Here's a guy that argues that most of these "runaway acceleration" incidents are probably the driver's fault. He was involved in reasearching the first outbreak of cases, back in the 80s (remember the Audi 5000?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/op...eration&st=cse

Anyhow: " The trouble occurred in cars small and large, cheap and expensive, with and without cruise control or electronic engine controls, and with carburetors, fuel injection and even diesel engines. The only thing they had in common was an automatic transmission. "

and "far more frequent among older drivers (in a General Motors study, 60-to-70-year-olds had about six times the rate of complaints as 20-to-30-year-olds), drivers who had little experience with the specific car involved (parking-lot attendants, car-wash workers, rental-car patrons) and people of relatively short stature."

My mom once tried to claim it was "runaway acceleration" that made her hit another car at a gas station (she had a 1992 or so Escort).

I never believed a word of it - she's an automotive ninny.

- Kabong

 

In my wife's Mazda CX-9, all that would do is make the car start beeping.

Think about it - if you're at the airport, and you get out of the car with the key in your pocket to help someone with their bags, should the car really shut off?

Or if you're stuck in the snow, and you need to get out and put something under the wheels, should the engine stop if the smart key leaves the car?

Probably not.

- Kabong

 

I remember these quite well. My boss at the time had an Audi 5000. These don't seem to compare to the present cases. Back then, it was sudden acceleration from a stop. Yes, that could be driver error. Today, the cars seem to accelerate while already traveling down the road. Lifting the foot off the peddle doesn't seem to help. I does seem odd that the drivers can't shift the cars into neutral and coast to a stop.

 

I wonder what would happen if the press were all to start saying, "There is a fix for unintended acceleration! Lift your right foot off the brake pedal. Instead, brake with your left foot."

 

Yes, I had two '87 Audi 5000s. I can absolutely guarantee that the throttle is prone to stick on the auto tranny models, because it twice happened to me. The linkage is mechanical and very well put together, but it's a long combination of cables, ball joint connectors, rods and levers. On the auto models, one of the pivot points for one of the levers is located low down on the side of the transmission housing. The "lever" is a flat stamped piece of metal. Because it's wide, it makes a perfect place for salt, snow, and road debris to get trapped and jam up the mechanism. It was very clear after I had problems, where the problem was, and I made sure at oil change time to clean out the accumulated crud, so it wouldn't stick again. The original pedal arrangement was taken essentially straight from the manual model and had a narrow brake pedal close to the accelerator, making it both hard to brake with one's left foot (which I prefer when driving an automatic) and easy to miss. Audi improved the pedal arrangement, but never responded to the "crud issue".

While CBS blew the issue way out of proportion, it doesn't imply that Audi was blameless. Regardless of the present media frenzy, Toyota does have a problem and they need to deal with it. It would be wise for the other manufacturers to look at these issues as well.

 

i really refuse to believe the drivers couldnt stop their cars.

the accelerator pedal may have stuck and may be a real issue.

but i think the fault of the accidents lay with the drivers. neutral, turn the car off (holding it for 3 seconds) etc is just not that hard. btw, throwing the keys out of the window does not work. car will stay on.

all modern brakes can overpower the accelerator btw. ALL OF THEM. a good example of this is the drag strip. automatics hold the brakes and the gas at the same time to do a burn out. cars do not move forward. and these are cars that have in excess of 400whp and REALLY STICKY tires. if you hold the gas and the brakes, the car will slow down pretty quickly. just not as quickly. i cant believe the monster of an engine in a prius overpowers their brakes.

also, bmw has had a system for awhile that will cut the throttle if you stand on both the accelerator and the brakes. however, it will give 10-15% throttle to allow for rev matching. i think this is ideal.

 

I saw the oddest thing a few minutes ago just before getting home:









A Prius with damage on the REAR bumper.

 

Assumption 1) Prius has regenerative braking mode.

Assumption 2) transmission protection system beyond a certain speed prevents car to switch transmission out of gear to protect transmission/electric motor.


If a glitch happened in the system, and prevent the real brakes from engaging while 100% throttling the throttle (maybe adding the voltage signal from brake to the gas signal), and the protection system prevent a gear switch, these runaways may happen.


2nd scenario,

The car can have a glitch with cruise control system, set so that the acceleration button is giving full signal, while not registering any cancel signals from brake or cancel button. combine that with transmission protection.

Perhaps.. toyota and the researchers are focusing on the wrong thing, maybe the real problem is in the braking system.

That being said...i still call BS on multiple of these incidents.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/..._runaway_prius



I was afraid to do anything out of the normal, like going 94mph in a Prius and calling 911 wasn't abnormal enough.