Unintended Acceleration -- While Parking

I'm not going to make the assumption that there isn't a problem....
Neither am I going to jump to the conclusion based on your friends experience and X amount of reports that there is a problem.

Is your friends vehicle being checked out? The real "answer" would be if anything is discovered.

Until then, it's all offensive and defensive speculation.

 

My wife jumped a curb while parking - twice. Once almost like the video that F8L posted, landing on the nose of another car. She doesn't fit the age profile of common UA complainers, but she is short at only 5' tall, which is another common trait. She was/is also a relatively inexperienced and nervous driver, not getting her license until late in her 30s.
In both cases we never doubted the problem was with her foot.
Oh, and both times it was in a 2000 Mazda MPV.

It can be alarming to read through the NHTSA stuff, but anecdotes do not a case make. I like this article by Edmunds to put it into perspective:

Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com — Edmunds.com

- D

 

You need to analyze these in the context of market share. Toyota is a very popular manufacturer and has sold more vehicles than most. If there were a ODI/NHTSA site for cell phones and you only look at the number of complaints with the iPhone, you'd think it's the worse performing phone ever made. If you were gullible enough to believe "syringe in the Pepsi can" as a real event, you'd think Pepsi is the problem. Same goes with you, evpv.

Spend more time on this forum and you'll learn which are actual problems and which are human errors. The 3rd gen Prius brake fix is of course a real issue, but has nothing to do with unintended acceleration. There's the real issue of having to press down harder on the brake pedal in order to disengage the cruise control, but this shouldn't be confused with UA or in the case of human error, forgetting that the CC was on and you resume it by accident. The violent movements when reversing is a real issue that Toyota has yet to solve (although easily fixed ourselves for the time being by momentarily releasing your foot completely off the brake pedal when it happens), but again has nothing to do with UA.

 

I've had my Prius V for almost a month.

My car unintentionally accelerated while I was stopped and when the ICE kicked in. My foot was on the brake at the time and the car lurched forward slightly while I was stopped. If my foot was light on the brake pedal I surely would have hit the car in front of me.

Didn't think to report it to my service department but I suppose I should.

 

Have you gone to the site and read through many of the complaints? It'll take you quite a while to read 212.

2010 Honda Civic outsells 2010 Prius by quite a bit. There is something like about ... 10 Civic vehicle speed control complaints compared to 212 for this year on the Prius. Still, 212 out of 140k Prius sold in US is only 0.15% occurence assuming no repeat complaints. But, I had stated I did look at many other brands and years, and UA complaints are fairly rare. It's not just the Prius, Camry, Corolla, RX350's have more UA complaints in NHTSA than Accords, Civics, Fusions That's just how it is.

 

[Disclaimer ... I have yet to read the incident reports] How many are there for the 2010 Prius? How many are there for other cars?

Playing devil's advocate here ... Assuming the parking events are not human error ... Does this occur when the ICE is starting up after being off?

 

Is this a case of statistical bias? Proportionally more Toyotas on the road would result in proportionally more incident reports...

 

Sure, have you count the number of complaints against Pepsi regarding syringes found in their cans even though Coca-Cola outsold Pepsi that year?

Prius and Toyota in general are victims of media hysteria (made worse by our own government) that led to those complaints, as were the case with Pepsi's needle scare and iPhone's Antennagate.

Logic and common sense go a long way.

 

When this happened, what was the outside temp & how long was the car running? If it happened recently I'd say the car wasn't running long. ICE temp was barely over 100F then when the car was stopped at a traffic light it dropped far enough to cause the engine to spin up.

Maybe the cure is to have Toyota replace the software so the car only moves forward when the accelerator pedal is depressed.

 

Damn Center Console !

 

yes, i do.

 

While reading through the NHTSA complaints on the Prius I noticed something interesting ... double, triple, and even quadruple posting of the same incident under different headings. This alone would explain why there are more Prius incidents than for other cars.

Ignoring this, these reports are still troubling, but they are statistically insignificant. I for one won't believe there is a problem until I personally experience it. Unfortunately no one will believe me if it does happen. (kinda like UFO encounters)

 

I haven't had UA or loss of braking while parking but I've had SIA: sudden increase in acceleration.* Nothing dangerous since I'm trying to accelerate. It's more of a response change where the acceleration suddenly goes from low to the expected level.

But, given that behavior I won't entirely dismiss the idea of an electronic error.

* Has only happened since winter arrived. I drive in ECO mode. A minute or two after starting, accelerating up a mild slope, near top of the ECO zone on the HSI, LOD on ScanGauge is only in the high 50s or 60s but then it suddenly jumps to the 90s and acceleration increases.

 

The engine in the Lexus RX350 has similar delayed characteristics. You're reading too much into it.

 

Normal. Once the ICE coolant temp hits 103F full power is available and kicks in. Really noticeable if you are going up an incline.

 

Until then, the smart money is on cockpit error.

 

The Prius has several computers, if one ore two go all Terminator, the rest will shut everything down and the display will light up in lovely red and yellow symbols! The ABS system needed a tweak to tone down the millisecond loss after a bump thing, doable because Toyota could easily replicate it, no doubt helped by the work many here on PC did exploring the issue with their own experiments! Can anyone replicate the SUA incidents? No?