The appropriate word here would probably be "busted.""My Prius went wild!" guy Jim Sikes apparently didn't realize his car carried the equivalent of an airliner's Black Box.
Ah, well. Live and learn, Jim. In the Big House.
Posted on 03/15/2010 11:57:14 PM PDT by hamboy
The appropriate word here would probably be "busted."
"My Prius went wild!" guy Jim Sikes apparently didn't realize his car carried the equivalent of an airliner's Black Box.
Ah, well. Live and learn, Jim. In the Big House.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
A panicked driver, who knows little or nothing about driving, might pump the brakes 250 times — instead of holding them down long enough to be effective. A devious schemer would pump the brakes, and the accelerator hundreds of times; to attempt to simulate a runaway auto situation.
The 911 operator tried to get him to put the car into neutral — several times. He claimed to be too busy to do that.
What there an Obama sticker in the car?
Perhaps you could disable the black box but then there would be a record of you doing that, wouldn’t there? That said I think it is likely the disconnecting of the box would render the vehicle unable to start.
I have had some minor and low level experience working in "cooperation" with the Japanese in the auto industry. From my vantage point I found the executive level Japanese to be arrogant and condescending toward those they deemed to be inferiors which is most people. In my role at the time as a subordinate to an American executive, I was one of those inferiors who at times had to try to interact with the Japanese executive. I found them invariably to be imperialistic and arrogant in their approach to their "lessers".
As I've watched this Toyota thing play out, I've seen much of the same thing, imperial arrogance in Toyoda and his direct reports toward our country and toward the approach to their problems. I think they arrogantly failed to understand that in Maobama and his stooges they were not playing with the traditional American administration basic philosophies. I think they totally underestimated the hold that unions, including the UAW, have on Maobama.
This is a big opportunity for the UAW to "bring Toyota to their knees", as they like to shout to their noble worker membership during contract negotiations. They haven't been able to organize very many domestic Toyota operations and they're angry. I still get the UAW propaganda from time to time in the mail because my son worked for a brief time at a Ford plant while going to college, and that stuff drips with their hatred for Toyota.
I think it very possible that as part of the dust settling on this problem, the UAW will be welcomed into the domestic Toyota plants and the "workers" will be the ones to find the solution and all will be good again. Paybacks are hell.
He claimed to be too busy to do that.
Yeah. This is what I can’t figure out. He WASN’T too busy to call 911 on his cell phone - a task far more difficult than slipping the car into neutral...
I must admit that I suspected it would end this way the minute I heard the story.
I think that Toyota would close its plants before they'd let the UAW poison the operation. I know that I would.
This whole issue came to fruition after Toyota closed the plant in California - the plant that had been shared with GM before GM abandoned it (it was UAW BTW). This is all about revenge and has nothing to do with an alleged vehicle defect. Especially a defect that allegedly covers so many vehicles.
This "Prius boy" scam plays right into Toyota's hands. I wonder how many more scams there are out there, trying to get a buck or two out of Toyota...
There is not a car made where the brakes are not capable of stopping the vehicle even at full throttle. Especially an underpowered car like the Prius.
This guy was trying to get rich off of a big name. Hopefully, he'll be arrested and tried for scamming the 911 system instead.
A man by the name of Inanian (sp?) who is an expert on cars was on WOR’s John Gambling show this morning. Gambling was under the impression that Sykes was trying to scam Toyota. Inanian said the highway patrol smelled the burning brakes (not reported by the press), they were metal on metal, which I assume means completely worn and that just because Toyota says they could find no problem doesn’t mean there was no problem.
How many times have people taken their cars to mechanics who can’t find the problem but the owner knows there is a problem?
1) Toyota has tested and retested the Prius in question, and each time they pressed on both the gas and the brake, the engine was killed by the computer, and
2) The CHP officer that chased the guy down said "'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.'"
If the brakes were coming on, the engine should have died. If it didin't there was a computer problem.
If the brakes were coming on, the engine should have died.
No, the engine would have dropped down to idle, not died. But given that he "depressed the brakes and accelerator about 250 times", I suspect that every time he depressed the brakes, it tried to close the throttle, but he would release the brakes and keep his other foot mashed to the floor on the accelerator. So, he just repeatedly mashed his right foot on the gas, and would mash the brake pedal periodically with his left foot so that it looked like he was trying to stop, and so that he could get the brakes good an hot in order to fool the cops (and the gathering throng of media drones) into thinking that he really had a problem.
I spent several years as an elected UAW official. When I tried to move up, it was discovered that I wasn't a minority, and that I had a college education. I took an opportunity on the salaried side of the business, and put up with crap like my wife's tires being slashd in the parking lot, anonymous threatening phone calls, "accidently" slammed into while passing a union goon. 30 years later, I had a UAW retiree as a guest at my home who called me a traitor, just before I showed him the door. That's the lower level union trash. Its harder hard ball the farther up the food chain you go.
If Mr. Sikes already messed up the brakes what else can you expect?
It is evidence he’s lying. If you knew how a Prius braking system worked, the conditions of the brakes a week before his jaunt and the condition after his jaunt, you would come to the same conclusion.
His lawyer is also representing the family of the California Highway Patrol officer who died along with others, in a fiery crash in San Diego that was blamed on floor mats. I think one can reasonably infer that the Prius Flyer is looking for money. I don’t think it is reasonable to infer he’s not.
He actually did it to damage the brakes by overheating. He did this over several days thinking the damage would be “evidence” of continued hard brake application. He didn’t realize that it is actually evidence to the contrary given how Prius braking systems work. By the way, the reason the computer logged 250 brake applications is because that’s the limit. He applied those brakes at least 250 times (and not over the course of time/miles he claimed to have driven).
I think that Priuses leave the factory with Obama stickers.
Riiight. The UAW comes back roaring like a lion because your colleagues snubbed you. Nevermind the very consistent votes and strong pushback from those very Toyota & other Japanese plants against the unions over the years. So strong in fact, that the UAW is trying to get Card Check enacted so they can intimidate the very employees who have kept them out. Maybe they were right to snub you.
Toyota did find the problem. Through investigation of the car, the on-board computers, the known time-line & the known distance traveled. The problem turned out to be that the owner was lying & what damage was inflicted on the brakes was done on purpose.
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