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Toyota promotes Didier Leroy as highest-ranked foreigner

Toyota named Didier Leroy its first non-Japanese executive vice president Wednesday. He also sits on the company's board of directors. This follows Leroy's promotion in April, when he was named president of Toyota No. 1, the division which overseas R&D, manufacturing, sales, product planning, design, motorsports... pretty much everything for North America, Europe, and Africa, as well as sales in Japan. Leroy had served until now as head of Toyota's European operations, and will remain based at the company's regional headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The appointment follows the earlier promotion of Julie Hamp. Previously group vice president at Toyota Motor North America, Hamp now serves as the company's global chief communications officer and is based in Japan, making her the first female senior executive in Toyota's history. Didier Leroy appointed as first non-Japanese Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation Mr Leroy was officially appointed today President of Toyota No. 1, which covers R&D, manufacturing and sales for the North America, Europe, and Africa regions; the Japan Sales Business Group; and the Product Planning, Design and Motorsports functions related to the Toyota No.1 regional scope. Toyota City, Japan - Today, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) officially appointed Didier Leroy as President of Toyota N°1 at TMC. The appointment took place at the 111th General Shareholders meeting. In this responsibility, Mr Leroy will oversee the R&D, manufacturing and sales operations for the North America, Europe and Africa regions; the Japan Sales Business Group; and the Product Planning, Design and Motorsports functions related to the Toyota No.1 regional scope. He also became today the first non-Japanese Executive Vice President of TMC, as well as member of the Board of Directors of TMC. This appointment takes place after the announcement made by TMC in March about changes to its executive structure in Japan, altering roles of top management. Mr Leroy will be based in Brussels. Related Video:

Toyota found not at fault in alleged unintended acceleration crash

Toyota has already paid out millions and billions of dollars in settlements surrounding unintended acceleration, but the first lawsuit in the matter, which headed to a California court in July, has reached a verdict. Following the 2009 death of Noriko Uno, whose 2006 Camry was hit by another car and then sped out of control before crashing into a tree, the jury found that Toyota was not at fault in the crash.
Even though the 2006 Camry (shown above) wasn't involved in any of the unintended acceleration-related recalls and it was not equipped with a brake override, Automotive News reports that the jury's verdict says there was no defect in the car and actually blames the entire incident on the driver that ran into Uno's car - to the tune of $10 million. The accident started when the other driver ran a stop sign and hit Uno's car, and the report says that medical conditions (including diabetes) caused Uno to fail to stop her Camry.
The AN article also states that this lawsuit was a bellwether case for around 85 other personal-injury and wrongful-death suits against Toyota, but there are still many impending suits across the country. Scroll down for an official statement on this particular case from Toyota.

RC car drift video brings Fast and Furious style in 1:10 scale

Taking a cue from Lexus' 2015 Super Bowl ad Let's Play, Falken Tire is proving that RC cars can drift just as well, if not better, than their full-size counterparts. However, to make things four times as exciting, this clip eschews a single hopped-up model hanging its tail out in favor of a quartet of them sliding around together. Starring 1:10 RC versions of popular drift machines like the Nissan S15 Silvia, Mazda FD-chassis RX-7 and Initial D star Toyota Corolla AE86, these cars also get a suite of blinking LEDs to lend some extra color to all of the tire spinning. Plus, the use of well-positioned cameras and a scale model environment almost makes this group look like they're at work in the real world. News Source: Falken Tire via YouTube Motorsports Toys/Games Mazda Nissan Toyota Racing Vehicles Videos drifting drift rc car mazda rx-7 nissan silvia toyota ae86