Unintended acceleration 100% users fault

It was fraud. His story was discredited.

Tom

 

And, locally, three non-Toyota vehicles have been driven through store fronts. Within the past 6 months. Local to me. This isn't a huge metropolis, either.

In every case, it was declared the driver's fault, pressing the wrong pedal.

I know one was a GM van... one looked like an Olds (I drove past that one as they were getting all the emergency people there), and the last one was an old Caddy, I think.

It is pretty darned common for people to do stupid sh*t, really.

 

Maybe the brake pedal should be designed with a very distinctly different feel than the other pedals (gas, clutch), to reduce the possibility of the human error cited in the current preliminary findings.

Btw, the foot parking brake often almost spoofs me. I feel it is a bad place to put the parking brake. Most time, I drive our other car, which is a manual shifting Honda Civic, so when I take the Prius, often times I automatically reach for the non-existent clutch pedal with my foot (say just before braking). And those times, I almost reach to press the parking brake! I have never ever done it, but concerned might I not do it one day?

I know many other cars have a foot-operated parking brake, and I have transitioned on those cars under the same habit (usually when I rent one of them). However, I never felt the danger of hitting their park brakes (instead I just stab air), and I think the reason for that is the pedals are placed quite out of the way, unlike in the Prius.

 

The prius is the first auto i've owned, and a couple of times (usually when going to engage reverse, or when coming to a stop at a roundabout after a long stretch on the motorway) i have gone for the clutch. my toes just brush the bottom of the pedal and that's enough to remind me.

 

It is distinctly different. The brake pedal is higher and and has a firmer feel. It also slows the car down when you step on it and the throttle speeds the car up when you step on it.

It's also the standard throttle brake pedal throttle spacial relationship that over a billion people are used to. With all those cues, anyone who can't tell the difference has no business driving.

You can't make the world fool proof because nature will just develop a better fool.

 

We all know this was just a scam by congress and fox news to make foreign autos look terrible and make domestic cars look better in order to boost the economy.

 

You don't have to be a fool to do the wrong thing at the WRONG time in a PANIC situation.

But that pilot, serious training in a simulator otherwise, pulled back on the yoke when the stall warning sounded. IFR weather conditions, low level manuvering, resulted in PANIC...!!

 

Therein lies the double rub for me. GM has LOTS of its stuff made in China, Canada, Mexico etc ... so that a huge amount of the legislator's good P.R. benefits only go to support GM's board ... rather than the U.S. workers. Irony of irony. "Making foreign autos look terrible" ought to make GM look terrible, because a good amount is manufactured off shore. Conversely, the first high production EV (Nissan Leaf) will be made here in the U.S. . . . . but like I said, Nissan's board is off shore .... so .... as far as the legislators are concerned (as to good press/bad press) it pretty much "screw the workers" if it doesn't help GM's board ... business as usual for congress. That's the same way congress handled AIG ... make sure power stays where it belongs.

 

Yes, but fools panic more often and do the wrong thing more often when they do panic.

We in the US should stop handing out drivers licenses to the nearly untrained after only giving them a trivial test.

 

lol this wasn't a scam, faults were confirmed by Toyota Engineering and also independently by other firms

the fix, however, is fairly quick and cheap

naturally the diesel VW Golf and other Prius alternatives may have sold more (and non-Toyota brands in general) but Toyota has owned up to its mistakes and will certainly regain it's solid reputation (eventually)

the CEO of Toyota has even given confirmation and was grilled by Republicans and Dems alike, I doubt he went through that over BS.

 

True. But there was a problem, but it was seriously overblown. I mean seriously, how many deaths were from runaway toyotas over the past decade? i think it was less than 50? There are always other cars that run into walls and accelerate and you never hear about it in the news. I have my first toyota that i bought a week ago, so its not like i've been a toyota fanboy defending them. But all these deaths could've been avoided if people just knew how to drive... SHIFT INTO NEUTRAL!!!!

 

"ALL these deaths" ??

One fatal accident in a lexus is all i know about. And no reported incidents in the UK...

 

Lets be clear here and stop crossing between two problems Toyota had.

First, Toyota found problems in the throttle pedal assembly made by CTS in Canada. A friction plate was found to be susceptible to corrosion (mostly rust) and would increase friction enough to slow the throttle release, and in a few cases, actually hold the throttle open (or as open as the operator made it to begin with). As far as I know, NONE of these vehicles had brake override of the throttle function. That is currently being added in a firmware flash. The fix was to slip in a stainless plate over the friction plate, which is held in by the spring already there.
Note that in testing, by other than Toyota, all vehicles could be stopped by firm application of the brakes. If you messed around you -could- overheat the brakes.

Second, the Prius had the -brake- anomaly, wherein brake function released for almost a second upon encountering a serious road anomaly, such as a pothole.

The Prius DID NOT have and does not have the CTS throttle assemblies mentioned above! So it doesn't have and didn't have throttle sticking.

So please, when mentioning "unintended acceleration" STOP including the Prius!
The Prius had "unintended brake release".

The Prius DID have "unintended floormat interference" (they think).

 

I thought it was pretty obvious that Sikes' Prius incident involved SUA....!!??

 

My Prius didn't come with sudden acceleration, is that an option I can add?

 

Puleeze.. that was faked. It was not SUA at all. It was continuous acceleration with feet on the gas and brake pedals at the same time. The vehicle was investigated by NHTSA and Toyota.

Nothing occured as a result of the vehicle, it was entirely operator instigated.

 

"..feet on the gas and brake pedals at the same time.."

You can believe what you wish, obviously, but even Toyota will tell you that with the Prius the brake pedal ALWAYS overrides the gas pedal.

Provided, that is, the HSD control ECU isn't "out to lunch", in a tight instruction excution loop executing ONLY the cruise control "accel" function.

 

You have this one wrong. The Sikes case involved cycling between braking and gas up to the point of maximum brake damage without cutting the gas. DeadPhish's beliefs are irrelevant: this case was analyzed, documented, and shown to be a driver scamming the system.

Tom

 

"..You have this one wrong..."

Only time will tell.....

In the meantime...

Is ANYONE (of "authority") "on record" that Sikes was scamming the system...?

I thought not...!

 

Although I felt it was rather silly, I had mine done, because the dealer advised me that my insurance company may balk at covering me in case of an accident if I did not respond to the recall?????