More dead--

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

How is this possible. Did all the people take stupid pills with the mornign breakfast or something. I have had car mats interupt the brake and accelerator pedals in the past .... Guess what, I removed them... Big deal.

Even if the accelerator stuck to the floor. Would it be 1 second or 2seconds for me to carefully reach down and and pull it out.... Or 1/2 second for me to switch the engine off ..... And wow, if worse came to worse I would pull that sucker out of gear .... trust me the car WILL stop if the engine isn't connected to the wheels. I certainly wouldn't ring someone on my phone saying "my car is going really fast and I can't slow it down" .... If you can dial a phone, you can sure as hell stop a car with a stuck pedal :wasntme:

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Its because the accelerator pedal doesn't have a linkage or cable between it and the engine, it is all fly by wire and when the cars computer fails it could fail in the pedal flat-to-the-floor position. What was worse was the fact that as a safety measure, you can't turn the ignition off while the car is moving.

You are aware that all the current Range Rovers and Discovery models have the same safety feature. To shut down the ignition, the transmission has to be in Park. While you can probably get the transmission into neutral you'll still have a run away engine.

A trained police officer (ie someone who can drive and think in stressful situations) was killed in a Toyota. The accident was recorded as he rang 911 while on the highway with the car out of control. Horrific.

So you can't just throw any car you care to mention into neutral :confused: That would be my very first thought, and I have done it before. If the engine wants to sit there bouncing off it's rev limiter, well that's no skin off my nose if the alternative is crashing :confused: :wasntme:

Maybe it just wouldn't occur to automatic only drivers that there is a neutral there waiting to be used :eek: Hell if I was that scared, I'd throw it into reverse.... it'd no doubt stall the engine for me.

seeya,
Shane L.

I wasn't there, just telling the story. Like you I found it confusing. But obviously his training did not save him and his family.

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

How is this possible. Did all the people take stupid pills with the mornign breakfast or something. I have had car mats interupt the brake and accelerator pedals in the past .... Guess what, I removed them... Big deal.

Even if the accelerator stuck to the floor. Would it be 1 second or 2seconds for me to carefully reach down and and pull it out.... Or 1/2 second for me to switch the engine off ..... And wow, if worse came to worse I would pull that sucker out of gear .... trust me the car WILL stop if the engine isn't connected to the wheels. I certainly wouldn't ring someone on my phone saying "my car is going really fast and I can't slow it down" .... If you can dial a phone, you can sure as hell stop a car with a stuck pedal :wasntme:

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I have first hand experience of this,my last ever job as an Ambulance was for a 200 series Land cruiser that crashed at Newman,the vehicle pulled out onto the road and accelerated out of control,the driver was a 50 year old male that told me straight out that everything happened in an instant,the LC only stopped after he ran over a round-a-bout and the jolt caused the engine to stop.We arrived within minutes and the brake rotors were blue and smoking heavily,the driver was terrified to the point of having tachycardia,I know for a fact that floor mats weren't the problem for the simple reason that I personally looked in the vehicle and it didn't have mats.Toyota know it wasn't the mats either,the next day the vehicle was put on a truck that was driven overnight from Perth,the accident happened at 10:40 the night before,my Tdi Defender and camper were being backed loaded on another truck but the 200 series had a truck all to itself,you can believe the mat story but I have enough experience dealing with people to know if they are faking or not,you cannot fake a cardiac arrest. Pat

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

So you can't just throw any car you care to mention into neutral :confused: That would be my very first thought, and I have done it before. If the engine wants to sit there bouncing off it's rev limiter, well that's no skin off my nose if the alternative is crashing :confused: :wasntme:

Maybe it just wouldn't occur to automatic only drivers that there is a neutral there waiting to be used :eek: Hell if I was that scared, I'd throw it into reverse.... it'd no doubt stall the engine for me.

seeya,
Shane L.

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It's a safety feature invented by academic's,their ''safety'' feature has caused an unsafe situation. Pat

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Originally Posted by PAT303

It's a safety feature invented by academic's,their ''safety'' feature has caused an unsafe situation. Pat

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The Luddite in me believes that this is going to be an increasing problem as more of the control of a vehicle is handed over to something electronic, pre-programmed or computerised.

I have the notion that the software engineers aren't able to foresee every possible circumstance or more particularly every combination of circumstances that a driver will encounter.

I fear that it will become more common for a feature that seemed like a good idea when the computer controls were created to become a death trap when something unforeseen occurs.

In the acc. position you have no brake or steering assistance, how many people these days can drive a vehicle without power steering or boosted brakes - i'd say very few under 50.

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Originally Posted by loanrangie

In the acc. position you have no brake or steering assistance, how many people these days can drive a vehicle without power steering or boosted brakes - i'd say very few under 50.

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How many modern cars actually have an Acc. position?

Not the ones with push button start. While you can press the button without your foot on the brake and the engine doesn't start, it is not a true accessories position because the engine management and other management systems are still active.

The last thing you'd want to do with these vehicles is to deactivate the vehicle systems which automatically locks the steering.

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Originally Posted by vnx205

The Luddite in me believes that this is going to be an increasing problem as more of the control of a vehicle is handed over to something electronic, pre-programmed or computerised.

I have the notion that the software engineers aren't able to foresee every possible circumstance or more particularly every combination of circumstances that a driver will encounter.

I fear that it will become more common for a feature that seemed like a good idea when the computer controls were created to become a death trap when something unforeseen occurs.

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There are probably a few Airbus pilots who would agree with you, over computerized.