more prius questions

I have a feeling that with all this bad publicity for Toyota, every
accident with their cars will immediately branded as another instance of
malfunctioning pedals. I can imagine all the scrambling at the offices
of many of the ambulance chasing lawyers to get a piece of the action.

 

I'm listening to a radio report of an interview with driver, he was
afraid to try the shift, afraid to take his hands off the wheel, yada
yada. Though he was fine talking on the phone - holding a phone?

Especially if indeed the Prius has the override, no way this is not a
hoax.

Apparently the guy has some record for various frauds.

J.

 

I haven't kept up with this guy but I recall they said he was a
realtor. Maybe he was trying to get free air time at the cost of
Toyota? Nothing would surprise me.

 

There's a LOT more to the story...
<http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-03-12-prius12_ST_N.htm?csp=34>

And more will come out as time goes on.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_re_us/us_runaway_prius

yah. bogus. but these are the reports I saw/heard about him refusing
to even try to shift to neutral or kill the ignition.

and articles do confirm the override on gas/brake, like you said.

J.

 

Maybe Toyota is using "shift by wire" that works as well as their
drive by wire system....

 

SoCal freeways have times during the day and on weekends where traffic
is flowing quite freely, and 75 MPH can actually put you in the slow
lane.

 

LOL, thanks.

 

And there black helicopters everywhere! Prepare, man, prepare.

 

Newer cars need black boxes (recorders). The issues we're discussing are
so obscure & intermittent we'll never be able to work our way back to
the failure retroactively. I think anyone who's done a lot of debugging
understands how difficult this is.

 

Well put, Tegger.

 

Just read it - he owes $115,000 on 16 CR cards, plus he's had his
Mercedes, Dodge, boat, etc, repossessed -- anyone who's watched Law &
Order knows the financials tell all. The guy doesn't have a prayer IMNO.

 

newer cars(since 1996) have OBDII,and there are "black box recorders" that
can plug into the OBDII port.

Many newer cars do record certain parameters,but they're more oriented
towards crash evaluations,and can be subpoenaed by courts and the evidence
used against the driver.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

Not just that, but he Prius is his only remaining car, and he is
scheduled to return it shortly, at which time he will not be able to
get a new lease or car loan. The truth comes out in what he's asking
for. He's not suing Toyota, he just wants them to give him a NEW
PRIUS...

 

yeah, we need much more of that! we should all have wireless data
transmitters uploading our exact gps location and our speed so we can
save all those poor hard working highway patrol officers from having to
manually write tickets - each time you speed, you get a ticket
automatically from the national speed limit enforcement bureau.

 

He is not suing, yet he's got a lawyer. How can that deadbeat afford a
lawyer unless he and the lawyer expect a big payoff from it?

 

As I suspected it would, the plot is getting thicker!

I'd say Mr. Sikes' trousers are currently aflame.

<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_bi_ge/us_runaway_prius>

Excerpts:

"Toyota said testing found that the car's accelerator pedal had no
mechanical binding or friction, and the floor mat was not interfering
with or touching the pedal. A self-diagnostic system did show
evidence of repeated applications of the accelerator and brake
pedals, Toyota said.

"The data from the diagnostics test indicated that the accelerator
and the brake had been rapidly pressed, alternately back and forth,
250 times," Mike Michels, vice president of corporate communications
for Toyota Motor Sales USA, told a press conference.

"Regulators said in a statement that Sikes' Prius was equipped
with a backup safety device that reduces power to the wheels
when the brakes and gas are pressed at the same time.
"The system on Mr. Sikes' Prius worked during our engineers'
test drive," the statement said.

"It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and
mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was
slamming on the brake at the same time," said a memo prepared
for Congress that cited a Toyota official."

 

and they did a demo in the qualcomm stadium parking lot showing you
can hit the power button, the engine will turn off, and while you lose
power steering you can still steer.

I have not heard that they demonstrated what happens if you put the
car in neutral at speed, with the accelerator locked down, and I
suppose it might not be pretty. But I hadn't realized, the Prius
shift is a cute little knob on the dash, seriously easy to flip into
neutral, if you are so inclined.

not that any of this matters, since no doubt this guy had his foot on
the gas the whole time and never "stood on the brakes" as he insisted
he did.

J.

 

The engine will rev to its programmed limit (just about at redline), then
stay there until the ignition is shut off or the gas pedal is released; it
will NOT be damaged.

No Toyota since maybe the mid-'80s has been capable of overrevving to the
point of throwing a rod through the block.

 

That would explain the smell of braking the highway trooper noted.