Runaway Prius - Why did the brakes not work?

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

They would all stall because the EMI would toast the ignition system.

Stall with no brakes and no steering(in case of steer by wire)

You would have tens of thousands of unguided projectiles smacking into each other.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by red-beard

This particular case was a mechanically stuck pedal.

I would need to look at the code to see what happens when you put your foot to the floor on the gas and hit the brakes at the same time. There is no mechanical connection between any of the pedal and any of the systems. This is INSANE!

Better not tell Porsche4life.

He just got done telling me again yesterday why this is all in my head and i'm just biased against Toyota because i had 3 straight toyota engines blow on me.

I have read that the RECALLED AND REPAIRED Toyotas are still doing the same things!

Originally Posted by vash

as a a kid, i was told in case of a runaway..as a last resort, go with friction. start grinding against the concrete divide....sound scary.

would it work?

It probably would, just as long as you didnt accidentally jump it into oncoming traffic....

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

New cars really are disasters waiting to happen in some ways.

Just imagine what would happen if there was a mass EMP event over/in a US city and all the highyways have drive by wire cars cruising along them at 50-60mph when the event occurs.

Ugly.

Wouldn't that be the least of your problems?

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by HarryD

Makes you wonder exactly what is going on:

How To Deal With Unintended Acceleration - Tech Dept. - Auto Reviews - Car and Driver

Not really. In the real world where you cant just stand on your brakes on a freeway to stop they would overheat VERY fast if you were trying to maneuver over to the shoulder in traffic, etc.

The cop whose lexus murdered him and his family...his brakes were ON FIRE.

Originally Posted by Neilk

Wouldn't that be the least of your problems?

No. EMP does not cause physical damage.

[red-beard]

But you need a nuclear weapon to produce enough EMP to do the damage.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

New cars really are disasters waiting to happen in some ways.

More or less, yes. So we're left to older cars. But...

1) Who will fix them (if one is not mechanically inclined)?
2) Where do you get parts?
3) As has been shown in Cali, the govt isn't too keen on older cars - last I heard, nothing older than 1974 can't be registered.

Plus driving -- at least in L.A. -- is not conducive to older cars. I'd probably ruin my 911 with the awful stop n' go traffic in L.A.

[VenezianBlau 87]

Originally Posted by URY914

They need to install a master kill switch.

...or an ejection seat.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by red-beard

But you need a nuclear weapon to produce enough EMP to do the damage.

A high atmosphere nuke blast over any city would make a massive EMP pulse. A surface burst makes a much smaller pulse, but it would still cut off all electronics for many miles(far outside the actual blast zone).

I do not know if there are other means to generate a large EMP field. But on a highway full of steer/brake by wire cars, even a 100 m radius EMP zone could cause dozens of deaths.

I doubt an EMP blast is in any way likely....thank god. Because fly/drive by wire systems are extremely vulnerable to them.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by dd74

More or less, yes. So we're left to older cars. But...

1) Who will fix them (if one is not mechanically inclined)?
2) Where do you get parts?
3) As has been shown in Cali, the govt isn't too keen on older cars - last I heard, nothing older than 1974 can't be registered.

Plus driving -- at least in L.A. -- is not conducive to older cars. I'd probably ruin my 911 with the awful stop n' go traffic in L.A.

They just need to install full manual reversions in all cars.

Direct mechanical links to the brakes, steering and throttle should be mandated by law in all motor vehicles IMO.

[dd74]

Doesn't the EMP happen seconds before the blast?

[dd74]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Direct mechanical links to the brakes, steering and throttle should be mandated by law in all motor vehicles IMO.

Hmmm...now you're getting into a place where govt dictates manufacturing. Touchy stuff.

[Gogar]

Ummmmmmm. wouldn't the people in the 'runaway cars' from the NUK-U-LAR (OJUism) blast be ummmmmmm,

dead?

Why are you arguing about what the cars would do?

Oh, right. You're jerking each other off. Continue.

[notfarnow]

Who was it that said all Police officers are "highly trained" drivers??

Runaway Prius hits 90 mph before stopping with aid of CHP - latimes.com

A CHP patrol officer caught up to the Prius about 20 minutes later and used a loudspeaker to tell the driver to apply his emergency brake in tandem with the brake pedal, Landeros said.

scary

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by dd74

Doesn't the EMP happen seconds before the blast?

I think it's like milliseconds before, but i don't really know.

I'm sure someone here will.

Originally Posted by dd74

Hmmm...now you're getting into a place where govt dictates manufacturing. Touchy stuff.

Agreed. To me this is one of the areas where gov't intervention is appropriate. Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by Gogar

Ummmmmmm. wouldn't the people in the 'runaway cars' from the NUK-U-LAR (OJUism) blast be ummmmmmm,

dead?

Why are you arguing about what the cars would do?

Oh, right. You're jerking each other off. Continue.

Just a tangential what if.

And no, the EMP blast zone of a nuke is far larger than the blast itself. Which i already stated above.

Originally Posted by notfarnow

Who was it that said all Police officers are "highly trained" drivers??

Runaway Prius hits 90 mph before stopping with aid of CHP - latimes.com

Seems to me like the cop performed admirably in this case. I'm not sure what you're getting at.

(that was me, by the way. Big city cops, state cops and highway cops all get a high level of training. Some of them are incompetent, yes, but the training is still quite good. Far better than anything normal citizens receive.)

[boba]

The Toyota ECU is nicknamed HAL.

[dd74]

The cop did do well. Luckily this didn't happen in moderate to heavy traffic. This stuff with Toyota is really getting to be too much.

Govt intervention? I think the govt. -- or at least NHTSA - is as much at fault as Toyota. Maybe more.

Would this happen/is this happening in Europe? With their stringent safety laws, would countries like the UK or Germany pull all Toyota cars and trucks off the road?

[TGTIW]

Ok, but in this situation the brakes did work, and once the driver was under 50mph he did turn the car off. So the highly trained officer really did nothing more than get tailgated by someone on the highway.

But it does point to the bigger picture, and like most situations where we as the American public like to dramatize things and paint someone or something as the evil villain, it's more complicated than that. Toyota has a electromechanical issue, where the chief reporters of the problem are arguable the least informed on the subject. That would be the American public and operating an automobile.

[m21sniper]

Well idiots are the market that Toyota is selling to, largely.

Lets face it, "non car" people are all attracted to Toyotas.

So their cars need to be built to reflect that fact. They clearly are not.

[TGTIW]

For the most part I agree with you, but are they really the most reliable source of information regarding this issue?

[m21sniper]

When Toyota and the gov't cover things up for 7 years all we are left with is the idiot consumer.