Toyota announced new measures today to deal with safety issues plaguing its cars and causing the recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide to date.

Among the new measures will be the appointment of a quality officer for each of the company's global regions. The quality officers, whose mandate is to become more responsive to customer feedback, will form a committee headed by Toyota president Akio Toyoda. Its purpose will be to oversee quality improvement throughout the company. It will meet for the first time on March 30.

Toyota is also expanding its network of technical offices with the aim of responding within 24 hours to every report of a product malfunction and conducting on-site inspections. The company has been widely criticized for ignoring customer complaints in the past and this move may be seen as a public relations necessity. To assist in providing better information for investigating complaints and making repairs, on-board event data recorders will be used more extensively.

One of the main sources of concern regarding Toyota's vehicles has been the electronic throttle control system, which has been linked to "unintended acceleration" crashes in the United States. Toyota has consistently defended the system, stating that the system incorporates failsafe features to prevent such accidental acceleration as a result of external electromagnetic interference, as has been alleged. The company insists that their own "rigorous" testing under extremes of electromagnetic interference and vibration have shown that the system cannot accidentally cause acceleration. To ensure that the system works as intended, Toyota has commissioned an independent research group to test the electronic throttle control system and promises to release the findings as they become available.

Another new measure will be a brake override system in all new vehicles worldwide. It will cut power when the accelerator and brake pedals are applied together.

Toyota reaffirmed its commitment to "unwavering quality in products and services, and to the spirit of 'customer first'. Toyota will continue to endeavour to provide products that are safe and reassuring." 

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