Out-of-Control Prius Stopped by Patrol Car (Corvette, BMW, Mini, Mustang)
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No, I'm not assuming anything. I want someone to prove that it can shift to neutral at WOT. Everyone says it's so easy, so prove it.
I think we're sort of arguing the same point unless I am mistaken.
I do think it is easy to shift a car into neutral at WOT as long as there isn't a computer between you and the transmission not letting you do it. In the case of the Toyota's, I certainly think that shifting into neutral at WOT isn't that easy do to an issue with the computer in the Toyota.
In most vehicles you would simply move the gear selector to neutral and the engine, if stuck at WOT would start banging off the rev-limiter, or overrun and grenade itself, but you could at least get the car stopped.
explain what is so hard to put into neutral? You just click it up one detent and the cars stops accelerating.
The question is: does the ECU control the transmission or does the shift lever?
If the shift lever actuates switches or valves so that it controls the tranny directly, no brainer, you shift into neutral, the engine may go up to max revs but if the computer's rev limiter is working right you won't damage the engine.
If the shift lever is just another input to the ECU, then you can move the lever all you want, and the computer may take your "suggestion" or may ignore it.
I don't know which of the above describes the Prius shifter, or maybe it's none of the above, and works in some more obscure way yet.
explain what is so hard to put into neutral? You just click it up one detent and the cars stops accelerating.
I don't dispute what you are saying. I think what you are not hearing is the car drivers are saying they hit the neutral button and the turn-off button to no avail. I am not saying I believe or don't believe the drivers but it seems to hinge on whether that is true, not whether the drivers are too stupid to know to do that.
The question is: does the ECU control the transmission or does the shift lever?
If the shift lever actuates switches or valves so that it controls the tranny directly, no brainer, you shift into neutral, the engine may go up to max revs but if the computer's rev limiter is working right you won't damage the engine.
If the shift lever is just another input to the ECU, then you can move the lever all you want, and the computer may take your "suggestion" or may ignore it.
I don't know which of the above describes the Prius shifter, or maybe it's none of the above, and works in some more obscure way yet.
The same may also be true of the brake pedal. I know on my car, not a Toyota, the ESC (Electronic Stability Control) will accelerate, decelerate, brake or release the brake depending on the stability problem. When I first bought it I went to an empty parking lot in the snow and played with it to see what it did. If the front end was sliding ina turn it would apply rear brake to bring back end around. If rear end slid it would apply throttle. ECM can apparently take over both functions. That is why, if this guy is telling the truth, it has to be an electrical/software problem.
Just saw a news report where they interviewed the man. He said he was standing on the brakes and when the officer told him to pull the emergency brake, the Prius finally slowed down. Not once did he mention trying to put the car in neutral and he did say that he kept pushing the button to get the car to shut off. apperantly he never held the button in. Not sure what to think of this.
They had the cop on air too. Said he pulled beside the guy's car, talked to him through his bull horn, told him to shift to neutral, and the guy yelled back it wouldn't do it. Told him to use the emergency brake by itself, wouldn't stop it. Told him to do the emergency brake at the same time as the regular brake, and then he pulled his car in front of the guy's Prius.
The cop told the guy to try several things, including turning the car off. The cop said that the minute he rolled down the window, he could smell the guys smoking brakes. When I heard the cop say that, I decided it probably wasn't a hoax. Cop saw the guy shoving on the brakes so hard he was coming out of his seat. The driver might have been panicked, well, probably was.
I don't know what is going on with these cars, but give the number of people who have actually died from these incidents, I am more likely to call hoax on anything Toyota says, more than it being my first reaction to a driver thrown into this situation. Toyota inability to find a fix suggests to me that there is no fix other than to recall and total all their cars, pay off the owners, and then rebuild from scratch. It has to be something that big, such that an otherwise smart company like Toyota is still allegedly without a fix. I don't buy it.
Location: Still in Portland, Oregon, for some reason
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For those of you saying it's all physical linkages into the transmission haven't driven this generation of Prius in question. It's a little spring-loaded joystick that pops back to a central point once it's released. It basically a computer that feeds the request to another computer that then tells the transmission what to do.
The further this thread goes, the harder-core an old car guy I become....that's some shifter there rosecitywanderer! Clearly it's nothing more than a suggestion box to the computer network that actually controls the current gen Prius...
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