Toyota has recently announced it will be recalling nearly 2.1 million of its Prius, Tacoma, RAV4 and Lexus vehicles worldwide. In the United States alone the company will voluntarily recall 960,000 vehicles to address two separate vehicle software issues.
In total the U.S. recall will include, 700,000 Prius vehicles model year 2010-2014, and 260,000 2012 RAV4s, Tacoma trucks, and the Lexus RX 350.
If you were injured in a traffic collision because of this defect, do not hesitate to contact our experienced Tulsa auto accident lawyers for a free consultation.
The Prius will be recalled to update the motor/generator control ECU and hybrid control ECU software, while a recall issued on the RAV4, Tacoma and Lexus RX 350 will ask dealers to update the skid control ECU software. Toyota asked auto dealers to perform an update on its software that is currently causing these vehicles to lose power or shut down and stop.
The Prius hybrid in particular has hybrid control ECU software that causes some of the parts to overheat while accelerating. This may lead to the vehicle entering “fail-safe mode” causing the driver to lose power, and in some cases shut down and stop the vehicle. At this time Toyota has not received any accident or injury reports related to this software issue.
As Toyota is commonly associated with having an outstanding reputation for vehicles which rarely break down, this has not been true in recent times. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Toyota has recalled more vehicles than any other automaker in the United States in each of the two previous years.
Contact our Tulsa-based personal injury law firm today to begin exploring your legal options.