My accelerator got stuck in the open position on the highway. Some animal burrowed up in the hood and stored a bunch of fruit there probably because it was warm in the winter. The throttle opened and fruit dropped in leaving it on full open. I knew to pop the car into neutral and coast off the highway and onto a shoulder. Naturally, I should sue GM for building an unsafe vehicle?
Underryder-
I have done this with my 2004 toyota Sienna van. The car will stop. The brakes will override the acceleration even though there is no computer “kill” for the accelerator like GM, Chrysler and Ford. Yes it takes longer but I have to aggree with the others some of this is drive panic and some is trying to jump on the perverbial money train that this has become.. Anyone remember when Audi had a similar problem????
Water Bug..
Better check your facts on this… I believe you will find that the computer does in fact have a program that will defer(override the request for acceleration )to the brakes when both the gas and brakes are used at the same time. this is the override feature that the Gov’ment is talking about. All Domestic Nfg’s have this feature. If not, all the powertrain engineers in my neighborhood here in Detroit are lying to me..
Aftering listening to a long radio interview by a newspaper writer reporting on the big coverup at Toyota and all the 1,000’s of pages that the government found regarding their coverup, I found it very interesting to learn that the newspaper columnist was from the Detroit Free Press!!
I’m more amazed Toyota doesn’t put a neutral in any of these cars. I would think that would as effective as calling your husband on your cell phone and praying.
I’ve had 2 incidents of unintended acceleration in my life…one in a fairly new ’86 or ’87 Audi that was literally a non-event…the car lurched about 5′ as I came up to the sidewalk exiting a tire shop. (That became a real issue for Audi…and a textbook example of how NOT to handle a crisis.) I just braked to a stop…but it might have been interesting if there had been a pedestrian there. The other was on a then new Chevy Caprice when an engine mount broke while turning and the engine position forced the throttle to open up in SF. I wasn’t driving(wife was)I just reached over and turned off the ignition…end of story. Chevy later recalled them to replace the mounts. Last week I wondered what would happen if I tried that with a current Infiniti M45 Sport…no key. I got it up to a reasonable speed on a straight road and just hit the ignition button while leaving my foot on the gas…then punched the ignition off…and punched it again…then again…and finally the engine shut off. It took maybe 5 secs. I’m going to try it later at a higher speed to see how hard the steering becomes, as I’ve lost power steering before and it isn’t fun on some cars.
Someday power steering and brakes will be electric and even dead stick there will still be both…if the battery is OK.
Hey – you Toyota homies who were still talking about how great their products are just last week – what do you say to this?
Toyota will be fortunate to survive. I will never buy a Toyota product, new or used. How do I know it won’t go crazy? They have a decade of bad cars out there!
The mysterious throttle over ride device that Congress wants to mandate would apply only to vehicles with “fly by wire” throttles where there is no mechanical connection between the gas pedal and the engine throttle. My Pontiac has a cable connected to the gas pedal, not an electronic sensor that measures the angle of the pedal. There is no over ride device on my car.
In the 80’s there was indeed an inquiry into unintended acceleration on Audi 5000’s. CBS’s 60 Minutes program did a feature on the problem and showed an Audi accelerating out of control. What they failed to mention was that they had sabotaged the cruise control AND the brakes to make this possible. It was years later that CBS finally confessed to the deception.
It’s kind of like the hoo ha over side saddle gas tanks on Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks. NBC did a feature on these trucks in the 90’s and they staged a collision in which a GMC truck was hit in the side by another vehicle. NBC expected a spectacular explosion but nothing much happened. The did several more collisions with similar results. Finally they put explosives in the GMC truck and finally they got a fireball. Of course, the viewing audience wasn’t privy to how NBC cheated. Eventually NBC had to apologize for lying to the public.
The fact remains that the brakes, with or without a magical over ride device, will stop the car if applied firmly.
I’ll mention again that I don’t work for or own a Toyota. I regard their product line as boring but safe and reliable.
The nut that holds the steering wheel is dangerous and prone to failure. Quality control is difficult, if not unattainable.
You need to re-engineer the nut to get the uniform and safe results you desire. I think governments around your planet are working on various solutions right now.
That California driver is a perfect example. Wonder what he will do when mustard from his tofu dog drips on his blue Hawaiian shirt. Will he run around like Patrick on Sponge Bob Squarepants until he runs into an obstacle & falls over? Then the tofu dogs would have to be recalled, along with the buns. MSDS for the mustard, etc. Design defects galore!
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My accelerator got stuck in the open position on the highway. Some animal burrowed up in the hood and stored a bunch of fruit there probably because it was warm in the winter. The throttle opened and fruit dropped in leaving it on full open. I knew to pop the car into neutral and coast off the highway and onto a shoulder. Naturally, I should sue GM for building an unsafe vehicle?
Underryder-
I have done this with my 2004 toyota Sienna van. The car will stop. The brakes will override the acceleration even though there is no computer “kill” for the accelerator like GM, Chrysler and Ford. Yes it takes longer but I have to aggree with the others some of this is drive panic and some is trying to jump on the perverbial money train that this has become.. Anyone remember when Audi had a similar problem????
Water Bug..
Better check your facts on this… I believe you will find that the computer does in fact have a program that will defer(override the request for acceleration )to the brakes when both the gas and brakes are used at the same time. this is the override feature that the Gov’ment is talking about. All Domestic Nfg’s have this feature. If not, all the powertrain engineers in my neighborhood here in Detroit are lying to me..
Nugget,
I agree. Sounds like an ID-10-T error. Oh yeah, he is from California. Enough said!
Aftering listening to a long radio interview by a newspaper writer reporting on the big coverup at Toyota and all the 1,000’s of pages that the government found regarding their coverup, I found it very interesting to learn that the newspaper columnist was from the Detroit Free Press!!
I’m more amazed Toyota doesn’t put a neutral in any of these cars. I would think that would as effective as calling your husband on your cell phone and praying.
I’ve had 2 incidents of unintended acceleration in my life…one in a fairly new ’86 or ’87 Audi that was literally a non-event…the car lurched about 5′ as I came up to the sidewalk exiting a tire shop. (That became a real issue for Audi…and a textbook example of how NOT to handle a crisis.) I just braked to a stop…but it might have been interesting if there had been a pedestrian there. The other was on a then new Chevy Caprice when an engine mount broke while turning and the engine position forced the throttle to open up in SF. I wasn’t driving(wife was)I just reached over and turned off the ignition…end of story. Chevy later recalled them to replace the mounts. Last week I wondered what would happen if I tried that with a current Infiniti M45 Sport…no key. I got it up to a reasonable speed on a straight road and just hit the ignition button while leaving my foot on the gas…then punched the ignition off…and punched it again…then again…and finally the engine shut off. It took maybe 5 secs. I’m going to try it later at a higher speed to see how hard the steering becomes, as I’ve lost power steering before and it isn’t fun on some cars.
Someday power steering and brakes will be electric and even dead stick there will still be both…if the battery is OK.
Hey – you Toyota homies who were still talking about how great their products are just last week – what do you say to this?
Toyota will be fortunate to survive. I will never buy a Toyota product, new or used. How do I know it won’t go crazy? They have a decade of bad cars out there!
Note to Underryder-
The mysterious throttle over ride device that Congress wants to mandate would apply only to vehicles with “fly by wire” throttles where there is no mechanical connection between the gas pedal and the engine throttle. My Pontiac has a cable connected to the gas pedal, not an electronic sensor that measures the angle of the pedal. There is no over ride device on my car.
In the 80’s there was indeed an inquiry into unintended acceleration on Audi 5000’s. CBS’s 60 Minutes program did a feature on the problem and showed an Audi accelerating out of control. What they failed to mention was that they had sabotaged the cruise control AND the brakes to make this possible. It was years later that CBS finally confessed to the deception.
It’s kind of like the hoo ha over side saddle gas tanks on Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks. NBC did a feature on these trucks in the 90’s and they staged a collision in which a GMC truck was hit in the side by another vehicle. NBC expected a spectacular explosion but nothing much happened. The did several more collisions with similar results. Finally they put explosives in the GMC truck and finally they got a fireball. Of course, the viewing audience wasn’t privy to how NBC cheated. Eventually NBC had to apologize for lying to the public.
The fact remains that the brakes, with or without a magical over ride device, will stop the car if applied firmly.
I’ll mention again that I don’t work for or own a Toyota. I regard their product line as boring but safe and reliable.
The nut that holds the steering wheel is dangerous and prone to failure. Quality control is difficult, if not unattainable.
You need to re-engineer the nut to get the uniform and safe results you desire. I think governments around your planet are working on various solutions right now.
That California driver is a perfect example. Wonder what he will do when mustard from his tofu dog drips on his blue Hawaiian shirt. Will he run around like Patrick on Sponge Bob Squarepants until he runs into an obstacle & falls over? Then the tofu dogs would have to be recalled, along with the buns. MSDS for the mustard, etc. Design defects galore!