Does Toyota hate immigrants?

Last updated on January 3, 2023

Or are immigrants just too short? Or is it the illegal part, which is a huge problem in this state?

I was complaining to someone just yesterday that things in my apartment are too low, like the sink and spigots in both the kitchen and bathroom, the counters, and even the doorknobs! Much construction in Los Angeles includes many many immigrants, whether legal or illegal, so this may be why my apartment is made for short people.

But cars, too?

Such is a theory offered by The Atlantic (which used to be called The Atlantic Monthly.) She based her investigation on another study by the Washington Examiner.

One of the great mysteries of the Toyota debacle is why Toyota ignored the complaints for so long.

These incidents were highly correlated with three things:  being elderly, being short, and parking (or leaving a parking space).    The elderly are more prone to the sort of neuronal misfiring described in yesterday’s New York Times.  Shorter people have to hunt more for the pedals.  And starting up from a complete stop is the most likely time to press the wrong pedal.

I was interested in Frank’s argument, so I took a look at the LA Times article, which is really admirably thorough.

The oddest “striking” fact is that a disproportionate number seem to be immigrants–something like a third, by my count, which is about double the number of immigrants in the general population.  I have no idea what to make of that; are they more likely to file complaints with the NHTSA?  Maybe they’re shorter, on average, or learned to drive later in life?

If she really wanted to do her homework, she would have looked up how many immigrants are involved in ALL car accidents, to see if her theory or deduction makes statistical sense.

At any rate, when you look at these incidents all together, it’s pretty clear why Toyota didn’t investigate this “overwhelming evidence” of a problem:  they look a lot like typical cases of driver error.  I don’t know that all of them are.  But I do know that however advanced Toyota’s electronics are, they’re not yet clever enough to be able to pick on senior citizens.

Hmm, I don’t think the author is rac-ist, but she sure sounds ageist!

Big HT to commenter Jonathan, from my previous post, who pointed towards this article.