Toyota Motor said on Wednesday it would add a brake-override system, which cuts engine power when the accelerator and brake pedals are applied at the same time, to all future vehicles worldwide.
President Akio Toyoda also said Toyota would also appoint a chief quality officer to each major geographical region to serve on Toyota's newly established "Special Committee for Global Quality."
The committee, which will be headed by President Toyoda, will hold its first meeting on March 30, Toyota said in a statement.
Shares of Toyota were little changed after U.S. regulators opened a probe the previous day into the carmaker's handling of its massive recall for cars with acceleration problems.
Toyota also said on Tuesday it would halt production at two of its U.S. assembly plants for at least 11 days, seeking to avoid a ballooning of inventories amid the recalls of millions of its vehicles.
"Reduction of estimated output of a little over 10,000 vehicles would have only a limited impact, while the move shows Toyota's careful efforts to minimize the impact of a drop in sales and a rise in incentives," said Nomura Securities analyst Shotaro Noguchi.
He said it was still unclear what impact the U.S. investigation into Toyota's recall practices would have on the company.
Toyota has faced declining sales in the United States, its biggest and usually most profitable market, since the recall of more than 8.5 million cars worldwide since late 2009 for three separate defects.
"I can at least say that the news conference today by Toyoda following his first public explanation on recalls last week shows that Toyota has finally begun trying to address the concerns of its stakeholders," Nomura's Noguchi said.
© 2025 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.