Not true, if the guys to stupid to shift the auto into neutral then he's to stupid to push in a clutch.

 

Then the person wouldn't do nothing but keep stalling out or just flat out and give up driving.

 

The funny part about the whole run away prius thing was that i was thinking the same thing...why didnt he put it in "N"! thats like instinct for me to pop in neutral if things went haywire..from driving 5/6 speed cars!

 

I asked a girl that one day, and she thought N was for connecting reverse and drive together...

 

I have said this before I have heard people say it in person. I said it from day one and no one listened. I said the "shim" bs wouldn't work and no one thought anything of it. These morons are stupid. I don't like talking trash about people, but man people need to realize there is an issue here. They don't get it. I have said over and over the technology is scary. There is less control in our hands and we see that in our 04 NBS and up with the drive by wire. The more "amenities" like the adaptive cruise bs and such they put into cars are jsut more sensors that can fail. I'm just about 19 and this technology even scares me. It's too much for vehicles.

 

What specific years of Toyota/Lexus models are seeing this problem? My mom drives a 07 or 08 Lexus and I will definitly have this conversation with her.

 

I don't know how the Prius is set up, but the only hope the HP officer that was killed had was to know that the start/stop button has to be held for 3.5 sec. in order to kill the engine. It was a loaner car and he obviously didn't know that. It is keyless ignition, the key only has to be in your pocket so no help there. You can't put it in the ignition and "turn it off". The Lexus is total electronic control from shift lever to trans and computer programmed to ignore ANYTHING you do with selector above 2500 RPM so you can't shift to neutral. Without the knowledge about holding the S/S button for 3.5 sec, that family was dead when they made that 911 call, they just hadn't stopped breathing yet. Don't assume that people are stupid for not knowing simple measures like that. What would you do in exactly the same place he found himself. Betting good money you'd be where he is now.

 

I have believed that since Audi was having the same type problem. We had it happen in a shop that I was working in back in the "Audi days" The painter went to move the Audi and when he put it in gear (reverse) it went to full throttle with the tires smoking. The only thing that saved the day was he always put his foot on the brake to shift into gear and when it went to full throttle, he mashed for all he was worth and immediately got the key shut off. Don't tell me there was no problem with Audi. This guy was sharp or he would have ended up like a lot of others in the same situation. Just to hard to ever duplicate.

 

I'm not familiar with the family in the Lexus, I was mainly talkin about the goof in the Prius a couple days ago. But if the guy had enough time to make a call then he had enough time to stop. If the brakes from a Roush Stage 3 can stop it from 100 then I'm sure the brakes from the Lexus could have slowed him down.
I've actually had my accelerator stuck a few times. A couple times in my old mans F100. Happened on a WR500. Once was in a small parking lot in a Mustang 5.0 and the other was pulling into a shop with a 6000 HP locomotive. Granted mine weren't computer controlled drive by wire crap but there are multiple ways to stop when your cars floored.

 

This video on popular mechanics has a demonstration that braking should halt the car.

 

Regarding the manual transmission, if the goof in the Prius couldn't stop the stupid egg, then I doubt he could even drive a car equipped with a manual transmissiona and would, therefore, be safe and sound.

On the technology, it is scary. We are talking about cars here. I have flown on many Airbus planes that are also fly by wire machines. Just think of the things that can go wrong in the air. I don't know how many times I've been on them where we were delayed due to "technical" issues. Scary.

 

As far as the black box goes most of them are "first in first out" devices that only retain a short time period so it is possible that the data is overwritten in most cases especially if the driver uses the car again after an event.

 

Nope, the Spectrum was an Isuzu.

 

Modern fighter aircraft DEPEND upon computer control to stay in the air.

If you want to pay for it cars can have redundant systems just as the aircraft have to basically eliminate the danger of failure.

Do you recommend we force the manufacturers to install redundant sysstems or are you happy with the current level of safety?

 

Nope, simply find out and fix what's wrong in the computer system, because as Labnerd said, that's where it is. My son flies Apache helicopters and has spent a good deal of his years in the service involved in "Safety". Has investigated many accidents where there was a similar type thing, with the computer taking over the controls virtually always with disastrous results. They determined that the Army's helicopters (those that were consistently involved) were manufactured without shielding on the wiring looms (foil shielding) because the Army chose to decline that because they didn't feel it was necessary. The other branches that flew essentially the same helicopter had no reports of these uncommanded maneuvers that would end disastrously. The others had chosen to have the shielding installed when they made the contract. It is humanly impossible to override the control of the computer. The problem is radio wave interference that is able to penetrate the unshielded wire looms and input commands that in a few seconds cause a completely unrecoverable situation. I don't think that is the problem with Toyota and the others that have experienced UA, but it is not beyond conceivability. I have personally viewed several films of exactly the same thing in civilian helicopters where it was obvious the pilot would NEVER have executed the instantaneous and disastrous maneuver that ended tragically. Electronics and radio waves of all types are a wonderful modern day part of our lives, but sometimes jump up to bite us bigtime!