Re: Toyota unsafe at any speed due to irrecoverable design fault: the single ON/OFF switch case

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bill Janssen <janssen () parc com>
Date: February 27, 2010 3:24:38 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: janssen () parc com
Subject: Re: [IP] re Toyota unsafe at any speed due to irrecoverable design fault: the single ON/OFF switch case

Dave, this somehow came through pretty garbled to the list.  The key
idea -- shift the car into neutral -- was missing.  I enclose another
copy of my original paragraph:

 Turning the car off, at speed, is about the last thing you want to do to
 achieve a safe stop -- modern cars have power-assisted braking and
 steering systems that will stop working (well) if you suddenly turn off
 the engine.  A "kill" switch might live up to its name, and slaughter
 far more people than it saves.  Much better to just put the car in
 neutral, something you can do safely with almost any transmission.  That
 way you'll still have power-assisted braking and steering to help with
 the trouble, but the engine won't be driving the wheels.

 When the car comes to a stop, _then_ turn off the engine.

See, too, the Dec 2009 issue of CAR AND DRIVER for more analysis of this:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_deal_with_unintended_acceleration-tech_dept

Bill





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