Toyota Motor Corp. opted against marketing its brake-override system as "Safe Stop" to avoid promising more than the mechanism could deliver for driver safety, the company's top U.S. executive told a California jury.
Toyota's chief executive officer for North America, James Lentz, testified Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by relatives of a woman whose Camry sped out of control and hit a tree after she was hit by another vehicle in August 2009. The plaintiffs contend, and Toyota denies, that the crash could have been avoided if her car had been equipped with brake override.
Lentz was asked by a lawyer for the plaintiffs why the company chose "Smart Stop" instead of "Safe Stop" as a marketing phrase to describe an override system that automatically reduces engine power when the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal are applied simultaneously under certain driving conditions. Internal documents show "Safe Stop" was a contender for the name, lawyer Garo Mardirossian said.