You and I may have been taught in drivers ed how to handle a runaway car — I know I was, in high school driver’s ed. That included, in not the last resort, turning the ignition key off. The last resorts after that were throwing the automatic transmission into PARK, and then into REVERSE, the last with the intent of blowing the transmission out. And the final resort was a planned crash.
Well, in some cars, in a panic situation, turning the key causes a person to turn and pull it out in automatic learned reaction, and can lock the steering wheel. Depends on the car. And as cars become more and more fly by wire — the shifter is not directly mechanically linked to the gearing in the transmission — there are electronic and hydraulic logic intermediaries.
The solution, I think, is to include that which race car drivers have as standard — a battery or ignition circuit interrupter, a kill switch, located in a place a driver can reach it, but is not at all likely to be accidentally thrown.
You can shut the ignition off and keep turning the key downward to accessory or whatever it’s called and that keeps the steering working. It seems to me it has to be in park for the steering wheel to lock, but shutting the engine down to accessory and putting it in neutral should do the trick.
Wow! I was not taught that in Drivers Ed.
I have a Toyota Camry. It engine raced on me!
Yup. About six or so months ago. I came back home and told my hubby about it.
I was going up an incline and all of a sudden the car just was accelerating all by itself. I’m thinking, it’s the floor mat. Now, these floor mats have crept up before and tamped on the accelerator. But I had gotten new ones for that reason. No, the car was accelerating. I pulled the matt back, I stuck my foot underneath the accelerator thinking it might be stuck, I pumped my brakes (I now know this is a no no) and that did squat.
Then, and I only recall this in retrospect, I shifted into neutral. Yes, I have a standard shift car because I like a standard shift. Then the car revved down.
Maybe it’s a plot. Maybe Obama’s behind it. Maybe it’s GM, I don’t know. I just know what happened to me last summer: my car accelerated seemingly on its own. V’s wife.