Runaway Lexus kills 4

[Corey]

So true Mark!Though Toyota is far from innocent, the problem is exacerbated by people's ill-informed decisions.

[Jeff]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/03/10/rowlands.runaway.prius.cnn?hpt=T2 "I couldn't put the car in neutral because I had both hands on the wheel"

Ha! This is how far away the shifter is in Prius. Neutral requires a light tap to the left.

[Fast_Toys]

Ha! This is how far away the shifter is in Prius. Neutral requires a light tap to the left.

So stupid. So how did he dial his phone? He must have taken his hand on the wheel at some point even if it was a handsfree button he needed to activate.It's a Prius too... it has regenerative braking so I would believe it can slow down even if the brake pads are overheated. It's not like it's a powerful car!Why does everyone say they keep pushing the brake but never hold it down? Again, he doesn't understand how his car works and didn't want to risk putting it in Neutral or shutting off the engine.

[yofa]

i'd be hella more afraid to touch the e-brake at 90 mph than shifting into neutral. it'll be interesting to see how toyota responds to this one. they're already on a slander campaign against the university instructor.

[piston_honda]

Update, looking to cash in?? First of many??http://www.10news.com/news/22804088/detail.html

[Hard Dog]

Only the sensational, newsworthy, incidents make the headlines!:mad: Un-ignorant driver: "Hello, is this CNN? The accelerator pedal in my Prius got stuck. I shifted to neutral, turned off the ignition, coasted to a stop, and called a tow truck. When can you send a news team? Am I going to be flown to Washington to testify?"

[Corey]

Wait a minute; how does someone that's $1,005,000 in debt buy a 2008 Prius?Oh right, he's living the American dream!

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

"...the experts who examined and test drove the car could not replicate the sudden, unintended acceleration James Sikes said he encountered. A backup mechanism that shuts off the engine when the brake and gas pedals are floored also worked properly during tests.""Gomez says James Sikes is not trying to get famous or rich from Monday's incident. He says the 61-year-old California man will not sue Toyota and is turning down media requests for interviews."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100314/ap_on_bi_ge/us_runaway_priusHahahaha he's gonna get in trouble for being a jackass...

[Fast_Toys]

How to drive your Prius - Language Warning!

[Vapour Trails]

Here is another article...this guy is a scammer.http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html

[piston_honda]

More likely Sikes decided not to sue when his lawyer informed him of all the holes in his account. Way to take the high road, Mr. Sikes!

"...the experts who examined and test drove the car could not replicate the sudden" data-date=" unintended acceleration James Sikes said he encountered. A backup mechanism that shuts off the engine when the brake and gas pedals are floored also worked properly during tests."[/i">

"Gomez says James Sikes is not trying to get famous or rich from Monday's incident. He says the 61-year-old California man will not sue Toyota and is turning down media requests for interviews."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100314/ap_on_bi_ge/us_runaway_priusHahahaha he's gonna get in trouble for being a jackass...

[drahgon]

an interesting article on this topichttp://www.canadiandriver.com/2010/03/22/feature-not-so-fast-toyota%e2%80%99s-unintended-acceleration.htm?page=all

[MRS Joe]

Serious Language warning but honest and truthful.

[mzf]

Finally someone writes something worth reading!http://www.roadandtrack.com/auto_news/tech/why-so-little-mention-of-neutral-in-unintended-acceleration

[piston_honda]

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/744307Here we go again!

[yofa]

this topic wasn't properly put to bed.  up until last week, i thought the whole toyota unintended acceleration hoopla was much ado about floor mats, but alas, it appears that i'd taken the toyota blue pill.  unfortunately, most high-exposure lawsuits are settled out of court to maintain ambiguous culpability, but were it allowed to go through, we may have a very different perception of toyota today.  this is a long, but good read:

 

http://www.safetyresearch.net/blog/articles/toyota-unintended-acceleration-and-big-bowl-%E2%80%9Cspaghetti%E2%80%9D-code

 

especially with the also long, but good powerpoint:

 

http://www.safetyresearch.net/Library/BarrSlides_FINAL_SCRUBBED.pdf

 

i'd taken the stance that there are ways to make these things safe and reliable, and that we shouldn't base our opinions of vehicle systems on our experience with consumer electronics, but i take that back.  although there are good standards and protocols to designing safety-critical systems, it doesn't seem like those were in place at toyota at the time.

 

credit to an fsae alum for enlightening me on that topic.

[Jim Eh.]

Hmmm, really makes me want to trust "fly by wire" for my next holiday vacation. They can't be the only ones. 

[MRS Joe]

I'd like to meet the dumbass that signed off on that code knowing how they wrote it. I'm also suprised that Toyota didn't have someone inhouse checking the subcontracted work.

If that's true about the ecu Im happy it was called out, will serve as an example at least for other manufacturers.

I know toyota put the electronic traction control in cars in the us while we in Canada never got it during certain years.

[Don P]

Reminds me of an old experience I had as teenager. Driving home one day I gunned my car from a stop light at the bottom of bridge. There's an incline on this bridge if you are going south, so people tend to goose it there a little more than usual. (I still do) lol

 

The car suddenly goes full throttle on me, and after a couple seconds of adrenaline kicked in, I turned the key off. Then I heard a loud thud. I babied the car home, but it happened one more time at another traffic light and I turned the key off a second time.

 

Got home and started looking at motor mounts and found a broken bolt, which I replaced.

 

Obviously when the motor torqued up on only one motor mount it would pull on the throttle linkage and force the carb wide open.

 

Thanks for making me remember that little thrill ride.

 

And that exact same spot at the bottom of that bridge was the site of a funny accident we witnessed a few years ago. I was working with another guy just near the bottom of that bridge on some equipment we have mounted just inside the pedestrian railing. (a cathodic rectifier)

 

All of a sudden we hear a loud scraping noise, and it slowly gets louder and louder, until finally a motorcycle appears sliding along the pavement and bounces to a stop not far away against the center curb. A few seconds later, the rider follows it, sliding along the pavement and comes to a stop not far from the bike. A few more seconds later a few of his friends on bikes show up and pick him up and dust him off. I couldn't stop laughing...