Well, if you read the testimony, it seems clear that Toyota is overconfident in their software. They have updated the ECU software, but still as of 2010 they ma

Well, if you read the testimony, it seems clear that Toyota is overconfident in their software. They have updated the ECU software, but still as of 2010 they managed to implement the brake failsafe in the same software task that senses the accelerator, so if that task dies the brake failsafe won't work either. That there have been tens of deaths and millions of car recalls because of unintended acceleration in Toyotas cars is at least not an urban legend. Of course it will be very difficult to locate the exact problem, but this testimony is interesting in that it shows how that can be the case (contrary to what Toyota has claimed) [Edit: And they have actually been able to reproduce unintended acceleration by memory corrupption].