Unintended Acceleration -- While Parking

A 60 something woman did that in a parking lot in the community I live in except she did a better job. She ran her right side wheels up onto one parked car and that rolled her car about 60 degrees to the side so it came to rest on two cars. I suspect all three were totaled.

To her credit, in the accident report she said I could swear I stepped on the brake but I obviously stepped on the throttle. :rockon:

 

Funny video, yes, looks like driver error.

Understand though, while that MAY explain what happened in the OP, it does not necessarily HAVE TO. There are some anomalies with the Prius, and making the assumption of driver error is not always correct.

Agree that the black box data should show throttle position in all these accidents, and it's true that that information is not captured on the NHTSA site. Wonder where it's to be found? Probably court records. That is a tough research job. I believe it's very true that large corporations will spend a lot of money to obfuscate issues that they know are valid - look at the tobacco industry over the past sixty years or so...

Toyota won't even address the horrible FM reception problem in these cars. It's cheaper to hide behind corporate walls and address the "bottom line." The point is, don't expect candor and decency from car companies - I would not be surprised to find that, eventually, all these cars are recalled. Won't stop me from driving mine, but I keep one eye open for anomalous stuff happening...

 

The black box data have already been used to discredit drivers' claims in a few high profile cases. Large corporations can only do so much to obfuscate issues that are actually valid, as the truth will come out one way or another. So far, nobody has been able to find anything (unlike the link between smoking and lung cancer). Where will it stop? NASA?

 

It's up to the people making the remarkable claim to prove it, its not up to others to disprove it.

If I say pigs can fly, it's up to me to prove it if I want to be believed. The skeptics don't need to disprove it.

 

Yes, that's what people meant by black box. Laypeople don't know the difference.

 

Seriously? The complete absence of any solid (non-anecdotal) evidence or announcement leads you to conclude that the issues are quite real?

I used the same logic to prove to my sister that invisible pink ghost-unicorns are the true rulers of the planet... you just don't typically notice them, because they're so incredibly subtle. She wasn't able to disprove the claim, so clearly I won that argument!

 

I watched someone roll right out into traffic just 2 days ago.. because the green arrow lit up and the person going straight wasn't watching, saw "something green" and drove off.. almost got t-boned by someone legally turning. If THAT person wasn't watching the road (common theme in American driving), it would have been an accident. The only Prius around was mine; perhaps my UA was transposed to the older Nissan in front of me?

 

And what of the opposite, what if it WAS driver error.. you'd be looking for someone to blame, someone not your child/spouse regardless of what happened. -- that too is human nature.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but when someone "thinks" they are on the break and it's really the throttle, when they start pushing and something happens they didn't expect, the typical (unconscious) reaction is to "press harder".. after all, they THOUGHT they were on the brake, right? .... it happens all the time, but people would rather "be right" or "not at fault" and blame something else.

Sorry, I know entirely too many people that I've seen with my own eyes not be able to accurately recall something that just happened to them.. never mind dealing with a panic situation. Most people (especially in America) just aren't that observant, nor are they beyond distorting reality to try and soothe their egos. If they "cause" the accident, they can readily convince themselves it was "something other than their fault".

Case in point, do you know why we even have anti-lock breaks? Because the "average driver" panics when they step on the brake and tires lock.. instead of backing off the break (learned skill), they stand on the break in a panic. Anti-lock breaks is an attempt at fixing broken drivers. The same principle applies to "u/a" in most cases.

 

:dizzy: I see brain dead people :loco:

. . . .
Brake . . Gas
. . . .:decision:

 

Yes you can use Power & EV modes together, it gives a slightly better take off in EV.

 

I stand corrected about the "black box" recording everything as I had assumed, so please accept my apologies. I guess we should call the electronic data recorder the "white box"? (which I thought was the black box because isn't that what it does?)

If I recall, Dr Gilbert's research included him artificially introducing an electronic surge. So I guess what needs to be proven is where the energy from an electronic surge could come from that would bypass the electronic date recorder, as his surge did. I am almost certain most people don't drive around with electronic equipment sitting in their front seat as he did.

What has occurred so far is Toyota has proven that the facts don't line up with people's account of how things occurred with UA. Now I'm not saying the absence of facts don't disprove a theory, but all theories are supported by at least some facts beyond a person's recollection of events. Anything else is speculation.

 

the electric surge could introduced by something as simple as static electricity. The key to the interactions of the different electronic systems is redundancy of key sensors, failsafe protection and logic that shuts things down quickly if inputs are outside physical range. examples outside of expected range would be combinations of throttle and brake or erratic throttle input.

 

You learn something every day. You can press PWR then EV and get PWR EV mode.

 

Or lightning could strike the car too, but I bet everything is shielded and nothing will blow up.

 

And what does this get you..?????