Pumping the Accelerator

Hi Paul,

MG1 within the transaxle is the motor generator that among other things is responsible for starting the gasoline engine. If you had instrumentation that could read MG1 RPM, you would note that it will zoom back and forth at relatively high positive and negative RPM as needed based upon vehicle speed and driver request for power. The 2G transaxle is quite reliable, don't worry about an early failure.

<In case this is an issue affecting your domestic tranquility, it's not worth it to fight about the issue with "she who must be obeyed">

 

Early failure is not a concern. Wasted energy and just poor driving habits in general are the bigger issues.

 

Maybe she is trying to practice Pulse & Glide...

 

What does she intend to do by pumping the pedal?

 

Inflate the tires for better mileage.

Tom

 

Pumping the gas padel is always bad habit on driving any cars......Hybrid or Regular.

Why does she like to do this? (Is it really a Pumping action? Or just heavy-foot?)

 

Oy

(Sound of open palm smacking my forehead)

 

I tend to resort to what I believe is pumping the pedal for short 2-7 second bursts (or less) during traffic to avoid draining down the battery. Should I "ev" mode it instead if it damages the transaxel?

 

Oh: she lurches forward, stops, repeats. That's just ordinary bad driving technique. It won't hurt anything in a Prius except MPGs, and maybe wear down the brake pads and front tires a little faster than they would otherwise. The more constant she can keep the speed the better fuel economy she'll get.

 

What you're doing won't hurt the car, but it's useless. When a Prius is ON and *not* in Neutral it maintains the battery charge all by itself.

 

have her put it in neutral at red lights & have her pump 'till her heart's content ... it'll help get it out of her system. :^)

 

The more you pump the throttle, the more you have to pump the gas.

 

I was in DC June 23 headed back home to Alabama and remember leaving at 3:00 PM and the rush hour traffic. What you are describing is almost exactly what I experienced on I-66 and later when I took the Gainsville turnoff to Warrenton. I saw the same pattern in all DC 'rush hour' traffic. Everyone was jocking for position with one exception.

Any truck had a quiet space behind them and the DC area drivers would not dart into that space between my Prius and the truck. When I was behind ordinary passenger traffic, any safety gap was treated as an open space and fair game for a cut-in. Behind the truck, I could not see anything in front but I could travel with a following safety gap and still make good progress.

Does your wife do the same when there is no traffic around, say on the weekend? If so, I would suggest she drive with a little larger following distance. Now making such a suggestion to a wife is another problem having nothing to do with technology or technique ... it requires ... guile.

Bob Wilson
ps. Married 31 years.

 

It's a form of "bang-bang" control, where there are only two control outputs: on and off. Household thermostats are a good example. The house gets to warm, the furnace turns off. The house gets too cold, the furnace turns on. It "bangs" from one extreme to the other, as in a damper banging open and banging closed: bang-bang.

You need to get the PID control option for your wife. Actually, humans use as much feed-forward control as feed-back, but let's not get picky.

Tom

 

Oy (Smack)

 

I knew a guy like that in high school. He could not hold a steady speed with the gas pedal. He had to be either accelerating or decelerating, foot on the gas or foot off.
It was the most annoying thing I had ever experienced.

25 years later

I got invited to a UGA game a few weeks ago by a friend, he drove the same way. Unable to hold a steady speed. I just don't get it, what is so hard about maintaining a steady speed with small throttle adjustment....

 

I saw some medicine on a tv ad that is supposed to fix that. It's for Restless Leg Syndrome. You might have her try it.