Podcast: The Dangers of Luxury Cars and GPS
IEEE Spectrum editor Steven Cherry talks to contributor Robert Charette about the risks and implications of technologies that are meant to make driving better. Recently, a California Highway Patrol officer and his family died in a car crash when he was unable to stop his Lexus ES350 from accelerating. In New York state, incomplete GPS information has contributed to an increase of commercial truck accidents, which has prompted potential legislation. Charette discusses how these particular stories illustrate the automation paradox--the more human operators rely on computer systems, the less likely they'll be ready to respond when those systems fail.
Tech Talk: Making Talking on a Cellphone While Driving Just A Little Bit Safer
Eyal Ophir and his colleagues in Stanford University?s CHIMe Lab have designed a system that moves a cellphone caller?s voice around inside the car. Their goal was to build some kind of tool that can help multitaskers pay attention to their driving when it?s most critical. The system puts the voice up at the driver?s level when road conditions are relatively safe, then drops it down to the driver?s feet when conditions are more hazardous.
Edited by Pugugly on 30/10/2009 at 08:50
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Recently a California Highway Patrol officerand his family died in a car crash when he was unable to stop his Lexus ES350 from accelerating.
Can't have been a very good Highway Patrol officer. Didn't it occur to him to switch the engine off or knock it into neutral?
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>>Recently, a California Highway Patrol officer and his family died in a car crash when he was unable to stop his Lexus ES350 from accelerating.
Far too little information! How does anyone know what happened if the driver didn't survive?
I was once unable to stop a car from accelerating, until I removed my foot from the loud pedal.
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Maybe it was one of these keyless entry cars/electronic failure - who knows?
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I don't know the facts here, like all of us. I have never been able to understand why cars run away like this and can't be stopped .
Some years ago the papers reported a BMW driver who couldn't stop his car on , I think, the M1. A panic call to the police led them to clear the road ahead as he reched speeds over the ton. I think the driver later said he couldn't kill the engine as he would lose brakes and steering ! I don't remember how the car was stopped in the end but all was well.
He really should have had more idea of how his brakes, steering would keep on working and, as has been said, knock it into neutral. I've had the odd car over~rev in the past, mostly in the workshop...just turned the key....simples!
Maybe there was something more sinister in the CHP Officer's case .
very sad.
Ted
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Some years ago the papers reported a BMW driver who couldn't stop his car on I think the M1. A panic call to the police led them to clear the road ahead as he reched speeds over the ton. I think the driver later said he couldn't kill the engine as he would lose brakes and steering.
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It was a truck, IIRC.
The driver was charged with an offence, the implication being that he had made the story up but found was not guilty when it went to court.
Regarding the Highway Patrolman in the OP, possible an internet myth?
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Weren't there two stories about the same time?
One, a BMW heading north on the A1 and the other, an artic heading south on the M1. The latter IIRC stopped by rubbing against a concrete wall just before the motorway ended and was found to have had it's limiter tampered with.
I do recall a woman getting away with her car's engine revving all by it's little self, causing an accident. Her brief convinced the court outside electronic interference could have been responsible. Strange that every car with fly-by-wire throttle wasn't recalled as a result.
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Yes, now you remind me, I remember the truck incident. I think the Beemer was just a regular businessman...not a chav or joyrider. I don't remember how they stopped that one...perhaps the police rang his mobile and told him to knock off the ignition.
Ted
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Aww cmon!
if he`d answered it they`d have done him for using a mobile whilst driving!
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Yes now you remind me I remember the truck incident. I think the Beemer was just a regular businessman...not a chav
I think he was nearer to a chav than a businessman. He was charged with Dangerous Driving, although I can't see if he was convicted or not.
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Didn't it occur to him to switch the engine off or knock it into neutral?
From: blogs.consumerreports.org (further to my psot just now):
"The Lexus that Saylor was driving had a keyless ignition, which uses a start/stop button to start and stop the engine. There is no traditional key to turn if you need to shut the engine off in an emergency. In the case of the ES 350, the button needs to be held for three seconds before it will turn off the engine if the car is in gear. Toyota says it considered this a safety feature to prevent the engine from turning off if the button were pressed accidentally. However, the report points out that Saylor was traveling at an estimated 100 mph?that?s the equivalent of traveling one and a half football field in three seconds"
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Yuck, this gets worse:
tinyurl.com/yfbuxqh
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>>The system puts the voice up at the driver?s level when road conditions arerelatively safe then drops it down to the driver?s feet when conditions are more hazardous.
Which part of his anatomy does the driver talk out of?
;-)
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"Which part of his anatomy does the driver talk out of?"
I have to admit I had the faintly disconcerting image of one's boss's voice coming from between your legs too when I read that.
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Re the CHP and Lexus, immediately afterwards, Toyota recalled all their Lexus to check the floor mats as IIRC the accelerator pedal had become stuck behind an aftermarket mat.
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www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/09/bn09ch.../
(Sorry mods, the works computer doesn't allow access to tinyurl!)
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...(Sorry mods, the works computer doesn't allow access to tinyurl!)...
Bobby,
They only insist on tinyurl if the link is longer than a line, which yours is not.
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I have to admit I had the faintly disconcerting image of one's boss's voice coming from between your legs too when I read that.
:-D
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I simply don't believe these stories about people's cars running away with them. I've never driven a vehicle that couldn't be turned off or anyway made to stop.
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A long time ago, at the garage where I worked, we had a bad case.
We had sold a motability car, and a specialist fitter had come into the workshop to fit hand contols for the pedals. There was a lever by the steering wheel - pull to depress the throttle, push to depress the brake.
One of the salesmen was transferring the car to a sister dealership in the group from which the customer wanted to pick up the car. Coming off the motorway, on the slip road, the salesman realized that the linkage had jammed with the throttle open.
He panicked, and could do nothing. However, it was only a matter of seconds before he reached the give way line at the end of the slip road and was involved in a heavy crash.
He was off work for some time.
The car was impounded for inspection, where the linkage was found to be faulty.
I don't know how I would react in those circumstances, and I can't imagine what those terrifying seconds before the crash felt like for him.
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We've had an accelerator stick down on a car, because the carpet was obstructing the linkage. This happened at slow speed in a low-powered car. OK, it's simple to knock the car into neutral and switch off the ignition, but when it happens in the real world one's first reaction is 'what the hell's going on?'- it takes a second or two to register what's happened.
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The brakes should be capable of stopping the car, even with the throttle open.
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Diesels can. You have to stall them to stop them if they start ingesting their own oil. If you've got an auto with 'safety' features that prevent you knocking into neutral while going along then you can't put it into neutral and you will be unable to turn it off either. If you are in a manual car you can always get neutral. One reason I'd never have an auto/semi auto unless there were cut offs and forced neutrals available, easily, in an emergency.
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Technology has nothing to do with it. A carpet can (and has with me anyway) make a purely mechanical linkage stick.
If the driver is too stupid or too senile to deal with it (cue most americans who have been involved in these incidents) then dont start blaming technology
Edited by Altea Ego on 30/10/2009 at 16:11
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Altea Ego, that is because your average American is too large to bend over and pull the carpet back out. he he
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Not quite the same subject but saw a car yesterday with the sat-nav installed half-way up the screen directly in front of the driver.
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A long time ago, whilst driving my Peugeot 104ZS onto a motorway, I pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor to accelerate into a gap. After releasing my foot the car carried on accelerating. I put my foot under the pedal and moved it back to the closed position which caused the car to slow down. I ended up driving in this fashion, foot down to accelerate and then foot under the pedal to close the throttle, until I got home. The problem turned out to be a broken throttle return spring and what looked like a very dodgy conversion to right hand drive which resulted in the throttle cable being partly pinched.
Of course, acceleration in a 70bhp 9 year old Peugeot 104 is not comparable with a 272bhp Lexus so I had lots of time to try and solve the problem as the speedo inched its way up to 60mph. The fact that accidents like this don't happen more often actually shows how good car manufacturers have become at making phenomenal performance safely and easily accessible to all and sundry. At the same time there is always a latent risk with highly powerful machinery that when something goes wrong it's going to end in tears.
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Same tale here, I stopped and investigated. Nothing further was going to result so I resumed the journey. A new spring was obtained on Monday, it being a Sunday with no more hindrance than taking it easy until then.
Edited by SlidingPillar on 31/10/2009 at 12:39
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