For people that talk about there being a "ghost in the machine"...

If there's something strange..... in your neighborhood
Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!
If there's something weird... and it don't look good
Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!

 

Why that's crazy talk! :madgrin:

 

i think there is confusion between a stuck pedal and a stuck throttle.

 

How about the people that are "stuck on stupid"?

 

That's an easy one, sell 'em some smart pills.

 

Gee, mine didn't come with a ghost? Where can I get one?

 

Presumably the return spring could break, but it wouldn't magically
un-break itself later when, say, the CHP walks up to the car.
.
I don't think it's ever happened, on Denso or CTS...
.
_H*

 

People (assuming they are not lying outright) could be confused:

I. Pedal sticks, driver releases foot, loses contact with pedal, and mis-perceives the pedal as having moved rather than their foot. They don't remember "putting it there" because they are unaware of how far they usually depress the pedal when they drive. Thus they are deluded into thinking the pedal moved itself.

II. The ECU opens the throttle w/o the driver's input. The accelerator is at its return limit, but the driver assumes it is stuck because they can't pry it up (past its rest position). In this case, of course, the pedal could not be "on the floor."

Really comes down to some combination of:

1. Confusion (don't perceive or remember event correctly)
2. Unable to explain what happened properly (they say pedal when they mean throttle, media hack reporter garbles it further, etc.)
3. People are intentionally lying

There have obviously been stuck/entrapped accelerators and driver error. I believe there could be ECU "gremlins," but as roverguy says, those would be distinct problems.

-A

 

Although I haven't studied the system, I have to agree. The Prius gas pedal, when in cruise control mode, doesn't move, but remains at rest in the full up position. This is actually unlike most vehicles and is most noticeable when you wish to cancel the cruise mode while keeping the vehicle at speed. In order to effect a smooth transition from cruise to manual mode you must depress the gas pedal until you feel slight acceleration, then cancel the cruise and gently ease up on the foot pedal to create a smooth transition from cruise to manual mode. If you don't do this you get a sudden deceleration jerking of the vehicle when you cancel cruise een with some accelerator pedal pressure. In most other systems you simply make contact with the accelerator pedal because it is already being pulled by the control to appropriate position, hold it in that position, cancel cruise, and nobody notices.

OK, now having said that, I still think something is up other than floor mats and sticky hinge points with the Prius problem. If, in the Prius, the engine can accelerate regardless of accelartor pedal position, as when under cruise control mode, then it would be very difficult for the average driver to accurately describe what happened, if say, they were pressing on the accelerator, the car accelerated (due to an uncommanded electronic acceleration signal), they let up on the accelerator, and the car continued to accelerate. Most people would simply say the pedal "stuck".

I am aware that computer processors can and do make it into the market place with fundamental design flaws mainly because marketing departments press ahead and close sales deals before engineering departments sign off on a given product. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the logic circuits in the Prius models in question could have design flaws that are extremely difficult to identify. As some news reports have stated, I believe most, if not all regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over these types of problems, lack the expertise to fully determine the causes.

The jury is out on this subject as far as I am concerned.