Toyota Finds Improper Crash Test in Daihatsu Production

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Toyota Motor Corp. found an instance of improper crash tests in one of its subsidiary companies and suspended shipments, the company said Friday.

Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu copied the safety test results for a part of the vehicle, instead of performing new tests, according to the company.

It is not clear how the deficiency was initially reported.

In the faulty crash tests, results for a pole used to measure impact on the left side were used for the right, when both sides had to be tested, Daihatsu said.

The improper test affected 56,111 Toyota Raize hybrids and 22,329 Daihatsu Rocky, all sold in Japan and produced by Daihatsu.

Cloud Data not Protected

Two weeks ago, Toyota said the vehicle data of 2.15 million users in Japan, or almost the entire customer base who signed up for its main cloud service platforms since 2012, had been publicly available for a decade due to human error.

The incident, which also affected customers of its luxury brand Lexus, comes as the world’s biggest automaker by sales makes a push into vehicle connectivity and cloud-based data management.

The issue, which began in November 2013 and lasted until mid-April, stemmed from human error, leading to a cloud system being set to public instead of private, a Toyota spokesperson said. It could encompass details such as vehicle locations and identification numbers of vehicle devices, but there were no reports of malicious use, the company said.

“There was a lack of active detection mechanisms, and activities to detect the presence or absence of things that became public,” the spokesperson said in response to why it took time to realize there had been an error.

Toyota said it would introduce a system to audit cloud settings, establish a system to continuously monitor settings, and thoroughly educate employees on data handling rules.

Affected customers included those who signed up for the T-Connect service which provides a wide range of services including AI voice-enabled driving assistance, auto connection to call centers for vehicle management, and emergency support in such cases as a traffic accident or sudden illness.

Also affected were users of G-Link, a similar service for owners of Lexus vehicles.

Improper Testing

Last month Daihatsu again rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests carried out for some 88,000 small cars, most of which were sold under the Toyota brand.

As a result, there was a suspension of shipments of Toyota Yaris Ativs made in Thailand from last August, and Perodua Axias manufactured in Malaysia starting from February.

The problem may have occurred due to pressure on Daihatsu to shorten the development time of the Ativ, Masahiko Maeda, Toyota’s CEO for the Asia region, said at a press conference in Bangkok. The vehicles customers were currently using were safe, he added.

Toyota was working with the Thai government to resume sales of the model, which has been produced in Toyota’s Gateway plant in Chachoengsao province, and further investigation was underway.

Of the more than 88,000 vehicles, some 76,000 were Yaris models mainly bound for Thailand, Mexico, and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Daihatsu said.

About 11,800 affected vehicles were Axias manufactured by Daihatsu at a joint venture plant it runs with Malaysian automaker Perodua. Those cars were sold in Malaysia.

The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said the companies were investigating how the side panel of Yaris and other models had been changed for safety testing and apologized for what he called an “unacceptable” violation of consumer trust.

Toyota said it had not received any report of an accident or injury related to the rigged side-crash test.

It was not immediately clear who had rigged the doors for crash testing, how widespread the knowledge of the action had been within Daihatsu, and whether senior managers had approved the step.

“We’ll proceed with a detailed investigation from here on, but promise to decisively understand what happened at the site, investigate the true intentions and sincerely work to prevent a recurrence,” Toyoda told reporters.

“We’re going to need some time to do that,” he said.

Daihatsu said it had discovered the rigged safety test after a whistleblower report. It said it had reported the issue to regulatory agencies and stopped shipments of affected models.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.