I was driving along, singing along with my favorite CD, meant to reach down and shove the cruise up a notch, and ALMOST shoved the shift lever, instead of the cruise lever. Fortunately, I caught my absent minded error, before I actually did it. That got me thinking though.... I'll bet I could have reallly messed up the car, shoving it into reverse while it was going down the highway. Tell me, how bad could it have been/ (So I make sure and think twice before doing anything!!)
From what others have written (either based upon experimentation or accident), I believe it would just beep at you and go into Neutral (no pieces of transmission on the highway like with a conventional car....). Love the "by-wire" technology!!!
you will shift into reverse and go into time warp never to be found again :lol: Now the true story nothing but a beeeeeeeeeeeeeep
That is right, no damage done except to your ego, if observed by passenger. It is super intelligent. Someone knew we would occasionally do something like this and put in all the safeguards. Enjoy.
Because the car is software controlled, it is - as I put it - "Tony Proof." Attempting to do something like change gears while driving simply puts it into [N]. You retain steering control, brake control, and with any luck you ego. But somewhere in the bowels of the electronic system, all the individual computer units are snickering at you.
Not only snickering, but making a BKWRD DIR SHIFT entry in the Operation History Data, enabling the techs to later say "oh, this guy must be a total bonehead" ... . _H*
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Sep 11 2006, 01:41 AM) [snapback]317611[/snapback]</div> Is that where laughing gas comes from?
What would happen if you accidently press the "park" button instead of "in distress" (the blinking lights)?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Michgal007 @ Sep 11 2006, 06:36 AM) [snapback]317642[/snapback]</div> Same beep as accidental reverse
And just to deflate a bit of this ego trip, I don't know of any automatic that would go into reverse at speed. Even the most stupid ones I've driven go into neutral until you're almost stopped. In fact, that's a teen trick - moving forward in drive, switch to reverse and when it shifts at about 2 MPH press the accellerator. You get a nice black loop on the road. NOT GOOD for the car. But teens are pretty stupid sometimes.
Thanks for all your replies. Just backs up what I've been saying along. This has got to be the smartest car I've ever seen.... Too bad someone else already took the name "Smart Car." I wonder how smart the Smart Car actually is.......
I uh...I actually did hit the shifter to reverse while driving. It just popped into neutral, but not before I panicked!
