4 ms·

It's not like ICE vehicles never suffered from stuck open throttles for myriad reasons either. From footwell carpets sliding forward and catching on the physic

It's not like ICE vehicles never suffered from stuck open throttles for myriad reasons either. From footwell carpets sliding forward and catching on the physical pedal keeping it "to the metal", or plain binding at the actual butterfly plates, I've had more than my fair share of "run away" gas vehicles. It's just I've also always had a clutch pedal at my disposal to immediately decouple the max-revving engine from the drivetrain in such circumstances. EVs tend to lack any physical cutoffs between the "on" button and tires. They're always physically coupled in the drivetrain department, and you're generally operating a soft switch asking a computer somewhere to shut off. It's far beyond any sort of fly-by-wire ICE implementation I've encountered, where you'd generally still have the ability to just kill the ignition switch, forcibly shift to neutral, or push in a clutch pedal.

jacquesm 3y ago
Most ICE's don't have the torque to overcome the brakes. But EVs definitely do which is the reason for their rapid acceleration from standstill.
- pengaru 3y ago
  Problem with an ICE that has its throttle stuck wide open is there's no vacuum, so the vacuum-powered brake booster stops working. (even worse on a turbo vehicle) That makes things more interesting to say the least, and for a naive driver in a panic it would easily be perceived as "oh shit no brakes!" since you basically have to stand on the pedal without the vacuum assist - and that's without the engine fighting you IME. (I used to coast downhill with the engine off in my mx5 when we'd get stuck in stop-and-go Sunday traffic over Skyline Ridge heading to the coast @ Half Moon Bay. Not the easiest thing to stop once the residual vacuum disappears, and that's a small light car)
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    That's a pretty dangerous thing to do. In Switzerland it used to be that if you were caught 'coasting' that would be severely punished. Not sure what the state of that is today but it is asking for an accident. Vacuum is one thing, then there is the powersteering which at some point will fail and if you're going to want to do a hairpin turn down a mountainside without assist you better be ready for it.
    - pengaru 3y ago
      Manual rack on the car... it wasn't particularly dangerous, we're talking about a glorified go-kart on a sustained downhill in stop-and-go traffic, the engine just burns fuel pointlessly idling. The main issue is remembering to put the key back in the ON position so the steering column doesn't lock up. Then it's also ready to resume running, all it takes is selecting a gear and engaging the clutch to bump start the motor... approaching the bottom of the mountain pass.

jacquesm 3y ago

Most ICE's don't have the torque to overcome the brakes. But EVs definitely do which is the reason for their rapid acceleration from standstill.

pengaru 3y ago
Problem with an ICE that has its throttle stuck wide open is there's no vacuum, so the vacuum-powered brake booster stops working. (even worse on a turbo vehicle) That makes things more interesting to say the least, and for a naive driver in a panic it would easily be perceived as "oh shit no brakes!" since you basically have to stand on the pedal without the vacuum assist - and that's without the engine fighting you IME. (I used to coast downhill with the engine off in my mx5 when we'd get stuck in stop-and-go Sunday traffic over Skyline Ridge heading to the coast @ Half Moon Bay. Not the easiest thing to stop once the residual vacuum disappears, and that's a small light car)
- jacquesm 3y ago
  That's a pretty dangerous thing to do. In Switzerland it used to be that if you were caught 'coasting' that would be severely punished. Not sure what the state of that is today but it is asking for an accident. Vacuum is one thing, then there is the powersteering which at some point will fail and if you're going to want to do a hairpin turn down a mountainside without assist you better be ready for it.
  - pengaru 3y ago
    Manual rack on the car... it wasn't particularly dangerous, we're talking about a glorified go-kart on a sustained downhill in stop-and-go traffic, the engine just burns fuel pointlessly idling. The main issue is remembering to put the key back in the ON position so the steering column doesn't lock up. Then it's also ready to resume running, all it takes is selecting a gear and engaging the clutch to bump start the motor... approaching the bottom of the mountain pass.