Runaway Prius in California

[ninemm]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... Collection

Does this story sound fishy to anyone else? One of the TV stories added that the guy is in real estate. In California. Fishy?

[MadMonkey]

Switch off the car? Shift to neutral?

[JJVP]

Switch off the car? Shift to neutral?

Makes me wonder what kind of idiots we have driving the streets. They can't figure out that the car can't accelerate out of control if it is on Neutral and/or the engine is off.

[pbwalker]

Switch off the car? Shift to neutral?

You NEVER want to turn off a car (at least 99% of most modern cars) midflight. You will lose power steering and it will affect your braking. You DO want to shift in to Neutral and apply braking, but while the car is on. Once stopped, you can kill the engine.

[MadMonkey]

Switch off the car? Shift to neutral?

You NEVER want to turn off a car (at least 99% of most modern cars) midflight. You will lose power steering and it will affect your braking. You DO want to shift in to Neutral and apply braking, but while the car is on. Once stopped, you can kill the engine.

A runaway car can affect the braking too... I would think most people would first try to shut off the car rather than shift out of gear (I don't know how many of them realize there is a rev limited to keep from blowing an engine). If you're moving, steering isn't difficult at all in a regular-sized car with no power. On a straight freeway I imagine braking would be fine too...

[ninemm]

I will be surprised if they determine that it was not staged.

[TDDude]

I'll bet half of a moderator's salary that this has nothing to do with the car and everything to do with the driver screwing up and getting scared.

The only reason that Toyota is getting hammered right now is because our government owns GM and as such, Toyota needs to go down.

Remember when Ford's were spontaneously combusting in people’s garages and burning their houses down? I know I got a recall on my 17-year-old van for that one and no one cared. I’m sure the people who lost their cars & homes cared but there was no hupla like there is now. And there have been scores of GM & Chrysler recalls as well.

I am absolutely sick of all this Toyota bashing; especially in relationship to the source.

[USA1]

Next time I get popped for speeding in my Toyota I'll blame it on the stuck accelerator pedal...Wonder if that'll fly.

[marksiwel]

Next time I get popped for speeding in my Toyota I'll blame it on the stuck accelerator pedal...Wonder if that'll fly.

Cant hurt to try

I think the "Government Motors" is spreading this as propaganda seems alittle far fetched. Are they reaping it? Sure why not. But I think the 37 dead, is enough for some people to be upset, not to mention a Prisus is the default vehicle of the Whole Foods Democrats.

[tallmike]

I will be surprised if they determine that it was not staged.

Me too. Even the 911 operator told him to pop it into neutral, still he waited for another 20 mins for the CHP to come and tell him to use the emergency brake?

[MechAg94]

I will be surprised if they determine that it was not staged.

Me too. Even the 911 operator told him to pop it into neutral, still he waited for another 20 mins for the CHP to come and tell him to use the emergency brake?

I hadn't realized the 911 operator told him that. I was talking with people at work yesterday and we all figured it was staged also. The timing is just too good. IMO, there is no way he does that for 20 minutes without trying to put it in neutral or turn off the key. Some people were doubting the story thinking a Prius couldn't go that fast. :)

With modern electronic steering, what happens to the steering when you turn off the car. In by gone days, it defaulted to manual steering which worked but was stiff. If you were going faster, the manual steering was actually fairly easy. I haven't tried it in recent years, but I assumed it all still worked the same.

[Keith B]

I will be surprised if they determine that it was not staged.

Me too. Even the 911 operator told him to pop it into neutral, still he waited for another 20 mins for the CHP to come and tell him to use the emergency brake?

I hadn't realized the 911 operator told him that. I was talking with people at work yesterday and we all figured it was staged also. The timing is just too good. IMO, there is no way he does that for 20 minutes without trying to put it in neutral or turn off the key. Some people were doubting the story thinking a Prius couldn't go that fast. :)

With modern electronic steering, what happens to the steering when you turn off the car. In by gone days, it defaulted to manual steering which worked but was stiff. If you were going faster, the manual steering was actually fairly easy. I haven't tried it in recent years, but I assumed it all still worked the same.

It does, and you can't shut the key down to lock the wheel unless the car is in park, so really not any danger of shutting it off period.

[chabouk]

If this was any car other than a hybrid, I'd be the first to declare bullfeathers. But, the hybrids have some complex inter-connected systems that work very differently from traditional systems.

From what I've read, you can't shut it off unless the computer agrees conditions are right for shutting off. You can't always shift into neutral just because you want to; it's an electronically controlled transmission, and you can't manually kick it out of gear. The regenerative braking system (combined with electronic ABS) won't always apply the mechanical braking system, no matter how hard you press the pedal.

The Audi "failing brakes" scare of some years back was bogus; it was prettily easily shown to be pedal confusion. The people who swore they were standing on the brake pedal, were actually standing on the gas. At least one car magazine at the time took several of the accused Audi models, accelerated to 100 mph, then floored the throttle while stepping on the brake. In every case, the brakes were stronger than the engine, and the car stopped. The Prius doesn't have anywhere near the power of an Audi sedan.

In this latest Toyota case, if the emergency brake had some effect (as reported), then it tends to support the idea that the regenerative braking system isn't letting drivers apply the brakes in response to a runaway engine, but the manually operated e-brake did. (It would also affirm just how piddling weak a Prius engine is, if the e-brake could do anything other than lock up the rear wheels while it kept trucking on down the road.)

I am suspicious, though, because this car owner had repeatedly tried to take his Prius in under recall, but his wasn't one of the recalled model years. All of a sudden, whaddaya know, he has a runaway.

[chabouk]

Oh, and apropos to this topic, this morning on the Bob Edwards show, he interviewed a doctor from Johns Hopkins (Dr. Peter Pronovost), who is on a crusade to drastically reduce infections in medical settings. He pointed out that there are 100,000 deaths annually in the U.S. from infections, the vast majority of them preventable if hospitals and doctors would follow basic precautions. He contrasted it with the Toyota situation, which is estimated to have resulted in five deaths per year for four years, but is getting massive publicity and Congressional hearings.

But if I ever owned a Prius, I'd have to name it Christine.

[karder]

Remember when Ford's were spontaneously combusting in people’s garages and burning their houses down? I know I got a recall on my 17-year-old van for that one and no one cared.

I got one of those recalls too. I have been waiting for my 20 year old Bronco to catch fire for years now. That is the only way my wife is gonna let me get a new truck. No luck yet!