Prius unintended acceleration.

brunhuber · Post by **brunhuber** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:57 am

Is anyone else following this story?

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-na ... way.Prius/

I am still finding it hard to explain. The driver claimed he didn't want to put the car into neutral because he was worried it would flip. What???

Second, they finally stopped the car after the cops got there by turning off the ignition. Why didn't he do that in the first place???

Can you guys think of legitimate reasons for what happened here or is the driver making this up?

--Norbert

ivan · Post by **ivan** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:08 am

He is crazy for not putting it into neutral. Maybe it was staged... and financed by GM.

I drove a Prius yesterday and at first I couldn't figure out how to get the car to shut off while moving. Then I remembered, you gotta hold the power button for 3 seconds.

Seems like a long time to be sitting there waiting for the car to shut off and stop accelerating -- by then the Prius will be going like 14mph.

brunhuber · Post by **brunhuber** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:33 am

Interesting thought about it being staged. The officer claims he saw the guy raising himself off the seat trying to brake the car, but I can do that easily with a free foot without anyone being able to tell what I was doing. How many times have you guys lifted yourselves off the seat to get your wallet out while at speed?

--Norbert

taxwoman · Post by **taxwoman** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:43 pm

only you brunhuber, are you crazy? what else are you doing while driving at speed?
I do agree with you on the not putting the gear in neutral. That doesn't make sense.

jont · Post by **jont** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 5:08 pm

The things that I can think of that would have caused the problems.

-Throttle is drive-by-wire, not a cable
-Ditto on the transmission (I think).

I did watch a story (on NBC, maybe?) where someone in NJ had the problem, and was able to alternately pop the car in and out of gear, and was able to drive the car that way down to his Toyota with the problem still happening.

colin · Post by **colin** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:12 am

http://toyotasimulator.com/

momoboy · Post by **momoboy** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:23 am

I'm going to get a Prius (or any Toyota now) and speed all I want now. If I see the flashing lights behind me, I'll just speed up and look scared while I press the brake pedal lightly (so they can see i'm attempting to stop). At some point, I'll pull over and say that my car was out of control and tell the officer I remembered I should put the car in neutral and pull over.

I would love to see M3's having this issue lol!

taxwoman · Post by **taxwoman** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:42 pm

Colin, was that a video of Ray screaming as I'm driving?