Runaway Toyota Prius reached 90 mph - police

Reuters ^

[Sub-Driver]

Runaway Toyota Prius reached 90 mph - police Tue Mar 9, 2010 3:46pm GMT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius said his car uncontrollably accelerated to over 90 miles per hour on a San Diego County freeway before a California Highway Patrol officer helped him stop the car, police said.

The driver, 61-year-old James Sikes, was not injured in the Monday incident, which is another claim of unintended acceleration that has caused the greatest image crisis for Toyota Motor Corp in its history.

The incident occurred in the same county where an off-duty California Highway Patrol trooper and three family members were killed last August in an incident that brought the issue to national attention and led to the first major recall over unintended acceleration.

Sikes said he had received a recall notice to take his car into a Toyota dealership, but when he did, he was told that his car was not on recall lists, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The automaker has not recalled the 2008 Prius.

On Monday afternoon, Sikes overtook another car on Interstate 8 near San Diego, and then the Prius accelerated beyond his control, the highway patrol said.

For the next 20 minutes, Sikes sped 30 miles along the freeway, he said.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Paging Mr. Nader...that car sounds UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED to me.....

[Redleg Duke]

The Prius has a "Start" button that is activated by the presence of an RF fob in the car, and the brake peddal depressed. While running, pushing the button will shut off the power plant.

Why all these run-away cars? Panic and ignorance. Too many folks are just too damned dumb to be allowed to drive!

[chrisser]

Folks, shift into neutral, move over to the side of the road and press on the brakes during the process

The Prius has a shift-by-wire system. The gearshift selector merely tells the PCM what gear is desired, and servo motors in the tranaxle performe the actual operation.

It seems conceivable that if the vehicle control systems are ignoring the driver inputs from the electronic accelerator pedal, they could also be ignoring the driver inputs from the electronic gear selector.

Here's a PDF from Toyota: https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/staticcontent/en/techinfo/html/prelogin/docs/2ndprius.pdf

"Electronic Gearshift Selector

The Prius elecronic gearshift selector is a newly developed momentary select shift-by-wire system that engages the transaxle in Reverse, Neutral, Drive, or engine Brake modes."

[MaxMax]

I think he was about to get a ticket and used the pedal defense.

[VRWCmember]

I had never heard of such a thing, but it seems plausible that on a Prius, the computer might decide you didn’t really want neutral, and not give it to you.

And then the GPS Navigation unit says "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."

[AnalogReigns]

The controls ON ALL MODERN AIRCRAFT "simply input into a computer..." and have been that way in military aircraft for over 30 years.

It's called "fly by wire" and has a rock-solid reputation for reliability. Such systems are so reliable that complex aircraft which would otherwise be uncontrollable by the best pilots (the B-2 Spirit, "flying wing" for example)--are actually controlled by computers, with the pilots through their controls only giving the craft pretty much general direction...

Yes Virginia, it is possible to have failsafe electronic controls...

This story of the Toyota really is unbelievable. Either the guy is REALLY stupid, or, this is a hoax.

The ghost in the machine story doesn't fly...

[Diplomat]

All you conspiracy theorist are full of crap. Toyota has a problem that is either too costly to fix, or they don’t entirely know what to fix. I.e., it may well be software that is the root cause.

If this whole “sudden acceleration” problem is nothing more than a GM quid-pro, then why isn’t Honda being taken down?

[Oztrich Boy]

What was the MPG at 90 MPH? The world needs to know.

14.3 MPG. And at the same speed a BMW M3 will do 16.1 MPG

Top Gear: they test for what the sane never consider

[DoughtyOne]

Then Chrisser, it does sound as if it could be possible for the electronic system to have been faulty. I do still submit that in the midst of such an event, a lot of folks would be stumped as to what to do, shifting into neutral not being considered.

Try asking your wife or a few of your friends what they would do if their gas peddle stuck. Most will say press on the brake real hard and try to stop. I tried this on a friend and they didn’t think of putting the car in neutral.

[TankerKC]

The gear knob on a Prius isn’t attached to the transmission. It is simply an input to the computer. Freaky!

That sort of setup is unworkable.

:)

[SAJ]

Just put it in neutral. Sheesh. Freaking rocket science.

[rlmorel]

Why, thank you!

Recently, I had the whole “Letter to my Children” by Whittaker Chambers on it, and got a Freepmail from both Whittaker Chamber’s grandson and Jim Robinson.

Copyright infringement...Jim didn’t tell me to take it down, just a heads up. I sure wasn’t going to argue...not my website!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“This is hugh and series.”

No! It’s a mute point, and is irrevalunt!

[GraceG]

They need a kill switch that kills the electric Motor and the gas engine in the prius that won’t re-set unless the car is in park and they key is cycled a few times.

[AnalogReigns]

“If this whole “sudden acceleration” problem is nothing more than a GM quid-pro, then why isn’t Honda being taken down?”

One principle in politics is you take one enemy down at a time. The Toyota recall damage to the company is on a roll...so why would they disperse their energy by focusing on another car maker?

I don’t doubt that there is a technical problem with certain Toyotas—and the Dems and UAW are only exploiting it. So the initial problem is not a conspiracy, HOWEVER the exploitation of it is....

Modern cars which are all computer controlled (to one extent or another) are VERY (VERY) complex, therefore, it’s to be expected that there are (minor) glitches...in every single brand. But why all the focus ONLY on Toyota?

Has GM, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Hyundai, Honda, etc. had NO safety recalls involving electronics in the past year? Of course they have...but not piled-on in the news from the US government in any way like has happened to Toyota.

The fact that Government Motors’ biggest world-wide rival is Toyota, doesn’t raise red-flags for you? It should...

[Uri’el-2012]

I'm an Army brat.

Brats and Juniors are unique people.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Jeff Dunham comments on the Prius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNz1itJ1pd8

[GBA]

Thanks for the additional info. I don’t know much about the Prius. Still...if you went 30 miles and had 20 minutes to regain some composure I’d like to think you’d try to shut the damn thing off.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Turning off the key doesn’t work? When all else fails....

[steve86]

If the F16 was stuck with the same automotive design, prototyping and testing protocol that the Prius is it WOULD be unworkable. Fly-by-wire seems to be too sophisticated and trouble prone at this stage in time for cars and riding lawnmowers.