why dont they just put it in Nuetral?

[carpenter383]

That might be little harsh.

With the amount of computerization in autos today, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that when these throttles malfunction, many if not all other computer functions are also affected.
I find it extremely hard to believe that there have been no attempts to shift to neutral and/or turn off ignition before crashing. Could it be possible that even holding the switch to off may not apply in these emergencies. No doubt there has been pure panic and no thought of what to do in some cases, but surely not all these people are stupid.
I for one am sorry for any ones losses and extremely grateful none of them have been mine.

I'll second that, you can't expect a 16 yr old girl with very little driving experience to know what to do if her car's throttle sticks wide open:confused2:
Let's just hope they never use these cars in drivers education

 

[Reg]

Does the "HOLD the power button, don't just jab it quickly" work like the power button on my Laptop, which takes maybe 2 full seconds before ACTUALLY powering off ?
At that point I can remove the finger from the power button and...
Ta Dahh ....... it STAYS switched off.

That would seem reasonable, it would prevent power downs from being bumped by .....whatever other actions might let something touch it.

So that would free up a hand for the "HOLD it in Neutral" task, although according to the layout of shift lever and power switch it MIGHT be possible to hold the lever forwards with the heel of the hand and extend a finger to HOLD the power button in.

Heck, with some coordination it might not even be necessary to hang up the cell phone OR park the coffee mug in it's holder.

I agree with some of the earlier posts, emergency procedures are not even THOUGHT through enough and rarely practiced.

PS About that Laptop; To "Software" shut it off (in MS Windows) I have to click on a START button in the bottom left corner.
The Prius seems to have a corresponding button marked "Power", which may be appropriate before it is actually started.
Perhaps that should switch to a glowing red "HOLD for OFF" sign once things are up and running ?

 

[The Haymaker]

This is nothing but a witch hunt. I'm going borrow a buddy's car and cruise through Portland at wfo. Can't write me a ticket if I'm driving a Toyota! Am I the only one that finds it hard to believe the brakes on a 'yota can't overide the rabid squirrel powering this car? FAKE!

Good news is that Toyota is responding to the "crisis" (does this mean Rahmbo Dead Fish is gonna bail them?) by eliminating the car from it's 2011 lineup. It'll be replaced with a faster version called the "Kamikaze". Every sale comes with a free scarf and a bottle of saki.

 

[Egon]

I'll second that, you can't expect a 16 yr old girl with very little driving experience to know what to do if her car's throttle sticks wide open:confused2:

Sounds like a lot of older folks like me might be having the same problem!:ashamed:

 

[jwstewar]

Just thinking out loud here. We had an '05 Trailblazer. Got rid of it in Dec. '08 and got a Suburban. I haven't done this yet in the Suburban, so I don't know how it reacts. I remember going down a hill a couple of times in the TB and I would pop it in neutral and take my foot off the gas. The RPM on the engine would remain exactly the same. When I would put it back into gear, you couldn't even tell it was shifting back into gear. This was with the 4.2 inline 6 and the 4L60E transmission. So were they not allowing neutral if the vehicle was moving? I don't know, I'm just wondering?

 

[oldnslo]

I have both an 08 Camry and an 08 Tundra with the suspect accelerator. Both of these vehicles have the standard key ignition. On both of these if you put the shift in neutral at speed the engine idles down. I have not tried the power braking but think the Camry would stop, not sure about the 380 HP rear wheel drive Tundra though.

Had one of the 4 wheeled cordless drills as a loner car but never tried to put it in neutral driving to see what happens.

Roy

 

[wkpoor]

I'll say what many are thinking.....Darwinizm.

 

[Bedlam]

''''As far as these 4 wheeled cordless drills, I'll never own one.;;;''

TOO FUNNY

 

[two_bit_score]

I never could understand why so many people hit deer on the roads. If you watch where you are going, pay attention and look out I don't see how you can hit a deer. Must be just stupid, untrained drivers that just don't know how to control a car when they see a deer. They must just panic because they have never been trained on how to drive around deer. Just watch out, steer your car, use the brakes and pay attention and theres no way in heck that all these deer-car collisions should be happening.

 

[Egon]

Don't forget the Moose. They are bigger too and should be easier to see!