With endless media coverage of stuck gas pedals and resulting accidents why isn’t there some statement to the effect of “If this happens to you experts recommend putting the transmission in neutral and pulling to the side of the road” or something to that effect. Apparently, in the most recent incident the driver wasn’t even able to turn the car off, at least initially. Maybe he din’t put it in neutral first? I’m sure people in a panic situation people who’ve never thought of it before aren’t likely to think of it under stress. But as often as this story is on the air (or cable or whatever) the simple repeating of the advice is sure to have some effect. A runaway engine is alot better than a runaway car. It seems obvious. What am I missing?
You mean like this one?
http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota/FAQ-for-Sticking-Accelerator-Pedal-152196.aspx
The story from this morning was a Prius with the start/stop button. I wonder how many Prius owners know they have to hold it down for 3 seconds.
It’s not just the gas pedal that is drive by wire, so is the shifter. If the computer decides not to accept inputs anymore, you won’t be able to shift to neutral.
What exactly is wrong with the Toyotas is still not clear. Toyota states it is not a computer issue, but something mechanical. Yet drivers who have had this happen to them often state they tried to get it into neutral and moving the shifter had no effect.
Only the ones with enough sense of self-preservation to motivate them to RTFM.
Well, I was unaware that the shifter was also not functioning. There’s be little if any mention of that in the coverage I’ve heard. But then again I’ve sort of been tuning it out. Shifter does’t work? Gas pedal stuck? Can’t turn the car off? Holy kill swith Batman!
More has been said about this topic recently here, which may shed some light.