The company used the director of Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research to refute the claims. Stanford professor Chris Gerdes demonstrated that the malfunctions Gilbert produced "are completely unrealistic under real-world conditions and can easily be reproduced on a wide range of vehicles made by other manufacturers."
See Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics
During the webcast they demonstrated that the trick used by Gilbert to produce wide open throttle does not and can not occur in the real world. And they further demonstrated that using the very same technique on a number of other cars by other vehicle manufacturers:
- 1) Shaving 3 of 6 wires in the gas pedal assembly to expose the copper wires
2) Bridging a connection between two of those shaved wires across two other wires in between the two shaved wires which are not shaved (so as to avoid shorting them and producing a fault code!)
3) Applying an outside source for an electrical short to the third shaved wire
See Toyota disputes critic who blames electronics