During the 2010 Toyota vehicle recall, an unsecured floor mat could become trapped under the accelerator pedal.
Toyota recalled millions of vehicles in the United States and other markets during 2009 and 2010. One campaign concerned driver-side floor mats that could slide forward and interfere with the accelerator pedal. The company also conducted a separate recall involving accelerator pedals that could stick in some vehicles because of friction in the pedal mechanism.
The recalls followed fatal crashes and reports of unintended acceleration, including a highly publicized 2009 California crash involving a Lexus ES 350. Toyota and regulators urged drivers to make sure mats were properly secured and to press the brake firmly if acceleration problems occurred.
A common mix-up is treating the floor-mat issue and the pedal-mechanism issue as one identical defect. They were related recall campaigns, but the physical causes were different. The broader episode became one of the largest automotive safety recalls in history.