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Apparently the driver could not shift into neutral. The Prius has an electronic transmission.
More details are coming out saying the police cruiser pulled alongside the Prius used a loudspeaker to tell them to engage the parking brake, then use the regular brakes, and once it was below 50 mph the cruiser pulled ahead and physically slowed the vehicle down.
Other reports say once the police got the vehicle to slow to 50 mph after instructing the driver to engage the parking brake, the driver managed to shut off the engine and coast to a stop.
The official police report is still pending and will clear up the details.
more half truths. The parking brakes are not even close to as strong as the 4 wheel disk brakes. Why and how would the parking brake stop it but the 4 wheel disks could not??
In some of todays fly by wire cars the COMPUTER can take over thereby taking control away from the driver. Ever have your PC freeze up and you can't even turn it off?
The driver can only control the devices that send input to the computer. What the computer does with that input or signals is supposed to be pretty much fool proof and respond accordingly.
But they are not 100% fool proof. No electronic gadget or mechanical device is.
And Toyota has had enough incidences that have set a pattern of something being wrong with the car other than what is between the seat and the steering wheel.
yea? Drive by wire is no different then a cable throttle stuck at wot. The brakes will stop it. EASY. Neutral always works too. Watch this if you don't believe me how easy it is to stop a 'runaway' car.
more half truths. The parking brakes are not even close to as strong as the 4 wheel disk brakes. Why and how would the parking brake stop it but the 4 wheel disks could not??
It says he used a combination of the brakes and parking brake to slow him down. When the officer arrived, he could smell the brakes and see brake lights on.
Quote:
In yesterday’s incident, a rookie 911 dispatcher tried to offer assistance to Sikes. Finally, a CHP officer dispatched to the scene was able to instruct Sikes over his loudspeaker as both cars sped east, navigating carefully around trucks.
“When I saw him, I could smell the brakes,” said Officer Todd Niebert, a 14-year CHP veteran. “I could see his brake lights coming on.”
Quote:
Niebert said he instructed Sikes to put the car in neutral and hit the emergency brake and the floor brakes simultaneously. This, plus a slight incline, helped Sikes slow the car to about 50 mph. Finally, he was going slow enough to turn off the power, something he had been reluctant to do for fear of losing control when the car was speeding. With Niebert’s patrol car in front of him as a barrier, Sikes finally brought the Prius to a halt.
San Diego local news station CW 6 reported that radio traffic acknowledged the driver was unable to turn the engine off or shift the vehicle into neutral. CHP reportedly considered utilizing a spike strip in order to stop the vehicle, but decided not to in the event that it could cause the driver to further lose control of the vehicle due to the high rate of speed.
It says he used a combination of the brakes and parking brake to slow him down. When the officer arrived, he could smell the brakes and see brake lights on.
yea? Drive by wire is no different then a cable throttle stuck at wot. The brakes will stop it. EASY. Neutral always works too. Watch this if you don't believe me how easy it is to stop a 'runaway' car.
Yeah the whole story is totally ridiculous, but we need to be prepared for lots and I mean lots more false stories like this.
Toyota's situation is just like Dow Corning's Breast Implants. Remember the hysteria? Remember the bankruptcy? Remember that they were ultimately vindicated?
yea? Drive by wire is no different then a cable throttle stuck at wot. The brakes will stop it. EASY. Neutral always works too. Watch this if you don't believe me how easy it is to stop a 'runaway' car.
That video does not help at all. I see he didn't try it at high speed. What? Is he afraid to do it at high speed? Let's see a vid of someone shifting a Lexus or a Toyota, with drive-by-wire technology, into neutral while going 75 mph or faster. Does anyone have the confidence to do a video?
Wow, a lot of people taking up for Toyota around here. I personally have no reason to doubt the story.
First things, first, how many of you have actually dirven a Prius? The car is essentially fully electronic. The gas pedal works on sensors, the throttle works on sensors, the drive select (transmission) is fully electronic and it has a push button start. You can't just put a Prius into neutral. You need to move the selector stick over and hold it in the neutral position until the car decides to engage neutral. Also, the electronic start/stop requires you to press and hold the button to turn the car on or off.
The reason all of the above don't work is that you are assuming that the problem with Toyota vehicles is simply the accelerator pedal. Many people, NHTSA included, as well as the transportation industry in general are not fully in agreement with Toyota on the issue being limited to the pedal or a floormat. The issue in many peoples minds lies in the electronics of the car. The belief is that something is going screwey that is causing the cars to "short-out" with the result being unintended acceleration.
To that end Toyota has already admitted there is at least one flaw in the programming that they are correcting and that is that the vehicle will not override the input from the accelerator and close the throttle when the brake is pressed. This safety catch is very common on most drive by wire cars. For instance, anyone who has a VW and a manual transmission tends to bemoan the fact that they can't do proper heel-toe downshifts because the computer won't let the throttle stay open when the brake is pressed. Given, not every car has this, but with how much Toyota has focused on removing the driver from direct control of the car it was something simple that should have been in place.
On to misconception number 2, the ability to stop a run away car under wide open throttle with the cars brakes. All brakes on a car, even a Prius, work off of vacuum. The vacuum is generated under normal operating conditions within the engine. However, when a car is at wide open throttle, there is no vacuum. This essentially makes the brakes completely manual. No one, not even an NFL lineman has enough strength in their legs from a seated position to apply enough force to stop any car in that situation.
Toyota has a real issue on its hands and most likely a few that they haven't admitted to yet.
That video does not help at all. I see he didn't try it at high speed. What? Is he afraid to do it at high speed? Let's see a vid of someone shifting a Lexus or a Toyota, with drive-by-wire technology, into neutral while going 75 mph or faster. Does anyone have the confidence to do a video?
You're assuming that it's possible for the computer to let you shift into neutral.
Let's see a video where they are going 70mph, then jam the accelerator to wide open throttle and then don't let them engage neutral or turn the car off. I wonder how that video ends...
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