The article mentions a few important things : A tragedy (That I hadn’t heard) of a State Police officer, off duty, with his family in a loaner Lexus. Car jumped to over 100 mph. All occupants died. That’s a professionally trained driver !
Steve Wozniak of Apple had an unintended accel problem, taking him to 97 mph without being to slow it. He finally got it slowed, perhaps understanding the software and how to cancel commands. (I’m being serious.. I would immediately think to to override software instead of just screaming)
Then studies that show the “long press” of the start button taking 3.3 seconds to work in a Camry. That same V6 Camry went from 60 mph to 80 mph during that time. 3 seconds is an eternity.
These cars and their toys are getting out of hand. I blame a lot of things - not just Toyota specifically.
Give the the computer another input besides braking an interrupt command. Set the cruise control and turn off cruise.
You haven’t been paying attention. The police officer that crashed the Lexus loaner panicked. They had the wrong size floor mat in the car and it was upside down. It became wadded up around the brake and accelerator and caused the problem. All the driver needed to do was put the transmission in neutral and pull over to the side. He didn’t.
Brake. Neutral. Stop.
It ain’t hard, and anyone who doesn’t is committing “driver error”!