# Why this runaway Honda? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2024, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-this-runaway-honda/1008369 "2024-10-02T04:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 38
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-this-runaway-honda/1008369/38 "2024-10-08T20:19:52Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I recently saw a ‘reel’ (FB video) presented by an Asian woman who says she’s a driving instructor. She said that in the event of a runaway car, shift to Park. (IIRC, the car she was demonstrating had a pull-up button – like a window control.) She said that if you use the button ‘normally’, the car will think it’s an error and not do anything; but if you hold the Park button then the car thinks, ‘Oh. S/h really means it,’ and the car will ‘come slowly to a stop.’ It’s good that it has this feature, but a driver will have to have studied the manual in advance to know that: - they’re supposed to put the car in P (not N) if it’s running away with itself, and - to get it into P while rolling, they need to hold to button for a few seconds. The average driver will not have reviewed the owner manual for how to disable a runaway car, so they won’t know that you have to hold the button for a few seconds - besides which, their first impulse when hauling ass down the highway (if they haven’t studied the manual" is not going to be “I should put it in park.” Unconventional user interfaces for potentially dangerous machines operated by the great unwashed masses is guaranteed to cause disasters from time to time. FWIW, a bizarro PRNDL selector is what killed Anton Yelchin: > **[Anton Yelchin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Yelchin#Lawsuit_and_recalls)** > > Anton Viktorovich Yelchin (Russian: Антон Викторович Ельчин, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}IPA: \[ɐnˈton ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtɕɪn\]; March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016) was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of six months. He began his ca... > [Fiat Chrysler Automobiles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Chrysler_Automobiles) (FCA), the manufacturer of the Grand Cherokee, was aware of 2014 and 2015 models having a high rate of rollaway incidents due to a [gearshift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gearshift) design that could make it difficult for the driver to determine whether the vehicle was in park or still in gear. FCA had already [recalled](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_recall) all 2014–15 Grand Cherokees for this concern in April 2016, but the software patch to repair the vehicles did not reach dealers until the week of Yelchin’s death. Following his death, FCA accelerated the recall campaign and took steps to get the affected Jeeps repaired more quickly than originally planned.[[53]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Yelchin#cite_note-53) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-this-runaway-honda/1008369)._