Toyota put the brakes on because their cars won't

Toyota has been fighting tooth and nail to avoid any liability for injuries and deaths caused by their cars.  Toyota has wanted the plaintiff to prove their cars are faulty.  However, Toyota is conceding defeat because the judge in that case has ruled that circumstantial evidence will be considered.

There are a huge number of unrelated incidents, with drivers who have no history of reckless driving nor suicidal behaviour, and they all suddenly decide to drive at 160 km/h through cities?  Sorry, Toyota, that's not plausible.  The judge has made the right call.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-16/toyota-enters-settlement-talks-over-sudden-acceleration-lawsuits

Toyota Waves the White Flag on Sudden-Acceleration Lawsuits

Toyota Motor (TM) has learned to say “uncle” when it comes to sudden-acceleration claims. Just a few weeks ago, the giant Japanese carmaker was still talking tough in public about fighting hundreds of lawsuits alleging that its vehicles were prone to accelerate without warning, causing injuries and deaths. Not anymore.

[...]

[P]pretrial rulings by Judge Selna apparently made Toyota reconsider. Selna said that even though plaintiffs’ lawyers could not identify specific bugs in Toyota’s software, he would still allow a lay jury to infer from circumstantial evidence that such a defect existed.

Toyota apparently didn’t want to risk that California juries would assume there had to be something wrong with Toyotas if owners claimed their cars suddenly hurled themselves into trees, walls, or other cars.