I don’t know why you feel the need to be an “enabler” or why you have a hidden agenda. The fact is that drivers need to be in control if they operate a motor vehicle. The simple fact that he allowed the vehicle to get over 90mph without trying to do something about it, i.e., step on the brakes, shift to neutral or turn off the ignition switch/press the button tells me he was not in control. He could have stopped the vehicle in the time it took him to make a phone call. We will just have to agree to disagree.
Actually at this time no one knows or has an idea of what caused this accident. It just happened and is still under investigation. Please don’t try to use this man’s death to make some inane point.
Here’s a link for you. Bash a lawyer instead.
You aren’t familiar with the Southern California real estate market. 700k mortgages are commonplace.
Read the article, it’s not just a mortgage, he hasn’t paid anybody anything for some time now, apparently he’s been involved with insurance fraud as well. Like I said, very suspicious.
I have no idea what you mean by “enabler” and I don’t care or want to know. I have no hidden agenda, although I get the feeling many things are ‘hidden’ from you. This a public forum and I say what I mean for what it is worth. Your statements are personally offensive and ignorant.
And obviously he tried to stop the car with the brakes, according to the patrol officer who witnessed the incident and who could see the brake residue and smell it. I have no idea if this guy staged the whole thing. Nor do you. I don’t even care. No one was hurt. My concern would be for those who may be hurt in the future. Including me. Just my luck, I get squished by a runaway Prius! Go enable yourself while thinking of your hidden agenda.
It just may be possible that modern Toyotas are a collective of artificially intelligent computer-controlled machines bent on the extermination of the human race. (Or at least Occidentals.) What an idea for a movie! Toyotas! Rise of the Machines!
Similar to the movie “Maximum Overdrive.”
He stated he was afraid he’d miss neutral and hit reverse instead.
As I said in an earlier post, Toyota is gonna change their name to “Skynet” 
Talking with Conan O’Brien one night Arnold Schwarzenegger said he drives a Prius. But only to get around inside his Hummer.
Do to multiple control variables, and control logic that influences throttle position perhaps a safety module independent of the ECM could monitor throttle, and brake position to intercept the ECM output signal before it gets to the throttle thus returning throttle back to idle in case of a conflict. A Real Safety!
We are told: "Simply put the car into neutral then turn the engine off."
MAY NOT BE SO SIMPLE! Check out these video clips:
TESTIMONY OF TOYOTA DRIVER WHO ‘LOST ALL CONTROL’
(after putting car in neutral and unable to turn off engine!!!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8533129.stm
and
"IS TOYOTA’S SOFTWARE TO BLAME FOR SAFETY PROBLEMS"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8535477.stm
and the CA crash:
“911 Call Released from Crash that Prompted Initial Toyota/Lexus Floor Mat Recall”
(with police officer driving unable to stop vehicle)
http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=247148
"Witnesses saw flames coming from the front and rear tires of the speeding 2009 Lexus ES 350 before it crashed Aug. 28 in Santee, suggesting ?long, constant heavy braking,? said Sgt. Scott Hill, the lead sheriff’s investigator. "
My question is why the driver just doesn’t put the car in neutral,brake it to the side of the road and shut it off?
Read the numerous previous posts that explain why.
More software! More electronics! Mode code! More RF interference possibilities! Static electricty jolts! More of the same problems? We can’t get the bug out of the program we wrote for you, but we can write another program for you to override that program! It should work! What a deal. A real safety would be a mechanical link that allows immediate safe shutdown or transmission shift. You know… the way cars used to be built.
Why would you lose control of the motorcycle? How would the bike react any different than just closing the throttle? I’ve had a bike quit on me while going 80MPH in the country… took me all day to get a ride home, but aside from the aggravation, the bike just lost speed until I was muttering curses and staring at cornfields which were no longer moving briskly past me.
if the pedal is stuck down, just lift it up.
I also think this is a fraud on many levels.
- they brag that a prius can go 95 mph- really?
- why are they all on the highway on level ground - it never sticks in the city?
- it really doesnt matter - we all will be playing dominoes.
Once upon a time, accelerator pedals were connected through a shielded cable that ran directly to the carburetor. With an older vehicle, the grease in the cable would loose its lubricity from aging and dirt causing the cable to jam up in the shielding or the spring on the carburetor or pedal breaks or dislodges. This should have been the general answer to this question and was mentioned in an early posting.
However, with increasing demands for reduced emissions, higher gas mileage, and theft protection, and believing engine design is as good as business economics will allow, auto makers have become dependent on a computer module to manage the fine points of vehicle operation. For more than 10 years, this computer had been intervening in throttle control. The throttle cable now runs directly to the computer module. As of late, this computer has also taken over managing the complex ABS systems of more and more vehicles. Don’t think for a minute that this is a simple computer system, at least not anymore. This computer takes in simultaneous inputs from a few dozen sensors around the vehicle and uses them to optimize engine performance and braking control. It is also capable of detecting sensor failure. Unfortunately, very little information from this computer is provided to the driver although there are reasonably priced devices on the market now that allow you to tap into this thing to find out what is going on with your engine.
In today’s vehicles, the mechanical linkages directly between the driver and the vehicle are extremely limited. Almost everything is routed through this computer. There are a few “safety” features that are more designed to protect the vehicle itself against stupid drivers. While the vehicle is moving forward and you throw your transmission into reverse, the gears will not engage in an automatic to prevent severe damage. The computer would determine what action to take when both accelerator and brake are depressed or when you shift into neutral while accelerating. A previous posting has demonstrated that depressing both accelerator and break pedal on a Prius only causes the engine to cut out and the vehicle gradually slows down. The demo failed to show that the vehicle was breaking!
It would appear that quality assurance testing by the car makers is limited mechanically with test tracks and crash tests. They do not appear to be capable of evaluating their computer module software. This is kept quite secretive and only through federal legislation a few years ago have the car companies been forced to make their computer diagnostic codes public. It does not appear that any hacker has been able to extract the log files which would contain a historical record of sensor data and computer operations (the black box) although news articles describe the existence of a single laptop computer somewhere in the US that is capable of retrieving this.
A common thread that seems to appear from any surviving driver is that the car was initially cruising at a moderate speed and then the driver had to accelerate for some reason, perhaps to change lanes or pass. The computer does kick in here to determine how to proceed as this operation is a real gas guzzler. And there is no way to disengage the computer. So why do I keep thinking HAL 9000 from 2001?
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/23/flint-autos-toyota-business-recall.html
When you close the throttle, the engine is still idling. That’s the difference. When you press the engine cut-off switch, it shuts the engine off. Please tell me you know the difference between an engine that is off and an engine that is idling.
If you don’t believe me, try cruising on your motorcycle at 40 miles per hour and press the engine cut-off switch without squeezing the clutch lever. Let us know how it turns out.
So in the event of brake failure, you should simply drive your car into a nearby lake or river? Sully was already training other pilots how to respond in emergencies so he immediately understood the situation. He had quite a few minutes to determine the best course of action. A motor vehicle driver barely has seconds to respond to an emergency and this situation is completely unexpected.