Sudden Acceleration - It Happened To Us Today

Just so you know, there are people from Toyota on here (dealers, service techs, and actual Toyota employees) but they have no say over the forum. It is a 3rd party non official forum where anyone can post anything.

As to your incident, while unfortunate I don't think you have made the right conclusion. The event may have happened, but probably not as you recall it.

Can you clarify "in gear with the parking brake on"? Was the car in D, B, or P? Obviously it was READY. When in a panic mode, your brain does not store information in the same way. Usually it stores a lot of info, but sometimes it is a lot of wrong information. That's why people mistakenly push the accelerator instead of the brake and swear they pushed the other. Some people's brain recollection says they pressed the correct one, but it can be empirically proven that they didn't.

And as to this not happening to other vehicles:
1986 Honda Accords because of defective VSC components: Defect Investigations Results | Safercar.gov | NHTSA
Mid-90 Jeep Cherokees and Grand Cherokees as well as more modern (up to 2006 at least) Jeeps: Jeep Sudden Acceleration
The 2004 Mustangs had accelerator pedals that just dropped to the floor and didn't return to normal all the while accelerating the car: Recall ID # 06V108000 - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:ACCELERATOR PEDAL
2004 Ford Mustang Recalls | Automotive.com

Some 2005 Kia models also had it: My3cents.com - Kia Motors Informative - Sudden acceleration - Amanti

And of course one of the most famous ones before Toyota's bad press was the Audi 5000 series from the early 80's.

 

Regarding people unknowingly pressing the wrong pedal, http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/smart-pedals-won-t-put-the-brake-155530.aspx is insightful.

To quote from the above (emphasis mine):

lauriehester herself states she has been driving for 40 years...

 

I have difficulty believing you could not steer the car!

It is possible for the car to continue to roll if left in gear and according to your story, you put the emergency brake on while the transmission is in Drive, instead of shifting the transmission to park or even to neutral before stepping out of the vehicle.

 

Ditto.

It's a very bad idea to leave the car while still in D or B and the parking brake on. If the parking brake isn't fully engaged or out of adjustment, the car will continue to creep forward due to the emulation of the creep forward behavior that conventional automatic transmissions have. Leaving while left in N isn't great either as the car could roll forward or back, due to an incline.

 

key sentance, "i have been driving for 40 years". I have been driving for 40 years and trust me, it's getting worse each year. i'm sure, sooner or later, i will also leave it in drive, put the brake on and get out the car. the only thing i have going for me is that i have never driven with both feet.:juggle: that's just a mind bender for us geezers.

 

Not totally related, but I parked my Geo Metro years ago and was certain I applied the parking brake. I went into a store, came out, and my car was up the curb behind where I parked. I was lucky that no one hit the car, because half of it was in the road. In all my years, I never left the car in gear when I shut it off, just always pulled the parking brake. I thought to myself at the time "oh my god, something went wrong with the car", but I'm betting that it was operator error more than anything. Especially considering it NEVER did that any other time. I was parked on a slight incline, but never would have expected the back end to jump the curb.

I also had one day at work over summer in the Prius, that I parked the car, got out, and it started to creep forward. I was sure I had fully parked the car, but clearly I had not. In fact, the car was still on . I had stopped the car, and gotten out of it without even putting it in park or turning it off. I've actually forgot to turn it off a couple times, but the car was luckily always in park those days and the car yelled at me when I tried to lock it.

 

I posted a couple of days ago, one of my favorite videos in PC about drifting. These guys are able to do these maneuvers because the brakes control the car even at full throttle.

Pair of Toyota GT86s duel in parking lot drift battle

 

I get sudden acceleration every time I drive my Tesla. Press the go pedal, and that car takes off like a bat out of hell. Touch the pedal and it's instant power. Just sayin'.

 

This topic will never get old.

 

Just like this guy!


Raw Video: DUI Suspect Rams Police Car, Pole - YouTube

 

Car makers test all of their products, identify the ones with defective gas pedals and brakes, and sell them to people who have been driving for at least 40 years.

 

I must admit, I have had a vehicle do the sudden acceleration thing on me before and it scared the crap out of me. Honest to goodness true story!!!




Since then, I make sure i push the break instead of the gas.

 

My only experience is that driving behind a big truck on the freeway with the cruise control on I appied very light brake pressure to slow the vehicle down and the cruise tried to compensate. Turned off the cruise control as I was too close to do any experiments with brake pressure. Did not notice any issues with normal brake pressure on two Prius's. Side note is my 2011 is getting better MPG than my 2009!

Best car on the road for quality and MPG!

Been driving 100 years!

 

Okay, that makes NO sense. First of all, I was out of the car when it started going. Second, when I managed to get back in, had I hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, it would have gone faster. And that doesn't explain why I couldn't steer either. I'm definitely not saying the brakes failed. It is a software issue, which is why *mechanics* cannot find the problems.

You know if you push the on button without the brake being applied? It turns on some lights, but the car is in a state where nothing works. I've done that by accident sometimes and wondered why the car doesn't go. THAT is the state the car was in, I believe, or went into after idling with it in gear. Yet in the first incident, the car was still in gear and going. But it was not responding to brakes, gas pedal or steering.

I don't know your background, but let's assume you are a mechanic, and to your knowledge, this kind of thing cannot happen. I am a computer programmer, and I know software, and it can fail in unexpected circumstances. The mechanics drove it around the block; so they didn't duplicate the problem. They didn't even try to put it in gear and idle for 5-10 minutes. They discounted my whole story, like you. Oh, well. The car is gone; I traded it in, because I did not feel safe with it after something odd happened twice in one week, where it failed to respond while it was in gear.

I don't even think that what happened is the same thing which happened to the poster I replied to; just didn't want to start a new thread, and wanted to tell my story.

But no, stepping on the gas not only is inconsistent with what happened, but it doesn't explain the lack of steering, as I was headed into the road and was desperately trying to avoid that.

 

Software can fail, but so can humans. In this situation the failure is almost certainly human.

Tom

 

Okay, tell me what I failed to do to cause the brakes and steering to not respond once I got back into the car?

Did you even read my story? The issue is not that the car started going when I left it in gear with the emergency brake on. The issue is that when I got back in, the regular brakes didn't work nor did the steering. THAT is what scared me and what indicates something was dreadfully wrong. Saying I stepped on the gas instead of the brake doesn't explain what happened. Sorry to disappoint you.

 

all the best with your new car!!!

 

i had a friend that was a total disaster when he sneezed. for some reason, he felt compelled to SLAM ON THE BRAKES when he cut loose. no question the gas pedal was pushed on any of these claims.

my 08 had 79K on it with no such issue.

now, my CT is doing just as well.....

OH yeah, you dont want to be following behind my friend when he sneezes. it's quite shocking indeed.