There’s something very “HAL” about having a computer control the gas pedal of a car, frankly. Indeed. "I'm sorry, Dave..."
On board computers *can* be a good thing. I recently drove a car that would flash a reminder at you if you left your turn signal on for too long. That's a perfectly acceptable function. On the other hand...
The Mercedes E-Class that makes coffee break suggestions is juust a bit creepy. Way too much driver monitoring going on there, IMO.
Either way, I want a mechanical throttle linkage. I'll keep my old beater running forever to prevent riding with Big Brother, if need be.
>>Either way, I want a mechanical throttle linkage.<<
On one of the earlier threads about Toyota, one freeer talked of the mechanical throttle getting stuck on his 1960’s car. The motor mount had broken, shifting the engine and forcing the throttle open.
I suppose that is why they went to cables.
I don’t mind electronic as long as it is as well tested against “one in a million” events. And even if this guys is telling the truth (I doubt he is), if only one in a million Toyotas have this problem, it means several people may die.
Sometimes it can’t be helped. After all, over 40,000 people die on our highways every year. We still drive. It’s all about percentages, not raw numbers. Would anyone fly if that many people were killed in the US alone in plane crashes?