starting as off is dave shepardson of "detroit news." many people saw the headline -- regulators seeking a fine of $16.40 million against toyota. the statement said "if upheld." why does it say that? >> toyota gets to formally denied decide whether it wants to appeal the fine. this is by far the largest ever find that nhtsa has sought to impose. the previous was $1 million against general motors in 2004. the amounts are symbolic, given that these are companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. $16 million is a rounding error for them. >> what happens next? have you heard from toyota? have you heard from toyota? if it goes@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is there some history of fines against auto companies? >> it was not until 2000 that fines for increased to $15 million. there are going up at the rate of inflation. with the exception of that 2004 find against general motors, $1 million because they failed to notify nhtsa about when chilled wiper defects in 600,000 vehicles -- the evidence suggested that gm had known about this for t

joining us is dave shepardson of "detroit news." in that statement, did you hear toyota saying they did know about this problem and did not go forward? >> they are not going that far. they're saying they got too big too fast. remember, toyota is an amazing success story. they went from 10% u.s. market share in 2000 to around 17%. this year, the almost out sold general motors to become the largest retail auto maker in the united states. they built plants over the u.s.. they built a truck plant in texas. they build a plant in mississippi. i think what he is saying is that his company became the world's largest automaker. they did not do enough to keep track of quality. there are other critics who said toyota -- a former u.s. executive said it had been hijacked by financial pirates at the company. as they got so big, did they forget the values that made them the company they are today? >> this potential find -- some are saying it is a warning to other automakers. what is the law here that toyota potentially violated? >> one is the safe

first, and dave shepardson of "detroit news" is here to talk about these investigations. before we heard from secretary lahood in february we were talking about the fact that nasa and the national academy of sciences have been asked to step in and investigate as well. why nasa? why the national academy of sciences? >> they are looking at the issue congressman stilupak was talking about with the electronics. there are mechanical issues. the big question is -- is there something about the electronics? is there a glitch or a ghost in the machine causing some of these runaway vehicles? nhtsa and toyota say they have not found any evidence, but they're going to assemble a panel of electrical engineers and other electronic experts to get to the bottom of whether there is something in the millions of lines of code and all the electronics in the vehicles that are to blame for some of these incidents. >> what is the evidence saying right now? the strongest evidence in support of electronics is that there are many unexplained incidents. you see many complaints that have not been ex

joining us is dave shepardson of "detroit news." in that statement, did you hear toyota saying they did know about this problem and did not go forward? >> they are not going that far. they're saying they got too big too fast. remember, toyota is an amazing success story. they went from 10% u.s. market share in 2000 to around 17%. this year, the almost out sold general motors to become the largest retail auto maker in the united states. they built plants over the u.s.. they built a truck plant in texas. they build a plant in mississippi. i think what he is saying is that his company became the world's largest automaker. they did not do enough to keep track of quality. there are other critics who said toyota -- a former u.s. executive said it had been hijacked by financial pirates at the company. as they got so big, did they forget the values that made them the company they are today? >> this potential find -- some are saying it is a warning to other automakers. what is the law here that toyota potentially violated? >> one is the safe