...but it was my fault. A couple of weeks ago I was going up a steep hill near work. There was some traffic behind me so I decided to floor it to get out of the way. I let go of the gas pedal and the Prius keeps going. Wth! By now I'm accelerating hard up this hill.My first thought is, OH SH1T!. Computer freak out. Then I think, emergency shut down, hold down the power button. All the while I'm going faster and faster. Then I remember a loan car I once drove when a previous car of mine was in the shop. It's gas pedal got stuck behind the floor mat. I reach down, pull the mat back and the Prius slows down again. I washed my car a day before and put the mat back differently than usual. When I floored the gas (something I allmost never do) the bottom lip hooked behind the mat. I'm such a fool. We're so quick to blame the technology when it's just human error.
As I was reading your story I was telling myself "its the floormat, oh no" and sure enough it was. Glad to hear that you got out of that situation safely. I had a pedal get stuck on me once, but it wasn't a mat... Just the throttle sticking on an old 50's Ford pickup and it is one moment of panic while trying to figure out what to do.
My wife and I had that happen on my prius. Got rid of the mats the next day! Scared the crap out of me. Good thing the car slows down some when you hit the breaks. I hear, in those situations, you can put the car in neutral. Apparently, the engine idles when you are in neutral no matter what the gas pedal is doing.
If these were OEM floor mats, there should be hooks installed to prevent them from sliding up that far. Were these hooks present and in use? One side goes into a hole on the car's actual carpet, the other into a hole in the floormat. I've had these in both my 2002 and 2004, and for 150,000 combined miles between the two, never experienced any issues w/ the floormats creeping up IF the hooks were properly in place. Hope this helps.
My after market floor mats go under the pedal, are wedged between the centre and side of the foot well and never move. They also have sharp spikes under to engage the carpet. They cost less than $15AU for 4 mats, are 18 months old and still look like new.
Glad to hear that you are okay. It scared me just reading your post! Just an FYI, the brake will always outpower the gas. I know in a panic situation, it can be difficult to think clearly, but perhaps consider the brake pedal as your first means of defense if this were to happen again. ... Brad
This is a good reminder to always check that your floormats are properly secured. A quick Google will uncover many reports of unintended acceleration from all the makes: Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, even Jeep. Imagine that
