David Zalubowski / AP Photo
Only adding to public distrust in Toyota, the car company has been found to be keeping information that could help explain safety issues due to sudden unintended acceleration confidential. Similar to airline “black boxes,” cars are equipped with event data recorders, or EDRs, but, in statements made to the Associated Press, Toyota gave contradicting and ambiguous information about what the EDRs actually recorded. The AP also found Toyota has refused to provide important information when sought out by crash victims and survivors, used proprietary software for its EDRs (until recently, only one laptop in the U.S. contained software capable of reading data after a crash), and, in some lawsuits where recorder information was requested, either settled or provided incomplete printouts.