Unintended Acceleration -- While Parking

sorry, gilbert was already discredited. but there is a moonscape in canada where they mined all the nickel for th batteries. maybe you should jump on that wagon. oh, and don't forget to google, a hummer uses less energy cradle to grave than a prius!

 

so, after all these cites, what is their/your conclusion?

 

I think that most of us believe that unintended acceleration does exist. eg. whenever someone presses the accelerator rather than the brake, or someone leaves the Cruise control on and accidentally bumps "Resume" after taking their foot off the brake.

What we are extremely doubtful about is that there is much chance that the Gen 3 Prius will itself cause unintended acceleration.

The reason that most people on this site feel that way is I believe that in addition to their own direct experience and that of their friends, they have followed the issue for a year or so, read many threads far longer than this one, followed up many references, seen numerous attempts to create FUD, and still not seen any speculation about lack of safety substantiated despite major attempts to do so.

Does that mean that it is not possible that the Prius might cause unintended acceleration in very rare and unusual circumstances? Well, it's possible that we could both be struck by lightning while we sleep tonight. I just am not going to stay awake worrying about either possibility.

 

Well, even a quick look shows that UA incidents from 2005-2010 reported to NHTSA put the Prius in 26th place, with models from GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Volvo, all above the Prius. There rankings go down to 117 models! Perhaps there are more UA incidents now than years ago, but any indictment you have should basically be of all cars built today. And, if you've ever experienced a good old throttle cable getting stuck on the older cars, you'd know there has always been that possibility when humans and machines are involved. And, of course, any risk from UA pales in comparison to all the other causes of accidents. Driving any car is a risk.

I am much more concerned about putting my family in vehicles that have air bags all around, stability control, antilock brakes, and good crash test ratings.

 

Well, considering that Chevrolet, Dodge, Lexus, Volvo, Audi, Ford, Dodge, plus Lawnboy have all had recalls this year, I guess your daugher is SOL in the getting the car for the funfilled evening dept! ..
I guess the Schwinn will have to do!

 

That is why it is important that your daughter learn how to drive instead of being a clueless appliance operator like so many drivers on the road.

The world can be a difficult place. It is important for her to learn to take responsibility for her own actions and not blame problems on imaginary boogiemen. I hope you are a better example to her in real life than you sound like you are here.

 

Don't get me wrong—I'm not flaming the Prius or its drivers—but, geez, putting the thing into reverse by accident, pushing on the gas instead of the brake, misusing the cruise control...?

The Prius is about as close to a transportation appliance as we've come. It's not a terribly difficult car to drive.

 

You came to the party 9 months too late! You would have loved it here back then when this forum was full of distractors such as yourself, but they've since left and there's nobody to side with you. Sorry, evpv.

Hence why people are so shocked when they're told they stepped on the gas instead of the brake, etc. I don't blame them for actually believing what they did, but people do make mistakes, especially the aging population. People do forget that they had the cruise control on and re-activate it by accident. Heck, we even had a thread recently where someone forgot how to turn off the car.

 

In Europe there are no problems with UA. 99% of the people who have a driving license started with a stickshift car. Guess everyone's used to driving cars with automatic gearboxes in the US. When I bought a Prius I knew (even before I was told) I had to start driving with my rightfoot ONLY! I pulled up my left leg so it touched the seat. The only time I made a mistake of using my left foot I had to dig my nose out of the dash.

My opinion: Main reason for all the US UA accidents are direct result of driving with the left foot on the brakes and the right foot on the gas. (and the I'll-sue-your-nice person-because-I-don't-wanna-RTFM-mentality.)

 

The fallacy of this study is that it takes "the introduction of a voltage spike" to cause the throttle wide open condition, and it was stated this will occur in other makes and models. Now all you have to prove is how the voltage spike is introduced into the system and you'll have the start of credible evidence. This is an example of what I've been stating - no hard evidence that proves UA happens on it's own without any input from the driver. You can create conditions where UA will occur by artificially introducing a voltage spike, IOW, replicating a driver stomping on the gas pedel by mistake. We have plenty of evidence to the contrary, but none to support your concerns about UA. Driver testimony by itself is not evidence, just hearsay, unless supported by other evidence, which at this point does not exist. Yes, Toyota of late has had more than it fair share of UA complaints, because if one person has a problem, then another will think they have the same problem too and reports their "problem". Just like what happened to Audi in the late 80's, but all proven to be driver error.

What really concerns me in all this is that we have a lot of people driving on our roads that don't know how to properly operate a vehicle. There are many marginal drivers out there, including those who continue to think that while behind the wheel, driving is secondary to everything else they "need" to do like texting or yapping away on their cell phones, watching movies (yes I've seen this!), reading papers or books (yes I've seen this too!), all the while cruising down the road.

 

It has been a "slow" news week
Post Christmas/holiday let down
Miserable weather outside
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder[/ame]


What else to do?

 

what does 'bumped' mean?

 

what amazes me is how few accidents there are considering the amount of traffic on the roads and poor quality of driving which i must admit, is a category i unfortunately fall into.

 

right on.

 

you keep telling us to read the nhtsa posts, but you aren't reading our posts. many of us are simply saying it hasn't been proven. there are many dangers that we encounter every day in life. proven dangers. and yet, we manage to get up and out there each day. we're not going to let an unproven one scare us, that's all.