Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Going back to the topic, I think Toyota is aware of the issues we discussed here. From
link
Quote:
Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said, the company is examining significant design changes.
One possible remedy is to redesign the accelerator pedal to make it harder to get caught by a floor mat, he said. Another potential fix, he said, involves reprogramming the engine's computer to automatically cut power when a driver brakes while the gas pedal is depressed.
Quote:
The arrangement of those gear selections could make it difficult to shift from a forward gear directly into neutral in a panic situation, Toyota spokesman Lyons acknowledged.
"I think it's possible to get the shifter confused, but I can't be sure that's what happened" in San Diego, Lyons said. "You'd be surprised how many people around here don't know what the neutral position is for."
Quote:
Lyons acknowledged that the vacuum can be depleted when an engine throttle is wide open, leaving the drivers without power-assisted brakes.
"There's a standard where you have to be able to stop the car without power-assisted brakes, but obviously I don't think it includes situations where the throttle is wide open," he added
In summary:
Quote:
One remedy being considered by Toyota implicitly acknowledges what critics have been saying for almost 10 years: that the company's highly computerized engine control system lacks a fail-safe mechanism that can quickly extinguish sudden acceleration events, whether they are caused by floor mats, driver errors or even unknown defects in the electronic control system, as alleged in some lawsuits.
I agree. Toyota needs:
or this:
I do agree with you that they need either to make the pushbutton ignition kill the engine instantly and/or have a separate quick kill switch. The problem with a separate quick kill switch is if someone is too out of it to tap the car in neutral maybe they are too out of it to activate a separate kill switch.
I really don't know why Toyota would put that 3 second delay in the pushbutton ignition, since a key can be turned off instantly. Since it's intuitive to most ever driver to be able to kill the engine instantly with a key even while driving, you'd think Toyota would've emulated the key's functionality. Since it would be intuitive for most drivers to hit the ignition button to kill engine in an emergency, why not just get rid of the 3 second delay for starters?