisis. However, the company was sharply criticized as acting “a little safety deaf” in its slowness to address problems with sticking accelerator pedals on cars sold in the US.
After its president–Akio Toyoda visited the US, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that a change of attitude toward American regulators was seen. It seemed that the president understand for the first time the situation the company is facing in the US. He had listened and paid attention.
It is said that the transportation department was looking through a documents of 500,000 pages to decide whether to levy additional fines against the Japanese car manufacturer. The process could take months.