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Because the vast majority of people driving cars don't have enough of a mental model of the vehicle systems to consider such a thing, especially in a panic situ
by Syonyk 2y ago
Because the vast majority of people driving cars don't have enough of a mental model of the vehicle systems to consider such a thing, especially in a panic situation such as unintended acceleration.
If you've driven rattletrap manuals for most of your life, and have worked on cars, rebuilt engines, replaced clutches, rewired things that failed, yeah. That's an obvious conclusion, and I expect some people without doing that will have enough sense of what's going on to consider a drop to neutral (and letting the rev limiter handle keeping the engine intact).
But go ask most people, even in technical fields, about the details of a car, and you'll struggle to get much beyond "I press the gas and it goes." You run into this constantly if you're a "car guy" and people ask you questions about why their car isn't going. "It turns over but doesn't start!" can mean anything from "the lights are barely on and nothing happens" to "the starter relay clicks but nothing happens" to what I would consider that to mean, "the engine is rotating under the starter's power but is not engaging in sustained internal combustion."
Neutral isn't a thing most people even think about, unfortunately. Park, Drive, Reverse, and some oddball other positions that you don't want to end up in accidentally. Yes, they're useful, and yes, they solve problems, but it's not something that a lot of people would consider. Neither do they seem to consider "Stand on the brakes until the car comes to a stop. No, really, stand on them!" - because I've yet to meet a moderately well maintained vehicle that can't come to a stop with the gas floored and the brakes applied firmly (yes, I've tried, it's a standard test of mine after brake work). But if you only apply partial brake pressure, or have a vacuum brake booster, you only get a few attempts before the booster has lost vacuum (won't get any more, because wide open throttle), and if you've heated up your brakes trying without succeeding, you may very well have no usable brakes left. Passenger car brakes are adequate, but you can easily overheat them and fade them if you try, or boil the fluid, or... etc. Again, not something you'll find many people aware of these days.
I wish it were different, but "magic box I put gas into and it goes" is closer to the reality of how many people consider cars these days.
- Arch-TK 2y agoEven people who know about the solution might find it drops out of their brain in a moment of panic. I locked myself out of my house recently, and it was only after scaling to the 1st floor, breaking in through an open window, and breaking through a locked interior door (the house had been secured as I was going on a trip, and the only things I forgot were my keys and that window), that I remembered that there was a spare key in my car (which was open). This moment of clarity coincided with the stress going away.
- Syonyk 2y agoAgain, it depends a lot on your experience with vehicles. I expect someone who had driven a manual for a long while (or even learned on one but hadn't driven one recently) would be radically more likely to come to "Oh, select neutral" as a solution than someone who has only ever driven automatics. "Neutral" is far more part of "life with a manual" than it is with automatics - I would be willing to bet that a substantial fraction of automatic transmissions have never been deliberately put in neutral. My daily driver has an archaic manual sequential transmission (2005 Ural - sidecar motorcycle sort of thing), and I select neutral at every stoplight I'm likely to be at for a while to avoid wearing the clutch bearings. Also, I have to most of the way double clutch my shifts on that bike (pause in the false neutral between gears) to avoid too much clashing. If I had a runaway throttle condition (certainly possible), I have at least three instant methods I'd use (kill switch, clutch, and rock it into a false neutral). But I've spent most of my driving career with such things, and vehicles that don't have those are a bit of a novelty to me.
- mkesper 2y agoAlso my Toyota Auris Hybrid has a weird kind of joystick for changing gear and putting it into neutral position requires holding that position for some time. Gave me an unpleasant (but luckily harmless) event in a car wash where you're required to have power on but use neutral position with automatic gearing.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoRandom aside, I set my automatic in neutral while setting the parking brake, to let it rock into place
- jval43 2y agoOn a manual it's the opposite. Put it in 1st gear, let it settle into place, only then parking brake. 1st will hold the car by itself if the parking brake slips.
- 2y ago
- cwalv 2y agoThat makes sense in most cases, but I remember there being multiple cases where people had the composure to call 911 and report the situation.
- eru 2y agoCompare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932011_Toyota_vehicle_recalls#Driver_error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932011_Toyota_vehic... If people think they are hitting the brakes (but are accidentally hitting the gas), then hitting the 'brakes' harder will make the problem worse.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]