I just heard that all you have to do to stop your spontaneously accelerating car is to turn the key in the ignition to off. For those to whom this has happened and have died as a result you truly have my deepest sympathies and compassion. But, that said, I still nominate the lot of you for a Darwin Award for not thinking to simply turn your car off. Further I propose a fix: retrofit on the dash a light that mimics a Windows BSOD or a Mac Wheel of Death when the engine is accelerating and the brakes are applied. Most should know one of these two as an international symbol and signal to turn your machine off.
There are not a lot of deaths, period. There were less than 20 over a 10-year period before the publicity, and now with others "linked" (not necessarily caused) to the problem, there are 56 over a 10-year period. During that 10 years, 420,000 people died in U.S. automobile accidents. There were several thousand out of control vehicles (for acceleration related issues) reported to the National Highway Safety Association, and Toyota was second in the amount reported. This "sudden unintended acceleration" is getting a vast amount of publicity, far more than warranted, when most accidents are preventable, even ones where your gas pedal sticks. There was a great op-ed in the AAS this morning concerning this, I'll see if I can find the link. Can't get the link to work, but the article is by Michael Fumento, and is printed in various papers around the country. If you google Fumento and Toyota, you will find it. I don't want to give anyone a Darwin award, because some people just panic when anything goes wrong. But there is at least part individual responsibility in these accidents. Accelerator pedals have stuck in cars since cars were invented. It's just a mechanical device (except for a few new models where an electric signal works the throttle opening). The bottome line is 56 deaths versus 420,000. Not to minimize any safety problem, but this is very rare, and I doubt all 56 were caused by the mechanical defect. Another thing, you have to be careful about turning off the ignition while driving, because if you turn the key to "lock" positon, the steering wheel will lock. But if you turn it to "accessory," the engine will die, but you can still steer. You should practice this in a deserted large parking lot to make sure you can do it safely. Click and Clack addressed this issue two weeks ago in their weekly column, and they advised just pushing the shifter into neutral, coasting over to the shoulder safely, then turning off the ignition. Newer cars have "rev limiters" built into the ignition system, so the motor should not rev up so high it will ruin itself, but that is still better than having a wreck. Again, this is very unlikely to happen to anyone in any vehicle, including Toyotas. It doesn't hurt to be prepared, though, so go out and practice on an empty road or lot, putting the car into neutral, and turning the key carefully to accessory and coasting to a stop safely. Don't practice these things at the IH-35 split near the Airport Blvd exit. Thank you.
Yah, I don't have or ever will have a Toyota (only Jeep), but I always found it odd who people couldn't get their cars to stop. E-brakes, shifting to neutral, turning off the car, or if all else fails, tuck and roll. Then I read about people who, while their cars are "uncontrollably" accelerating got out their phones to call/text loved ones. Maybe it's just me, but calling somebody is the last thing I'd do while my car is pulling 90. If I had a loved one who was in that situation and called me, I'd say focus on the road you damn moron and hang up.
I thought about the advice I gave, and I should issue a caveat: I am accustomed to driving Hondas and Toyotas, and on these cars if you turn the ignition off, the steering is still fairly easy to use. But on all cars, without the engine turning, the power steering pump isn't turning, and on some cars the effort required to turn the steering without power assist is herculean. You need to be an olympic weight lifter to steer. So maybe it is better if you just push the shifter into neutral and coast to the shoulder, which is the advice Click and Clack gave in their column. You should still practice at low speed in an empty lot on Sunday morning by turning the key to accessory, because even if you never have a stuck pedal, your power steering belt may break one day, and you would know how it feels to have to pull the car over without power steering. Also, without the engine running, the engine is not making vacuum for the power brake booster, so your braking requires more pedal effort. This also varies by car make, some still feel fairly normal, but some feel like you are stepping on a brick. You also can run out of vacuum if the throttle is wide open (i.e. stuck open) for long enough time, and this is probably why some accident victims thought their brakes failed at the same time as the stuck throttle. They didn't fail, but they required more effort. Also-brakes generate more energy than an engine-all cars. But if you are in a panic mode, and the brake requires more effort than you are accustomed to, you might think they can't slow the car down. If you keep your wits about you, you won't have a wreck if one of these mechanical systems fails on you. A few minutes of practice in an empty lot could save you from a bad wreck. This should be part of driver's ed, along with a lot of other things IMO, but that's another subject. On new hybrids, you have to read the owner's manual to see how to turn off the ignition-I think you push the start button and hold it for three seconds, but again it is probably better to just put it in neutral with the shifter and coast over to a safe stopping point.
You can put your automatic transmission in neutral just like you can the standard. It is a matter of not panicing.
Having tried this on my Prius, I will add another bit of information to accuratehorn's directions. To shift the Prius into neutral you need to hold the shift knob in the neutral position for a bit, not just push it to neutral and then let go as you can when shifting into drive or reverse.
Turning the ignition key to off also kills all the power - power steering, power brakes, etc. Doing that is just as dangerous. Stick it neutral and coast.
Turning the key to "lock," where you can remove the key, always locks the steering column. Turning the key to "accessory," where you can still play the radio, turns off ignition to the engine, but does not lock the steering column. But this might not be advisable if you are in a panic mode at 80 mph with a stuck accelerator. And you would lose power steering and power assist to your brakes with the engine off, although the steering and brakes would still work with extra effort. So putting your car in neutral would be the easiest and safest way to handle this kind of emergency. Get to the shoulder, turn off the engine and call a wrecker.
It's a product of the (lack of a) driver education system as much as anything. A lot of people honestly don't know that shifting into neutral at high speed isn't particular dangerous. Many don't even realize that you can slow down a car with an automatic transmission by manually downshifting.
Look at the age clusters of the fatal accidents. There is a pretty good chance of driver error being the big cause here. www.post-gazette.com/pg/10074/1043035-185.stm
I don't know why my computer won't copy links, but... google Car and Driver Magazine, "How to Deal with Unintended Acceleration." They tested three or four cars for baseline stopping distance, then tried to stop the cars from different speeds with a foot on the accelerator and a foot on the brake. All the cars stopped, ie the brakes generate more power than the engines (even a Rousch Mustang with a 540 hp engine, although the stopping distance was much greater). The Toyota Camry, from 80 mph, only took 10 feet more to stop with the gas pedal floored. However, from 120, the Toyota slowed to 10mph, then the brakes "faded" where it felt like they weren't working. This is the same as driving down a mountain road and keeping your foot on the brake pedal-the brakes get hot, the fluid boils, and you lose braking. So don't floor the brake pedal at 120 in your Toyota and keep it depressed-let up once in a while. Interesting article. Poor driver judgement is a factor in all these incidents, although undoubtedly the gas pedal is sticking in some of the crashes. Age can be a factor-I think the car which overturned into the pond and killed four was driven by an 89 year old driver. People panic when something like this happens, and maybe older drivers panic more easily (?).
"undoubtedly the gas pedal is sticking in some of the crashes" So you don't believe there may be a computer/electronic element to some of the accelerations? You specialize on Toyotas at your shop?
I don't want to say it is impossible, but I haven't seen any good evidence to say is actually happened. I certainly have never seen one in the shop. However, this claim would be harder to refute in court, since it would be so to prove or disprove. It isn't magic. The foot pedal just has a sensor that send a signal to a small motor on the throttle body, which has a flap that opens just like if a cable were opening it. The flap can get carboned up and sticky, although there is a big spring that should make it shut if it gets sticky. I am very skeptical after the Audi skewering in the 80's which turned out to be completely baseless. OK, some cars' gas pedals stick, and not just Toyotas. The car doesn't take over and drive itself. Put it in neutral and shut it off.
I recall a number of years ago a particular model of car (from Saab or Audi, maybe, don't recall for sure) had a habit of accelerating when drivers applied the brakes. Turns out the spacing of the pedals was slightly different than is typical and drivers were hitting the gas when they intended to hit the brakes. Changing the pedal positions very slightly eliminated the problem. Not sure how you'd classify this: engineering defect or driver error, but an engineering change was the solution. Further evidence that's it's impossible to build something as complex as a car idiot-proof.
