I hate to bring up this un aviation topic, but what the hell is the matter with somebody who CALLS 911 when their car starts accelerating uncontrollably! Are people that non mechanical in their thinking. Instead of burning up the brakes (and I love the advice to use the emergency brake, by a professional driver no less, I'm not familiar with a Prius but on every car or truck I've owned that just activates the already activated rear brakes so why bother??) This latest incident of the 60 some year old guy (like me), he had 20 minutes to "think it through", and the best he could do was call 911!
Am I missing something, is there something going on I don't know about, is there ANY reason that any of these incidents could not have been quickly brought under control by simply shifting in neutral? I've paid close attention to every report of this problem, and have yet to hear of a reason why this would not work, I understand the 911 operator "suggested" it, but the guy was too flipped out to comply and or busy talking on the cell phone.
This reminds me of incidents of people losing power in an aircraft and calling the closet tower instead of flying the damn plane! If anyone knows specifically why this is not the solution to the problem (other then redlined engine revs but that would probably be limited by the computer, and at that point who cares anyway) let us know as I cannot believe people are that clueless. Or am I wrong?
I do know if I drove a Prius, I'd be speeding like crazy (when safe), Nowadays you could talk your way out of a ticket easy!

I think it is the 'pile on' effect... Giving the state of the economy you can bet the scam artists will milk this baby good. Whats the Prius have,, maybe 60 HP ?? and disc brakes.. Any grandmother can stand on the brakes and bring it to a standstill.... And evidently shifting into neutral is not on these idiots radar screen either.. Geez.

My guess is...... follow the money

Late on the car payment.. crash the Toyota
Getting foreclosed on... crash the Toyota
Need a bigger home.... crash the Toyota

ETC !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Need a new plane.... crash the Toyota..... hhmm, never mind. That might be an acceptable thing to do.

I think the fact that they were driving a Prius in the first place should tell you something. I read a test and where they were testing cars brakes against the engines. I think all the cars except a Shelby Mustang could stop and the Mustang got down to a crawl before the brakes heated up so much they wouldn't stop it. I think the cars were all going close to 100 when they started braking too! Your right, they suggested putting it it neutral first and if that doesn't work. Turn it OFF!

I have one car with an electric throttle (drive by wire) and it is weird! You don't notice it much but on the freeway you can feel the pedal click as you push it up and down just a little. I like that fact that my plane is old. It is from the days of "the simpler, the better"

Jerry

There is a reason why only a very small percentage of the population can fly an airplane!

It's "wired" like the Rotax Tom - its sprung wide open. Maybe the engineer was a pilot?

May be next time he should just not wind it up so far.

It's no different than the people that follow their GPS and end up on a mountain road and than get stuck in the snow and almost die because they are lost and way up in there. Stuppid stuff going on. People on dumb mode. Kind of like people in a long line at a stop sign, you know the picture, two lanes available and the right lane has 5 cars waiting in line. If the leader where to drive off a cliff, they would all follow.

I was wondering the same thing but then heard about an incident involving a Lexus. Apparently the lady driving did shift it into neutral without any effect... reverse and park is locked out on most new cars unless it is at a stop or very near to it with the brake pressed. I am used to old standard transmissions where you have a piece of steel attached to the gearbox and everything is mechanical but apparently many new cars have electronically activated gearboxes much like the "drive by wire" throttle (i.e. no mechanical linkage). If the problem is indeed electrical as it appears, then it makes sense that simply shifting into neutral may not have the desired effect. I don't know if this is actually the case but it is the only thing I could come up with as to why this ladies Lexus would not react to her shifting into neutral. Kind of scary if you think about it... everything being electrical and going haywire. Reminds me of that old Stephen King movie - Maximum Overdrive where the ice cream truck and the steam roller drive around nailing people.

Back in the early 90's I heard the new cars were going to do the drive by wire on throttle. I said no way, how idiotic is that. I thought of runaway cars and trucks right off. If a bad diode in the altenator on a Dodge pickup (diesel) can cause problems with the converter clutch systems on the transmission to come on and off at about 45mph than the same type of thing can cause a throttle to go haywire, my opinion.

Hafast wrote:http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2010/03/was-this-prius-really-out-of-control.html

Good stuff.. I can't wait to see Toyota claim you can't shift the car into neutral at that speed now.

As a disclaimer,, I own a 95 Toyota Tundra PU. I love my truck and it has not given me a minutes trouble in 90,000 miles either.

Needs an Idle-Cutoff mixture control and a snowmachine kill switch

I once had a throttle spring break on '68 Dodge Charger 440 as I was pulling away from the auto drive-in bank teller...sob went clear to the floor. Within about 100 ft I had the clutch pushed in and the ignition shut off...and stopped....wild ride for just a little bit! Shoulda seen the looks I got! Folks..if you can't handle it, leave it in the barn!
Maybe the Prius needs a big red button on the dash that says EMERGENCY OFF BUTTON that shuts down the engine and sets the brakes?
HC

Sure wish more of our politicians in Washington DC and Sacramento would drive some of those cars .

Did Toyota manufacture kamakasi planes a few years back?...I know Mitsubishi did!

hicountry wrote: EMERGENCY OFF BUTTON that shuts down the engine and sets the brakes?
HC

You know, with the momentum this Toyota crap has got now, that's not entirely out of the question. I bet within 2 years they legislate them into putting big red kill switches on the dash!

I read that one of these models, you have to hold the start/stop switch in for 3-5 secs and it shuts down. It looks like the DMV is going to have to add some new items to the PTS.

I drove my grandparents' Prius once, and it was a nice little car, no different really than a Corolla as far a I could tell (except for the distracting animation of power distribution running on the nav-screen.) I definitely agree that there is going to be some abuse of this recall and resulting lawsuits, which is regrettable. Toyota has made some really nice products. My '03 Tundra is damn fine truck, but it really doesn't have much in the way of technology and is pretty basic. Same with our '04 Matrix.

I think the QC hit the gutter when the Texans and Indianans started tinkering with them (just kidding!)

"I bet within 2 years they legislate them into putting big red kill switches on the dash!"

Hey, I smell money. Like you could take a master relay and a big red switch, with a short section of cable......and sell kits.

Hee.

Just strikes me as kinda funny that they would rather run a throttle pedal connected to a throttle position sensor, a computer and a servo motor... than to just use a regular ol linkage. Course, this is comin from a guy that still likes to roll up the windows with a crank and hasn't yet gotten too lazy to reach over to unlock the door. ha ha. I did have to special order my pickup to have these "features" though.

Coyote Ugly wrote:

Just strikes me as kinda funny that they would rather run a throttle pedal connected to a throttle position sensor, a computer and a servo motor... than to just use a regular ol linkage. Course, this is comin from a guy that still likes to roll up the windows with a crank and hasn't yet gotten too lazy to reach over to unlock the door. ha ha. I did have to special order my pickup to have these "features" though.

Not sure what year/make/model your truck is, but my Ford Diesel Super Duty was built in 1998 with a throttle by wire system........12 years and 250,000 miles later it has been flawless. It was one of the first I was aware of, but most new vehicles use this approach. Mechanically linked systems have gone the way of the buffalo. There are just too many advantages with feed-forward ignition timing, gear selection, etc that can be programmed into the PCM to improve efficiency and power. In other words, they ain't Lycomings.

Flynengr

Did Toyota manufacture kamakasi planes a few years back?...I know Mitsubishi did

No planes. Would you believe looms until the 1930's ?