Toyota should've learned from VW how to prevent "unintended acceleration"

[rider9187]

toyota is a crap since the ealry 00s

[Ferrariman601]

I've often wondered about brake throttle override systems on fly-by-wire throttle systems. Good to know you can still do heel-toe shifting if you want to.

Personally though, I prefer an actual throttle cable. I've driven fly-by-wire cars and I really didn't like the feel of the pedal. Actual cable tension giving me feedback gives me more confidence personally.

[an65001]

I love diesels.

[PRO50MUSTANGS]

But what if that malfunctions?

[Nebraskahusker23]

@PRO50MUSTANGS Put it into neutral.

[chrwl007]

@PRO50MUSTANGS That feature can not malfunction. If the brake pedal sensor is not working, the ECU will turn on either the EPC or glow plug light (gasoline or diesel, respectively). If you keep driving with a warning light on, it's your own fault if you crash. There's only one other outcome, and that is the engine shutting down completely if the system fails.

Or, as Nebraskahusker said, put it in Neutral or the lowest gear that the car will allow you to. The brakes will stop you.

[GoMetricToday]

Seriously people. Why must you continue to bash American driving styles? From the many places I have been around the world, I can say that there is no country free from horrible drivers. I suggest taking a look in the mirror before criticizing others.

[Kreisverkehr00]

cool, now i know why my moms vw golf has this delay

[salambhola]

they tried very well to put toyota down but failed.

[Garen15]

wooooooooooooow, that is really cooool

i have a VW Jetta 2004

does it have this feature too?

i will give it a shot, VW is one of the best

they only have to start using chain in their engines instead of a belt :(

[hicky777]

My ford focus doesn't have this... like other many cars don't.

[SummerBreezed]

I agree: Why VW knows this in the early 1990's and Toyota doesn't care this safety feature?! German cars are expensive, but their engineering is simply good!

[FelixTheHouseFreak]

How is your passat in terms of reliability? Im looking for a new car and im wondering if i should consider this car.

[vwestlife]

@FelixTheHouseFreak My Passat has been very reliable, but it's also from 1997, so you can't really use it to judge today's brand new VWs. Nonetheless, the current VW Golf and the brand new 2011 Jetta are attractive, well built, economical, fun to drive cars, and I can highly recommend them.

[Motorfordtoyota]

Toyota has this in all of their cars now and they are the only other mainstream cars that have it.

[myVW4LIFE]

volkswagen rocks!! i love my MkV Jetta, i learn new things about it everyday and i have had it for over a year now!! keep up the good work VW!

[Da9eI]

My Saab 9-3 2.2 Diesel does this too :)

[ILovemyTaurus]

this video is fuckin stupid. why dont you say directly that you hate toyota. but vw sure sucks dicks a lot.

[vwestlife]

@ILovemyTaurus Thanks for your opinion, but it's hard to defend a company which chose not to implement a critical safety technology which has existed and been used in other cars for the past 15 years.

[Batmanshack]

@vwestlife You really are stupid.... Keep believing everything you hear on TV and news....

[vwestlife]

@Batmanshack Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! :-)

[JRoque250]

@ILovemyTaurus I'll say it, I hate Toyotas. For all they have copied from US and EU automakers, they forgot to copy the safety feature shown here. BTW, as I understand it, the Toyotas involved use a push button to start... but there's no push button to stop. If you remove the key from the ignition the engine will stop but the steering wheel will lock up. Not a good idea to have a locked steering wheel while doing 60 MPH...

[ILovemyTaurus]

@JRoque250 its not toyotas fault if people are to dumb to throw their cars into neutral.

[JRoque250]

@ILovemyTaurus Some people might find it difficult to change gears while driving at 100MPH. Some transmission, especially electronic ones, might not respond to gear changes at those speeds. CORRECTION: it seems Toyota does have an off button: press the start button for 3 seconds to turn the engine off. I still prefer the VW approach that uses only the brake pedal.

[ILovemyTaurus]

@JRoque250 i provided myself. and i have to say your right. the vw system is much better than the one from toyota.

[criind]

@ILovemyTaurus You must not like Toyota's too much. You've got Tauras in your name. A Ford Product...Hmmmm

Safety is Stupid?????

[g0fvt]

Your VW is functioning correctly, but if the electronics failed it would misbehave. Ironically the interlocks on cars to make them fool proof can bite you back under some conditions.

[vwestlife]

@g0fvt Regardless of what the electronics are doing, I can always shift to neutral and apply the brakes. But in Toyota's case, with an electronic transmission and regenerative brakes, the ability to do that when the car's electronics are freaking out becomes questionable.

[yadidimeanmaine]

Drive by wire is the problem to begin with. Your TDI electronic throttle seems to work fine. But just rember that any sensor can go bad and send a false signal to the ECU. At least it a mechanical throttle linkage breaks you CAN'T accelerate. That just seems more idiot proof from an engineering aspect. Mechanical is safer, but unfortunately those two sensors must cost less than the man hours to run & connect a cable through the firewall.

[SpeedSirAudi]

German cars are one step ahead of other car makers. Simple as that. Nice Vid

[UNBOXINGCAR]

This video is an asshole...

[vwestlife]

Thanks for watching!

[MasterSnowstorm]

@UNBOXINGCAR @BRIGH58

calm down!

[BRIGH58]

This video sucks a lot bro

[vwestlife]

I'm glad you liked it!

[Jolinator]

Diesels dont have Thottle plate, your throttle controls fuel injection not a butterfly valve lilke a petrol engine, the rest of your video is correct however.

[vwestlife]

I know that, but I was just using common terminology... to most drivers, it is a "throttle" or "gas pedal" regardless of what kind of engine they have.

[Jolinator]

im sure you knew mate (most vw drivers are technically inclined) i was just in a horrible mood and made a douche remark, all the best cheers!

[micey1105]

Some people use accelerator and brake simultaneously in their way of driving... This feature would annoy me...

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

That's a good idea because there seems to be a lot of people that don't know one pedal from the other...they need to take driving classes...VW was smart to do this on their cars.

[dlgenner]

Toyotas have the same system its just Americans dont know how to drive, maybe???

[warset]

@dlgenner no the current toyotas do not have this system

they were just talking about to include this system in their coming models

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

@dlgenner ... or know how to f*ckin turn the engine off or at least put the damn thing in neutral.. lol!

still thinking it could be a government thing though (the whole pedal story).

the government bailed out all those US manufacturers. so why not help them along a little bit by badmouthing the foreign carmakers so ppl will buy from the bailout ones..?

i sure think this could be possible. especially in a greedy area that has anything to do with cars & the oil mafia.. pardon.. oil industry..

[vwestlife]

@Knaeckebrotsaege The Pontiac Vibe was also affected by the Toyota pedal recall, and now Dodge just announced a recall of one of its SUVs due to "unintended acceleration" problems with a gas pedal made by the same supplier that Toyota used.

[Watcher3223]

@Knaeckebrotsaege

Well, it's recommended you get the vehicle into neutral without turning the engine off. This is to retain power, particularly for hydraulic brakes and power steering, so you can more reliably keep the vehicle under control when slowing down to stop. Then you turn the engine off once you are stopped safely.

As for the bailouts, I agree; it seems an egregious conflict of interest where the largest shareholder of GM is the government and they're investigating a competitor.

[newnewman2002]

@dlgenner You are wrong, toyota's do not have a throttle cut off.

[Muhlineks]

@dlgenner

because they have no proper driving schools. How to stop an uncontrolled accelerating car is what you learn in driving lessons. Chose neutral on the automatic or shifted and brake. If you have an igniton key and a switch instead, turn off the engine. To blame others for not knowing basic knowlege is just stupid.

[mjndblain]

ur rev limit is 50???

[vwestlife]

Yes... it's a diesel.

[TimidALFONS0]

50 x100 same as 5 x1000

[hoosiercub]

x100.. soo 5000 rpm

[irocz0r]

Toyota Prius (at the very least) DOES have this same type of system.

[CVRealMan]

that's not the whole story, its just the one Toyota told. its a ecu error

[rondar2]

this does not work on recent passat's

at least with the DSG transmission tried it on my 2009

it can't work on anything that has launch control either...

[vwestlife]

All modern VWs and Audis do have throttle-brake cutout.

[rondar2]

first of all not all can have this. it is impossible. how the hell could you use launch control if they had it. you have to press brake and gas at the same time to use DSG's launch control.

second as i said i have tried it on my 2009 1.4 tsi dsg passat it didnt work, it also didnt work on my friends 2004 V10 touareg.

maybe it works on manual transmissions but on autos at least on DSG's it doesnt work.

[vwestlife]

You probably have to be going above a certain speed for the throttle-brake cutout to happen.

[rondar2]

that might be... but tbh i won't try it =)

i'd rather put gear in neutral or shut the engine off or simply pull the floor mat back with my feet than frying my brakes trying to see if a system works or not =)

[jameslinton50]

Holy crap! VW have there shit together

[atsidlm]

it's cool that they thought about it, but it's useless. If you have issues with stuck throttle you can put it in neutral and shut it off. If one doesn't know how he/she probably shouldn't drive

[moparmagoo]

@atsidlm the thing alot of people dont think about though, is the engine "dieseling", meaning, the engine is running so hot, that the spark plugs can literally ignite the fuel like a diesel engine, without the ignition spark, weather the key is on or not, but im with you man. theyve got rev limiters on em for christ sake!

[frosty9595]

Agreed 100%

[SelfTubeFreak]

It was in the early 2000's that I read the Jetta story. I drove many Mercedes taxi's. Gas + brakes = low revs. It happened several times to me that these cars decelerated until 20mph on the motorway! Solution : stop and restart the engine. It happened also that when I needed all the power to quickly cross a busy street that the car gave very little respons on the gas! Scary!

[DriveSVT]

Dude i hate to tell you but this drive by wire design was only used in Volkswagen's diesel models. I have driven a 97 Passat and i own a 97 Jetta...the VR6 in these cars have a cable from the gas pedal to the throttle/EGR valve on the engine. I also believe the 2.0L 4cyl in standard Jettas had the same setup. But still, kudos to Volkswagen for putting this on their diesel models quite a few years ago.

[vwestlife]

@DriveSVT VW introduced drive by wire to their gas models in the early 2000s.

[DriveSVT]

oh yeah? i kinda thought so, cuz i drove a 04 Jetta 1.8L Turbo that didnt seem to have a cable operated throttle. I also believe the 00 Jetta VR6 i drove was the same way.

[miden851]

Remember an Audi unitended acceliration!

VW learn the lesson in the mid 80s!

[SelfTubeFreak]

I read about 10 years ago in Reader's Digest magazine a story about how a lady in the US in A VW JETTA with automatic gearbox simply took off to over 100mph. She phoned the police who made the roads free and somehow stopped her. I wonder if more people recall that story? It looks like VW have learned from that case. But I find fly-by-wire grizzly.

[80spodcastchannel]

slight difference between a 120HP diesel,and a sub 300HP camry over riding the brakes.

also this isnt that big a deal to install in the ECM code.

heel and toe a DIESEL??!?!

just the boost drop off isnt really an issue in the TDI's

[bromidedrag]

Bummer... no break stands for you I guess. ;)

[bedocan1]

nice video, good explanation

[fartamplifer]

This generation of Prius involved has a brake override system. Once the brake pedal is depressed a certain amount, the throttle closes.

Also VW only put that throttle cut off on certain model years and only on the TDI.

[RiccoFX]

Plus this won't help toyota's problem if its a computer problem, since that same computer would be the same device that controls this "Failsafe", so if the computer fails - no failsafe! Computer fails, malfunctions and goes full throttle instead and then freezing up! its like having a failsafe on my PC, to monitor and shutdown if it detects a problem, but what if the PC freezes and crashes? then now its no longer monitoring to shutdown!

[PhoenixOrion602x]

I will post a video response soon of my 2004 Audi A4's similar functionality. I know you can rev and brake, but if you slam on the brakes while on the throttle, the throttle is limited. I will show you what happens when you're actually moving and do this.

[RiccoFX]

Yeah, but what if the failsafe that controls the limiter of the throttle when the brake is pressed - goes haywire and/or the computer system malfunctions ignoring throttle and brake positioning - completely going full throttle instead! Also, now if too many cars do this brake overrride, damn no standing burnouts for me! LOL

[fruitfast777]

Nope. Didn't work with my 2000 VW Golf. No cut off on the gas when I stepped on the brake. Engine just revved away. This feature must be for the Passat. Anyway, I told an acquaintance last Nov who wanted to trade in a Toyota SUV for a Camry to get a VW Jetta instead. Of course, he didn't listen to my advice. I bet he's sucking egg right now. With the latest news on the runaway Prius, it looks more and more like the computer. And if that's the case, they're up the creek with no paddle.

[vwestlife]

@fruitfast777 The TDI engine was the first from VW to get drive-by-wire with the brake cutout. I believe the 1.8T gas turbo engine also had it since the beginning, and the VR6 got it somewhere in the early 2000s. but I don't know if VW's standard 2.0L gas engine ever got drive-by-wire before it was replaced by the 2.5L 5-cylinder.

[mornayd]

Sounds like a John Deere. Heal and toe a Diesel VW? Come on give me break. Thats like putting low profile slicks on your lawn mower.

[vwestlife]

I bet whatever you're driving doesn't get 47 miles per gallon and 800+ miles per tank.

[pineduchi100]

you are missing the point, this same feature is available on new vw. and bmw. vehicles. but then again they are german cars not rice cookers;

[biggiejackson]

Dateline blowing up Chevy trucks

[jrms60r]

Glad me and my g/f own Audis.

[pineduchi100]

amen to that, I always tought that by making cardboard and plastic cars at a rate of 200 per minute will have a mayor issues; good thing I driving a german car myself;

[jrms60r]

Good video.

[nfusco618]

Brakes will overpower the engine on 99% of cars. I don't see how they're blaming the accident on a stuck floormat. Unless the person was lightly applying the brakes and eventually overheated them, I don't see how these accidents are happening.

[looxgood]

Actually, 2009 Toyota Venza's brake does NOT over power the engine. So that is why Toyota's system is wrong.

[pineduchi100]

I am a master tech, and I can tell you that the brake system is no desing to figth the engine. and weight of the vehicle at the same time; the problem toyota has beside the "electronics" is that the trans.doesn't dissengagge with hard brake application like german cars do; therefore brake system is uselees on runaway toyota cars;

[pineduchi100]

unless you have certain training on automotive thechnology you will understand that small engines produce high power with high rpm, in contrast with older big engine that produce power with low rpm, therefore easy to control.besides brake system is no desing to fight engine and the weight of the vehicle at the same time; specially toyota chepo parts.

[TheSaintST1]

Great, however, if there is a spike in the power supply or perhaps any of the I/O lines, it can cause potential for glitches to occur. I do't believe that it is a carpet mat sticking but that it is most likely the situation I just described.

Either way the brake should override the 'requests' and 'actions' that the CAN receives/sends in terns of the throttle control. I also believe that a redunacy system also needs to be in place,same as in avaiation technology.

[kassandrasduplex]

I worked for the AAA as a claims adjuster for five years, before that a GM brake mechanic and I can assure you the majority of SUA events are driver error, usually the elderly or young drivers, and obstructions jamming the pedal. While the override is not necessarily a bad idea there is NO proof of undefined "glitches" or "parasitic radio signals" interfering with ANY auto on the road today. In fact, unless their wires are also radio receivers (!) it's not possible.

[vwestlife]

Yes, driver error is a major cause of unintended acceleration. Especially with elderly drivers, they hit the throttle instead of the brake and then when the car takes off they panic and push down harder, still thinking they're hitting the brake. However, Toyota's case is different because many of the complaints involve runaway acceleration, such as when merging onto a highway: people let off the throttle but they say the car keeps on accelerating. In this case a throttle-brake cutout would help.

[TheSaintST1]

Who mentioned anything about radio waves? What I am saying is spikes and glitches in electronics can occur wherever there is no steady base source power supply. Even regulated, Alternators are by no means a steady source of power, varying with revs. And those electronics work to much, much lower voltages. There are other elements that could be explored too. The programming and the fact there is no redundancy system as such other than limp home - But this only works under certain conditions.

[TheSaintST1]

There is no system of double, or even triple checking that the CAN is working the way it should be, in the same way that three flight computers in an aircraft check each other to make sure everything should be happening as it should. So given that even an intermittant glitch might occur, one of the other computers can take over in order to keep everything running correctly - this doesn't exist in the CAN and can, in theory leave the system rather exposed.

[kassandrasduplex]

Until you have ANY proof of "glitches" do not repeat innuendo and media smear. There IS NHTSA PROOF of floor mats and DRIVER ERROR. Let's stick with the proof. For context read the Business Week story by Ed Wallace "The Toyota Witch Hunt".

[TheSaintST1]

lol... touch a nerve? Anyway, I am not necessarily saying this is Toyota specific, there have been cases in th UK where such a problem has occured, and these have been on the move. One such example happened with a BMW 318 which, fortunately ended up with the car on its roof at the end of the motorway but driver still intact

-news(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk/1/hi/eng­land/4796264.stm

Besides, fault reports can't really detect glitches ECUs not programmed to look for them and because they might be....

[TheSaintST1]

...a once off occurance, it is difficult to prove. However, since CAN systems have been more widely used, reports of either sudden acceleration or sticking *have* increased over the last 15 or so years they have been in use. HOWEVER, I would stress that out of the millions and millions of vehicles sold, problems are very rare, perhaps a few hundred a year world wide are reported.

[TheSaintST1]

Besides, can you really believe everything that the NHTSA, when even your own government has criticised it's handling of the Toyota problem amid growing evidence that the situation hasn't been fully investigated either by Toyota or themselves. news(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk/1/hi/busi­ness/8507215.stm

[kassandrasduplex]

Sounds like you've made up your mind. And anything the NHTSA says or anyone else (like Ed Wallace the award winning journalist who has already exposed this as a media smear) which doesn't fit with your conclusion is rejected. Learn about media tricks of yellow journalism, lack of context, distortion, omission, cropped or unbalanced quotes, marketing techniques such as "join the bandwagon" etc. Those are more real than any unproven "glitch" so far. READ "The Toyota Witch Hunt" Business Week

[maxamillion1011]

@kassandrasduplex Well i will look for more information

[kassandrasduplex]

"where such a problem has occured"

WHAT PROBLEM? Are ALL the Toyota SUA events a mysterious gremlin on the wing that NO ONE has proven and Toyota has denied? Are some driver error, how many? Floor mats? If one is proven to be a floor mat then does that prove the other a gremlin? Did you bother to read the Ed Wallace piece? No, right? Media manipulation with 4 or 5 media companies controlling almost all the media are so easy as to be ridiculous. The reporting here is patently biased.

[kassandrasduplex]

Why is that? Because you are an ignorant TV viewer?

I am a former GM brake steering and suspension mechanic and more recently worked for 5 years as claims adjuster for a major SoCal ins. co.

I can introduce you right now to an engineer who drove his Jaguar through his garage into his house because at 78 he slipped and stepped on the gas. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. But you'd never know that from the TOTAL LACK OF CONTEXT ON THE TV REPORTS!!!

[kassandrasduplex]

OK whatever you say.

[bensonak47]

Toyota didn't know about the flooring problems..and not every car has that pedal stuck to the flooring mat...

[workensmart]

they knew about it but they didn't do anything about it. the problems first started in 2001.

[ClitEasywood]

ok you have a safety feature? they all have these "fail safe" feature's. the problem is these safety feature's don't always work as intended, relying on a computor to accel , brake and steer your car is dangerous and stupid. what was wrong with the old way ?? how often does your desktop computor screw up. think about it.

[vwestlife]

@ClitEasywood Drive-by-wire only controls the accelerator, NOT the steering or brakes. When properly engineered, the reliability is impeccable. Even in the worst-case scenario of an ECU failure, the only result would be a loss of engine power -- just the same as the mechanical breakdowns that cars have always experienced -- and you can still safely steer and brake the car to a stop.

[ClitEasywood]

@vwestlife thats what you think, yes your vw has only accell ped "wired" newer cars are going with "wired brakes and steering" toyota has a fail safe designed into the car but something is gone hay wire and you see what happens, if you think having a comput control your gas pedal is safer than a cable (thats not damaged) have fun. you are apparentlly not an auto technician .

[vwestlife]

As a matter of safety we will never see brakes or steering that cannot operate without electricity. And all I can say is that my VW's ECU has lasted 13 years and 134,000 miles without any problems. VW was one of the first to put "drive by wire" into cars and unlike Toyota, they got it right.

[sadieblooming]

My Honda ECU is 21 years. I've not replace any electronic parts on this car.

[austin21m]

Thats why I stick with carburetors.... FUCK computer controlled cars!

[JELH]

Japanese engineering is quite overrated...

[AntiNWOBRASIL]

hahahahahahahahahhaah

Vw beat toyota one more time

[halfwaythru]

oh i want to kill toyota people!

VW introduced this tech in 1995 for gods sake!

15 years!!

[AskaVWsalesguy]

great video!

[Craptron2000]

This is turning into davesfarm. Cool.

[iron3g]

that sucks, you can't do a burnout like that.

[sadieblooming]

you can probably do a burnout with the parking brakes.

[biukucanoe]

good post

[Mrtechguy94]

I have great faith that Volkswagen is going to become the largest car company in (or even before) 2018 (as I mention in my latest video). Every car should have this feature. I guess VW has this design in their current models?

[vwestlife]

Yes, all current VW and Audi models use electronic throttle with the brake cutout feature.

[blablabla1185]

How about GM cars?

[vwestlife]

The American automakers use a mixture of electronic and mechanical throttle, depending on the particular model and engine.

[MSNIMSM]

Never liked Toyota, or most jap cars in general. I really don't like them now that this recall happend. I'de only go German and American, but mostly American.

[vwestlife]

The problem with Toyota is that they started taking their excellent reputation for granted and they let their quality control start to slip away in the past few years. Now, they are paying the price for it.

[MSNIMSM]

The newer ones use a wire-to-wire like a servo for the gas instead of a simple rod or something along that line. Kindof sad.

[themaritimeman]

Toyota has always been one of my favorite car manufacturers - I believe they make the most reliable vehicles in the world - so i'm saddened by not only the unintended acceleration problem, but the fact they they don't want to own up to it, and they won't implement some sort of safety measure in their throttle mechanism in case it were to happen.

What I don't get is why people who experience U.A. don't just put the gearshift in N or press the clutch??

[vwestlife]

I doubt there have ever been any cases of unintended acceleration with a manual transmission, because you can just push in the clutch, like you say. All the cases in the news recently have involved automatics; many drivers were able to shift into neutral, while others were too scared or distracted to think of it, and a few claim they tried but were unable to shift into neutral, especially on models like the Prius with an electronic gear selector.

[themaritimeman]

Wow, some not even able to shit to neutral? Toyota needs to get their act together!

[tghbenz99]

But what if you wanted to do a burnout? You wouldn't be able to give it throttle and hold it back with the brakes. I like my 86 420SEL with its mechanical linkage, but it is different from others i have seen, instead of having a steel cable that actuates the throttle it has a linkage of multiple steel rods connected to a cam mechanism that actuates the throttle.

[vwestlife]

With front wheel drive, you can still do a burnout by using the parking brake to hold the car. And yes, Mercedes was famous for using throttle linkages, instead of a simple cable.

[wilkes85]

No mechanical linkage between the pedal and the engine? all done by electronics?

That sounds potentially dangerous, and extremely expensive to repair.

But maybe that's just me. I don't like anything in my car to be computerized. A lot could go wrong, and end up costing a fortune to repair.

Actually, that goes the same for luxury features like air conditioning, rear window defroster, power windows, etc. Just more unneccesary things that will just break down and cost a fortune.

[bluenazz]

Wow, I treasure my rear window defroster and could never live without it (:->

[vwestlife]

The electronic throttle is all controlled by the engine computer (ECU), which at least on TDIs, is very reliable. A new ECU does cost over $1000, but it is extremely rare to need one replaced, except maybe if the car was struck by lightning! The cruise control is also done electronically by the ECU, which actually makes it more reliable, because it eliminates all the mechanical linkages and vacuum lines which wear out over time.

[compu85]

It sounds like it could be, but in practice I think it is simpler then the old mechanical setup. Instead of having vacuum systems and bowden cables and springs and flyweights you have a couple simple sensors, a servo motor, and the computer. It is simpler to diagnose, and can self correct errors.

[thyssenelevator95]

Very clever! Toyota should definitely learn from VW and use this design.

[daewooparts]

VW learned this from the audi accurance back in the mid 80's audis were suddening accelerating,and crashing, they got sued & had to fix so many audis that crashed and pa for property damages too, i seen my neighbors audi take a bath in their swimming pool,that was real cool!!!!,they replaced the car and paid the $25.000 in property damages that were done

[vwestlife]

The alleged unintended acceleration with the Audi 5000 was proven to just be driver error. That model had the pedals positioned a little more to the left than people were used to, so drivers would jam their foot down on the pedal without realizing that they were actually hitting the accelerator instead of the brake. This happens on all different makes and models with drivers who panic and reflexively push down harder on the wrong pedal instead of realizing their mistake.

[TheTerminatorT101]

Wow thats really clever, haven't seen that before!

[SlimeTron5000]

...and, if there was an abnormality in manuals theoretically, the problem can be solved with the clutch.

[SlimeTron5000]

This would only happen on fly by wire automatics, and it only affects cars in Europe and North America. Hurrah! Australians are not affected!

[jmurray01]

If your in a manual car and the throttle sticks you can just depress the clutch to dissengage the engine. You will be redlining but no power will go to the wheels and you can safely pull over and shut the car off. Also if your in an auto you can put it into N. If its a real emergency just CUT THE ENGINE! ok you will lose a bit of braking power but with the throttle stuck fully depressed its gonna be a hell of a lot better than with the car running! Good vid BTW. Always liked VW's D.B.W System

[i8246i]

you're....

not your

[jmurray01]

What ?

[jefferyb304]

I'm wondering if the reason the RPM's stay up a little bit is demonstrating the " limp home" mode I heard about.