4 ms·

> In the real world, stuck accelerators are a common In my car from the mid 90s' the solution to a stuck accelerator is pretty trivial. You can physically shi

> In the real world, stuck accelerators are a common In my car from the mid 90s' the solution to a stuck accelerator is pretty trivial. You can physically shift the transmission, which is a mechanical connection, into neutral. Worst case you can turn the key which electrically disconnects the ignition. And stuck accelerators were rarely a problem because the throttle was a physical cable.

NickM 3y ago
pretty trivial It doesn't matter how trivial it is to override a stuck pedal, it's still a serious hazard, because even if you have the option to shift into neutral a driver may not think of that or may not react in time. It's also trivial to override it in the Cybertruck: just press the brake pedal. Braking is hard-coded to cut off the accelerator, so if both pedals are pressed the brake wins and the accelerator is ignored. Still a big problem though.
- organsnyder 3y ago
  I had this exact situation happen a number of years ago when I was driving our '97 Ford Taurus (it had undergone a number of repairs at that point, including an engine overhaul, so it probably wasn't due to an OEM defect). My first reaction was to stomp on the brakes, but it was immediately clear that the engine was winning that battle; so, I quickly shifted into neutral and pulled into the turning lane. My wife was in the car with me and remarked that she didn't think she would have known what to do, especially to react that quickly. Our current vehicles are a manual transmission Civic and a PHEV Pacifica. The Civic is easy—just press in the clutch—but the Pacifica would be more tricky; I guess I'd start with the brakes, then the shifter (which is just an input to the computer, of course), then hold down the power button, and then look for a place to ditch.
  - netsharc 3y ago
    > then hold down the power button on APCI computers, the power button is software-controlled, i.e. it sends a signal to the OS, if the OS is currently frozen (or is configured to ignore it), pressing the power button does nothing. But to override this, if you hold it for about four seconds, a hardware shutdown still happens (is it done by the motherboard?). There are also other functions, like holding the power button for 30 seconds to enter into recovery mode on iPhones. I wonder if holding the power button on a running EV car does anything similar...
    - dzhiurgis 3y ago
      There is no power button, but you can probably shift into neutral
mort96 3y ago
Uh, the problem with stuck accelerators isn't that you can't get the car to slow down. I'm sure that's possible in the Tesla too. The problem is that by the time you've reacted to the sudden unexpected acceleration and found a way to get the vehicle to stop, you may have already crashed or run something over or something. This is true on your car with a physical transmission as well. This is all assuming that the brake overrides the accelerator (which it really really should, especially on an electric car where it's all computerized).
- stavros 3y ago
  Unfortunately, this is true. By the time the average person debugs why the car is rushing full speed ahead, it's too late. Hopefully the brakes are strong enough to stop the engine torque, though.
- steelframe 3y ago
  > This is true on your car with a physical transmission as well. I think you mean an automatic physical transmission. My manual transmission car has a clutch that I can always disengage in a fraction of a second.
  - mort96 3y ago
    I meant what I said. The entire point of my comment is that it's the human reaction time that's gonna be the limiting factor.
    - steelframe 3y ago
      Apologies, although in this case you are wrong. Human reaction time to disengage the engine in a 3-pedal car is split-second.
don_neufeld 3y ago
As someone who was a passenger in a vehicle that had a stuck accelerator, going at highway speed, approaching a busy intersection, I suggest that you are dramatically trivializing the problem. We probably had a couple of seconds before multiple people were gonna be dead-dead. People don’t always think, or act, in the most sensible way in an emergency. In this case, the driver overshot neutral and threw the vehicle into reverse. We spun out and needed up in the ditch.
- steelframe 3y ago
  > In this case, the driver overshot neutral and threw the vehicle into reverse. FWIW my 3-pedal daily driver is impervious to this failure mode. If the engine starts doing anything I don't expect my instinctive reaction is to push in the clutch pedal, which I am always prepared to do in a split second because I keep my left foot resting lightly on it. In the extremely unlikely situation where the clutch pedal also doesn't work I can still yank the shifter into neutral. The only way to get to get it into reverse is to pull up on a collar on the shaft of the stick and then shift into the "first gear" position, which I'm definitely not going to do while panicking.
afavour 3y ago
It isn’t ever trivial for two simple reasons: - it’s not something that happens regularly so drivers are not prepared for it - it can cause disaster in literal seconds (or even a single second) It doesn’t matter how easy it is to mitigate if there is going to be a delay in most drivers deploying that mitigation.
dzhiurgis 3y ago
Driving a death trap shitbox isn’t a flex you think it is

NickM 3y ago

pretty trivial It doesn't matter how trivial it is to override a stuck pedal, it's still a serious hazard, because even if you have the option to shift into neutral a driver may not think of that or may not react in time. It's also trivial to override it in the Cybertruck: just press the brake pedal. Braking is hard-coded to cut off the accelerator, so if both pedals are pressed the brake wins and the accelerator is ignored. Still a big problem though.

organsnyder 3y ago
I had this exact situation happen a number of years ago when I was driving our '97 Ford Taurus (it had undergone a number of repairs at that point, including an engine overhaul, so it probably wasn't due to an OEM defect). My first reaction was to stomp on the brakes, but it was immediately clear that the engine was winning that battle; so, I quickly shifted into neutral and pulled into the turning lane. My wife was in the car with me and remarked that she didn't think she would have known what to do, especially to react that quickly. Our current vehicles are a manual transmission Civic and a PHEV Pacifica. The Civic is easy—just press in the clutch—but the Pacifica would be more tricky; I guess I'd start with the brakes, then the shifter (which is just an input to the computer, of course), then hold down the power button, and then look for a place to ditch.
- netsharc 3y ago
  > then hold down the power button on APCI computers, the power button is software-controlled, i.e. it sends a signal to the OS, if the OS is currently frozen (or is configured to ignore it), pressing the power button does nothing. But to override this, if you hold it for about four seconds, a hardware shutdown still happens (is it done by the motherboard?). There are also other functions, like holding the power button for 30 seconds to enter into recovery mode on iPhones. I wonder if holding the power button on a running EV car does anything similar...
  - dzhiurgis 3y ago
    There is no power button, but you can probably shift into neutral

mort96 3y ago

Uh, the problem with stuck accelerators isn't that you can't get the car to slow down. I'm sure that's possible in the Tesla too. The problem is that by the time you've reacted to the sudden unexpected acceleration and found a way to get the vehicle to stop, you may have already crashed or run something over or something. This is true on your car with a physical transmission as well. This is all assuming that the brake overrides the accelerator (which it really really should, especially on an electric car where it's all computerized).

stavros 3y ago
Unfortunately, this is true. By the time the average person debugs why the car is rushing full speed ahead, it's too late. Hopefully the brakes are strong enough to stop the engine torque, though.
steelframe 3y ago
> This is true on your car with a physical transmission as well. I think you mean an automatic physical transmission. My manual transmission car has a clutch that I can always disengage in a fraction of a second.
- mort96 3y ago
  I meant what I said. The entire point of my comment is that it's the human reaction time that's gonna be the limiting factor.
  - steelframe 3y ago
    Apologies, although in this case you are wrong. Human reaction time to disengage the engine in a 3-pedal car is split-second.

don_neufeld 3y ago

As someone who was a passenger in a vehicle that had a stuck accelerator, going at highway speed, approaching a busy intersection, I suggest that you are dramatically trivializing the problem. We probably had a couple of seconds before multiple people were gonna be dead-dead. People don’t always think, or act, in the most sensible way in an emergency. In this case, the driver overshot neutral and threw the vehicle into reverse. We spun out and needed up in the ditch.

steelframe 3y ago
> In this case, the driver overshot neutral and threw the vehicle into reverse. FWIW my 3-pedal daily driver is impervious to this failure mode. If the engine starts doing anything I don't expect my instinctive reaction is to push in the clutch pedal, which I am always prepared to do in a split second because I keep my left foot resting lightly on it. In the extremely unlikely situation where the clutch pedal also doesn't work I can still yank the shifter into neutral. The only way to get to get it into reverse is to pull up on a collar on the shaft of the stick and then shift into the "first gear" position, which I'm definitely not going to do while panicking.

afavour 3y ago

It isn’t ever trivial for two simple reasons: - it’s not something that happens regularly so drivers are not prepared for it - it can cause disaster in literal seconds (or even a single second) It doesn’t matter how easy it is to mitigate if there is going to be a delay in most drivers deploying that mitigation.

dzhiurgis 3y ago

Driving a death trap shitbox isn’t a flex you think it is