Early this morning Toyota announced its fix for the problem of sticking gas pedals. It's pretty simple really.

The company has instructed dealers to install a small, steel shim in the gas pedal assembly that will reduce the amount of friction in the mechanism. Toyota says its confident that the reduction in friction will eliminate the possibility that the pedal might stick in a partially open position.

Although this may sound like a temporary quick fix, Toyota says that it's so confident in the procedure that it's considering this a permanent fix and it integrate the design change into future pedal assemblies.

The parts are already being shipped to dealers and a Toyota official told Inside Line that fixes could begin later this week. He estimated that the job would take a technician about 30 minutes to complete.