Posted on 03/11/2010 5:08:20 PM PST by Touch Not the Cat
The people at “9-1-1” can’t stop your car. They would be the LAST people I would call, unless I was warning the public to get out of my way.
If my accelerator sticks, I’m looking to turn my car O*F*F any way possible. Screw the phone.
I don’t believe anyone who doesn’t just put the car in neutral...stuck throttles were possible in the old days.
Happened once to me. Put the truck in neutral, moved to the side of the road, shut off the engine. Sprayed the linkage with WD40, tried it again - everything worked fine. Drove off without another thought. Never had a repeat.
Why? Because of the brake lights? That is easy to fake...just lightly touch them. Or maybe because the officer saw the car surge ahead, and fall back, and surge ahead, and fall back...that is also easy to fake. Just alternate brake and throttle. Or maybe the officer somehow saw through the door of the car, and could see that he was in fact sincerely applying the brakes.
About the only way I would accept the officer knowing that the brakes were actually being applied instead of just enough to trip the brake light switch is if he saw and smelled the brakes destruction. And that is easy to fake as well, you just modulate the brakes as you see fit to maintain momentum while straining the brakes. And as has been often pointed out, modern brakes are way more powerful than the respective engine. Especially in a Prius.
Yeah and in his statement to “Inside Edition” he said, “I was pressing the gas pedal as hard as I could.” Apparently he was pushing both the gas and the brakes at the same time. That will definitely burn up a set of brakes. And he shut the car off after the cop told him to pull the emergency brake, but he couldn’t shift into neutral!
Not from the press, that’s for sure. My source is a good one, but I can’t reveal it. Just tuck this away and wait to see if we eventually learn some more about this guy.
Ditto.
When I was a kid, I had a 68 cutlass. One time after just getting the carburetor worked on, I had an accelerator stick all the way to the floor. At 17, I had enough sense to put the car in neutral, pull it over and turn the key off.
I’m with you...I’m not buying this “Hal 9000 took my Toyota over” stuff.
It’s possible that the drive-by-wire system decided to ignore the brake or the automatic gear shift or both.
The relentless attack on Toyota on CNN and NPR is mighty fishy. The timing of this guy’s story is just too pat for anyone who’s been around the block. Toyota is one of America’s largest employers. Toyota is a capitalist success story. Obama’s Communist regime is doing all it can to dismantle capitalism by destroying all that is successful in the capitalist arena. Doing in Toyota would be a big coup in bringing down capitalist Japan and America.
Did the officer help him to perpetrate the scam?
The driver refused to follow the instructions. When asked why he said he had to put the phone down on the seat so he didn’t hear the instructions. Then he said he was afraid to put the car in neutral because he thought the car would flip over.
His story doesn’t make sense.
Yeah... I’ve been reading more on this and his story does not make sense.
To be quite honest about it, the meter almost pegged itself on that one also. I still have a hard time believing that modern day brakes, built to be 5 times more powerful as the accompanying car’s engine, failed to stop that or any car.
So yes, sadly I do doubt the facts of that case.
I doubt very seriously that my car would stop if it was at full throttle. A big part of the vehicles stopping power is the engine and transmission
In the case of the 2008 Prius, the gasoline engine has relatively low horsepower and torque, so I have a hard time believing the driver couldn't slow it down IF there actually was a stuck accelerator.
Now it has come to light that the gummint pukes and Toyota engineers have found that they couldn’t duplicate this frauds performance in his car. I thought from the get go this was a fraud....and now the more we learn of it that appears to be the case. Sort of like the 11 year old that flew all the way from Seattle to Washington to tell Congress her story about how her Mother lost her insurance and if the zero’s and the dumbcrats health bill would have been in place her Mother would be alive today.....
In the case of the 2008 Prius, the gasoline engine has relatively low horsepower and torque, so I have a hard time believing the driver couldn’t slow it down IF there actually was a stuck accelerator.
Low horsepower and torque granted. At 90 MPH the problem is kinetic energy on top of the horsepower.This is an interesting situation with new technology. It could all be a hoax. I don’t know diddly squat about these cars, but I’m not comfortable with drive by wire brakes and throttles. Another question, is there a mechanical link to the transmission?
Car makers are eliminating all sorts of bulky mechanical links in order to save space and weight. Is this stuff being rushed o market? Is it ready for prime time?
In the case of the 2008 Prius, the gasoline engine has relatively low horsepower and torque, so I have a hard time believing the driver couldn’t slow it down IF there actually was a stuck accelerator.
Low horsepower and torque granted. At 90 MPH the problem is kinetic energy on top of the horsepower.This is an interesting situation with new technology. It could all be a hoax. I don’t know diddly squat about these cars, but I’m not comfortable with drive by wire brakes and throttles. Another question, is there a mechanical link to the transmission?
Car makers are eliminating all sorts of bulky mechanical links in order to save space and weight. Is this stuff being rushed o market? Is it ready for prime time?
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