Toyota Prius Speeds Out of Control on SoCal FWY

I used to own an EV that had just a 23 hp electric motor. I would easily go over 70 mph.

 

Nothing to do with this story, but ....
It is unethical to hire former regulators to deal with the regulatory agencies. This is not illegal here yet, but these practices are slowly becoming illegal. If Toyota did not think they could influence the agency why did they use them in dealing with dealing with it. Toyota appears to have had a policy of not reporting safety issues at dealerships. There is evidence of this, but I am not sure if anything has been proved or admitted to at anything but the local level.

There is plenty of evidence that toyota made safety a secondary issue to sales, and the president has admitted this, and pledged to correct it. There is not proof that it did this in an illegal way.

Get your facts straight.

 

Here is the Toyota attitude:
"Now that the congressional hearings are behind us, it's time to move on," Esmond said. "We said we're sorry. I think we've taken responsibility in terms of the recalls."

That attitude is going to crush Toyota under their own hubris.

 

In a parking lot? The Prius isn't noted for achieving 35 mph in even 300 feet. According to Car and Driver the 2010 Prius used a quarter of a mile to get to

@ 81 mph ​

with both electric motor and ICE.

 

Another Prius unitended acceleration incident today.

Toyota Prius Crash in Westchester

 

Had the same thing happen in Chico, CA a couple of years back with just a few differences:

Driver was drunk

Car was not a Prius

Driver is a member of the city council

 

and another today:

Woman, 76, crashes Toyota into church, says gas pedal stuck - The Bristol Press: Bristol, Conn., and surrounding areas (BristolPress.com)

 

"Unintended acceleration" is a term that needs to be replaced. I doubt she intended to accelerate as she did. The question is how it happened.

Reminds me of something I heard awhile back: They call them accidents because they are accidents. Otherwise they would call them on purposes.

 

And another:

Recalled Toyota SUV Crashes On The Cape - wbztv.com

 

Excellent! Did you invite friends over and pop popcorn?

 

He's just a troll, Darell. Ignore him.

 

Actually, he's just a Chevy dealer.
If he's not giddy it's probably because he knows that this stuff may spread like a computer virus to other carmakers before long. Audi is already under investigation by NHTSA.

 

Darrell and I go way back.

 

Yes I imagine there will be piles of new regulations out of this fiasco.

I have said this before on here, I have a good friend in the car business who has been telling me about this brewing toyota problem for a little over a year. I just never dreamed it would lead to this meltdown for Toyota. They have always had such a teflon coating, no matter what happened nothing bad ever stuck to toyota...Now this. I am still stunned, I think that is one of the big problems in Toyota City, they are stunned too. Now they have hired Exponent(hired guns), I am no longer sure tehy can get back to teh business practices that got them to be # 1 in the world. I thought this would die off after awhile, but instead it is getting worse. At this point, I am not sure how toyota can end this. Just thankful I don't have investment in Toyota stores with lots of bricks and mortar.

 

I doubt someone who would donate a car with only 34k on it would be too concerned about his insurance rates, much less someone who was a doctor at Mayo clinic.

 

Yahoo story comments out of control

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but it's on the front page of Yahoo now at Feds to probe cause of runaway Prius in California - Yahoo! News. There are over 10K comments.

Many of the comments are from the usual idiots but then lots of replies saying it's a scam, the guy's a scammer, people slamming Toyota and others non-owners who give advice like "turning off the key", making references to P R N D 2 1 or even a moron who claims to be a Prius certified mechanic claiming that you can't shift to neutral w/an open throttle (total BS).

I posted explaining the shifter, power button, pointing to Luscious Garage's 3 videos (of which I tried all 3 methods myself), etc. and can't even find it. I also replied to at least another post w/wrong info.

Sigh... it reminds me of xkcd: YouTube. No point in spending even more time to reply to a few more of the posts there.

 

I'm convinced that you lose a brain cell for every YouTube comment that you read. :madgrin:

 

King 5 (Seattle area) 11 pm news which misreported last night the CHP used their cruiser as a brake for the Prius didn't bother retracting/correcting their statement.

On today's (well 3/9's) 11 pm news, they reported the other "unintended acceleration" Prius crash then mentioned the San Diego incident again (showing the same overhead shots) and merely said they the highway patrol "caught up to the Prius and helped the driver slow that car down". Sigh...