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Comments
What's a War On Terror override idea? I thought voting for Obama did that already.
I think we need thought control for people who can't tell the brake pedal from the gas pedal. Which government agency handles that sort of stuff? Oh, maybe it's in the new health care bill.
And, of course, if they only wanted the brake they'd apply the brake after mistakenly hitting the accelerator pedal. Kind of adds a failsafe step to the driver's acceleration process intent, then.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Drop the below 20 MPH issue.
The purpose of the accelerator pump was to give the engine a good "squirt" of raw gas into the carb throat when/if the gas pedal was depressed rapidly. Slowly depress the gas pedal and the engine could keep up without the "squirt" so the pump was not used.
So for some of us the need to "double-pump" the gas pedal to quickly go WOT would not be such a new thing.
This reminds me of my 1986 BMW 3 series. It had a sunroof you had to crank open by hand. I always yelled Ye Ha while I was cranking it open because I felt like a cowboy twirling a rope !!
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
Humans make mistakes, and the more technology and choices, the more mistakes we make. It's like the airline pilots who try to take off with the flaps up.
We are not here to tell manufacturers how to design cars. They, like the rest of the country, are being overwhelmed by frivolous lawsuits and stupid government regulations. This certainly leads to some bad decisions.
You can't fix "stupid", and there are a lot of folks out there who should not be driving a vehicle. The rest of us should just be v-e-r-y careful.
And still, some of them get it wrong, instantly pulling back on the york when the stall warning sounds.
And here you are, on cruise control at dusk, ~60 MPH, and a doe (two actually) suddenly appears out of nowhere dashing across the road. Do you slam on the brakes or freeze in a panic trying to push your right foot through the floorboard...?
My wife says it felt like I hit the brakes but my memory says the floorboard.
Oh, today's technology would sound a warning if the plane's weight was still on the landing gear and the throttles were advanced without the flaps down.
Toyota Settles Over Death of Family in California (NY Times)
What do you suppose that would be? Probably negligence with the wrong floor mat and previous customer complaint.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
No one has ever explained why Saylors did not hit the kill button or put the car in neutral. That is the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about because the only possible explanation is panic on the part of the driver.
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
I am sure Toyota settled to look good. I don't think that will keep them out of court in the Bob Baker case. I do agree that Bob Baker's dealership holds the bulk of the responsibility in this case. At least from the evidence we have gotten. Toyota's part is the poor pedal design. If it had not been recalled they would have a case to argue. By initiating the reshaping of the pedal, they admitted it was a poor design.
WHAT?? Neither of those possibilities has ever been known to happen and no one has ever been able to make them happen, however, people panic all the time. The simplest answer is usually the best answer.
Since you are using the Obama technique, you might as well throw in a third possibility....it was Bush's fault !!
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
Could you direct me to that web site?
And, the simplest answer IS the best, save your political rants for some other forum!
How many times have YOU been stuck by lightning..??
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
There was none that I know of. However the Saylor car was reportedly going 120 MPH+ and the driver was unable to do anything with it. Neutral seems the most likely way to save yourself. More questions than answers in my mind. Probably never know.
It does seem that Lexus would want to document an ES350 going 120 MPH with the throttle physically held wide open, then putting it into neutral, to prove it will work. Same for the kill button. The test by CR was hardly valid at 80 MPH.
Gary says, "It does seem that Lexus would want to document an ES350 going 120 MPH with the throttle physically held wide open, then putting it into neutral, to prove it will work. Same for the kill button. The test by CR was hardly valid at 80 MPH."
How is a test result at 80 mph different from the result at 120 mph?
I can see a brake distance test being different.
I can see a steering test being different.
But what would make a kill switch care if the speed was 5 miles an hour or 130 miles an hour? How would the "Start" button know the speed, or care about the speed?
or do you mean that the test at 80 mph is not the same as the test at 120 mph?
:shades: :shades: :shades:
Do we know for a fact that there is not override protection in the ECU to prevent shifting into neutral with WOT? Speeding up to 80 and then shifting into neutral is not the same as having WOT going 120+ MPH. Then again Saylor may have just been hanging onto the steering wheel dodging traffic and it did not occur to him to try neutral.
Again we may never know as the data recorder was not well protected from fire.
WOT at 65 MPH, shifting to neutral IMMEDIATELY brought the revs down to nothing, while the pedal still depressed to the floor.
Why would it behave any differently at any other speed?
They would have to have coded to software like this:
IF WOT = YES THEN
IF SPEED LESS THAN MAX
SWITCH TO NEUTRAL
ELSE
KEEP ACCELERATING WOT.
That would be completely ignorant programming and would never pass any quality examination.
.
In my mind that has ALWAYS been a question. It might have been as easy as that to save those lives.
That is a sad and distinct possibility.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
How do we really know that?
It was not on the 911 call.
Was it in a report somewhere that I missed?
If it was not on the 911 call, how could anyone know that he tried but it would not go into neutral?
.
.
.
:shades:
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
Hey, when I ask about the Saylor case I'm only inquiring, I'm not deciding one way or another. Like the 1947 Roswell UFO crash, the Saylor Lexus rental sedan crash due to a jammed floor mat leaves some dangling participles that demand answers from certain curious types.
Like rushing in on the crash site and taking away little grey men that don't look like us. That stunk real bad. Then the U.S. government rushing everyone away from the base hospital exam room and certain witnesses disappearing mysteriously.
For good. :surprise:
You all know the gig.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Naughty
Court documents: Toyota quietly bought back surging vehicles from owners
LOS ANGELES — Toyota Motor Corp. bought back cars from drivers who reported sudden acceleration defects, but the company didn't tell federal regulators about the problem, according to court documents filed in the sprawling litigation against the automaker.
Plaintiffs' lawyers contend the Japanese company compelled the owners to sign confidentiality agreements that prevented them from speaking publicly about the issues they encountered.
In some cases dating back to 2006, Toyota's own technicians experienced the vehicles speeding up without pressing the gas pedal, according to the documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
"The deeper we dig into the facts that surround Toyota, the more damning the evidence that Toyota was aware of the issue and failed to act responsibly," plaintiffs' attorney Steve Berman said. "The revelation that they bought up the cars in question and prevented the owners from talking about their experience is curious at best, nefarious at worst."
Toyota spokesman Mike Michels denied the allegations, saying company technicians weren't able to duplicate the sudden acceleration claimed by drivers in two instances.
"After having thoroughly analyzed these vehicles and driven them for thousands of miles, Toyota (technicians) and engineers have not been able to replicate the customers' acceleration concerns nor found any related issues or conditions in these vehicles," Michels said in a statement. "In fact, test driving of these vehicles is ongoing and they are operating safely."
The automaker didn't respond to the allegations that it required the owners to remain silent and said it looks forward to defending itself in court.
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Toyota after the automaker began recalling millions of vehicles because of acceleration problems in several models and brake glitches with the Prius hybrid.
The automaker has recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide over the past year. Federal officials said they have received about 3,000 complaints about sudden acceleration and estimated the problem could be involved in the deaths of 93 people over the past decade.
Last month, Toyota paid an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit with the relatives of four people killed in August 2009 when a driver was unable to stop a runaway Lexus.
The high-profile case helped draw attention to the acceleration phenomenon, which in some cases was blamed on faulty floor mats trapping vehicles' accelerator pedals.
Some of the remaining lawsuits seek compensation for injury and death stemming from sudden acceleration, while others claim economic loss from owners who say the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after the recalls.
All the federal cases were consolidated and assigned to a judge in Southern California. The next hearing is Nov. 9.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota-asks-court-to-dismiss-apf-3610652525.html
I currently own an Avalon and a Tacoma and have never experienced what you are describing.
People still do not know how to drive and complain for ridiculous things!
You cannot trash a whole company for incompetence of some people!
At a stop light, every idiot knows to keep your foot on the brake until you are ready to go.
Don't they?
Don't they?
Evidently not as that is probably the reason for the lurching. I am not a two foot driver with an automatic so my foot stays on the brake until I am ready to move. In my Sequoia you can feel the surge to go forward with your foot on the brake. And I don't think from what I have seen on the road that an IQ test is given for a Driver's license. Idiot drivers outnumber good drivers by about 2 to 1 around here.