Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda with the Prius V hybrid.

A 10-month government investigation has cleared Toyota of charges that its products might be unexpectedly surging out of control due to mysterious electronic gremlins.

The study, conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in cooperation with the space agency, NASA, explored possible causes of what has come to be known as either unintended acceleration or sudden acceleration in Toyota cars.  But researchers found no fault with the automaker’s electronic throttle control systems, the Department of Transportation reported Tuesday.

“We enlisted the best and brightest engineers to study Toyota’s electronics systems, and the verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas,” declared U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

That’s a major reversal of the position the administration’s top transportation official took barely a year ago, when Toyota announced the second in a series of recalls addressing mechanical problems that have been linked to runaway vehicles.  At one point, LaHood told reporters he thought motorists should park Toyota products until they were repaired.

Toyota has acknowledged it has had problems with carpets that could come loose and jam accelerator pedals, which led to an October 2009 recall, and with sticky accelerator pedals, which led to not only a January recall but also a brief shutdown of many Toyota assembly lines and the temporary halt of sales of many major products.  In all, about 8.5 million vehicles were recalled due to those problems.

But the maker has repeatedly denied assertions that it also had an unidentified problem with its electronic controllers.  And the NHTSA/NASA investigation has now backed up that claim.  Researchers said they were unable to find evidence that Toyota vehicles were racing out of control due to issues with their electronics.

If anything, the study points to driver error – such as motorists inadvertently stomping on throttles when they meant to hit brakes pedals.  That is similar to what a government investigation concluded, more than two decades ago, when Audi faced similar charges involving its 5000 sedan.

The news is likely to play large in the numerous lawsuits Toyota is facing over sudden acceleration claims.  Many have been consolidated into a large class action suit moving forward in Southern California.

The maker has settled at least one case, which involved the death of a California Highway Patrol Officer and three family members – however that fiery accident was the result of so-called carpet entrapment, the issue dealt with in the October 2009 recall.

Toyota has been struggling to rebuild its reputation, and the NHTSA study will certainly be touted by the maker, though it also has to deal with the fact that it has recalled millions of other vehicles for a variety of additional problems, including excess corrosion and faulty brakes.

And Toyota has been fined repeatedly for delaying action in response to known safety problems; it paid a record $32.4 million just last December.

The problems have led to a rare slowdown in Toyota’s U.S. sales.  It was the only major maker to see sales dip during the final quarter of 2010, despite the overall upturn in the American market.  January brought a sales increase – but only after Toyota ramped up already significant incentives.

The maker earlier today reported a 39% decline in its third-quarter profits.  (Click Here for more.) The strong yen got most of the blame, though the makers safety problems certainly didn’t help.  Toyota is forecasting a turnaround in the final quarter of its fiscal year, which ends March 31st.

Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this report.

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