Unintended Acceleration...

Just put your foot on the brake and the gear in neutral to stop the car. Some people panic and press the accellerator.

It has never been proven or reproduced (not even by NASA who conducted the first investigations!) that the cars accellerated by themselves.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply 
indicates you are not using the right tools... 
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) 
--------------------------------------------------------------

Very bad idea. What if that happens when you are on railroad crossing? Or on a bridge which is about to open? Or when you are overtaking a car with a truck coming up from the opposite direction?

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply 
indicates you are not using the right tools... 
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) 
--------------------------------------------------------------

Somebody commenting on the EDN article mentioned the Therac-25 catastrophies. VERY interesting reading.

fuel

down

past

vehicle's

Interrupting

Excuse the question, but just how does engine reduction eliminate the use of steering and breaking? Nothing will help willful driver stupidity.

?-)

revlimiter

Maybe, if it was implemented correctly.

I have owned two different makes where they couldn't (in first or second gear).

r

Removing power from the road wheels is the least worst option.

There aren't many. Brakes usually beat any engine in a high gear provided that you use them properly. Allow them to get mad hot by misuse going down a hill and then brake fade becomes a problem.

But in locked first or second gear they aren't likely to be going at very high speeds where a collision will mean certain death. Car and driver seem to think that most of these UA events in the US are due to people who cannot distinguish between the brake and gas pedals!

The same applies to the Audi scare many years earlier. I am not impressed with the Toyota firmware faults as described in EDN

The think I don't understand is that heavy application of the brake pedal should always countermand throttle cruise control.

No but the road death rates are already much higher than in other countries. Countries like Belgium and Italy have similar driver fatality rates. Depending on the metric you use driving in the USA is between 2 and 4 times more dangerous than driving (faster) in the UK.

Belgium is broadly comparable and they have the insane priorite a droite rule still applied to about half their road junctions. That is a car can fly out of a side road and have priority over a fast car on the major road provided that they do not slow down! Needless to say the resulting accidents almost always injure the brave Belgian driver.

--
Regards, 
Martin Brown

I had the pleasure of driving a rental Prius. Not only did it have no actual ignition switch, but it had no shifter either - there was a joystick with digital display to allow you to select drive, reverse, park, or 'engine braking' setting.

If that thing had decided to take off, nobody could do anything about it.

Chuckle, Glad to hear you don't take yourself too seriously. (on a personal note I've been a certifiable jerk to my 'better half', but my head seems to be 'on straight' now. Thanks goodness women seem to have an infinite supply of forgiveness.)

George H.

Don't forget how many of the automatic transmissions are electronically shifted by the powertrain control module. You might feel a nice detent when you shift but that is just moving a selector switch on the PCM. Just how fail-safe that is, I can't say.

As previously written, yes. The PCM controls solenoid valves and electronically shifts the transmission. It's essentially shift by wire.

My wife is the same way... puts up with all my foibles.

Went to a Motorola cocktail party. Cretin tries to make a pass at my wife. His opening remarks were, "You're nothing like we expected" ;-) [snip] ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

ed a

3A223060667870311%2C%2210201647359779944%22%3A55943103079500 1647359779944%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[]

rnal report

rap.

embedded systems.

than simple mechanics).

if any system disagrees...

rs, my PICs have only limited stack space,

sign, but hey, life goes on.

incredible time pressure

that stuff, but think about it.

h.

troller I designed without all those features Barr says it 'needs'.

uld not bee too hot.

ricks how to stop it?

o the controller?

you are driving?

What you say is true but when the fit hits the shan, even the best driver m ight do things that are bad.

They told us that 'pumping the brakes' will help you regain control during a skid but when you're IN that skid, one half of your brain says pump the b rakes but the other half says STOP NOW and to hell with pumping brakes. The other half often 'wins' the debate which is why ABS is helpful. The comput er just monitors wheel motion and helps without the panic of people.

G²

On a sunny day (Sat, 2 Nov 2013 02:27:04 -0700 (PDT)) it happened stratus46 wrote in :

That is true.

ABS and things are a big help, or at least can be. I was handed a company car and was driving with 4 or 5 people towards an other city, and the brakes completely failed... I noticed it in time, switched to first gear and used the handbrake, drove into some gas station and had a look. In an other situation, I had bought an old Renault, used it for driving back and forth to work, and right on a bridge next to Amsterdam the left front wheel literally broke of, was just hanging from some steering stuff. I had a good grip on the steering wheel, and it took all the force I had to steer it to the right side of the road, it wanted left. I had made an appointment with the dealer to have it checked the next day. because it felt funny driving, but it did not make it that far... But I think an old lady would have had no chance to keep it on the road and would have gone right on heading into the upcoming traffic, pretty busy place there. And some people panic, let go of everything, and start yelling... I have saved somebody in that situation once (not a car). Never seen anybody that grateful..

I have been practicing this sliding thing on an icy place many years ago, with a Mustang V8 actually.. think I got that :-) I am still around. I really would not want a car that does not have any backup mechanical way of taking control. There was an issue with some motor controllers that got triggered by GPS cellphone towers or some other transmitter some years ago. Of course nuke EMPs will stop you too when you most want to go, and the modern controllers have a code that the police can send to stop you, or disable your engine. Now we may get google's automatic (no driver) cars. That would take the fun out of driving I think.

If the power steering goes, you're gonna need those abs.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward" 
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com 
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Double entendre ?:-} ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Why not? I don't see where that should cause major problems. Some cars have an emergency fuel pump shutoff triggered by impact.

I put one of these in a car (RX-7) many years ago (carbureted, electric fuel pump) as an anti-theft measure. A hidden switch in the fuel pump circuit. Having a carburetor, it would start and run for a few hundred feet before the float bowl emptied. Great. If ever I got car-jacked, I could just flip the switch on my way out and the perp would never suspect anything was wrong until he got down the street.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
I bet the human brain is a kludge. -- Marvin Minsky