The joys of owning a Toyota Prius - uncontrolled acceleration and braking

[paulney]

Actually a former colleague of mine who had a first generation Prius experienced a rather scary glitch in his car: he was coming home from Santa Barbara to Bay Area, when the car, all of a sudden, would not decelerate if you eased the gas pedal. You could slow it down by pressing the brake pedal, but you were just burning through the brakes, as the engine tried to maintain the same speed: roughly around 70mph. They called 911, and a police cruiser caught up with them, cleared the lane for them to the nearest safe exit, where the guy killed the engine and came to a stop. Toyota did the repairs, but I don't know what was the cause.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
...
snip
...
I am not sympathetic to claims of "unintended acceleration". I can drive down the freeway and simultaneously floor both the gas and brake pedals on any car I've ever driven and the car will slow down. Unless the owner has failed to maintain the brakes, it's simply not possible for a car to "accelerate out of control".

ZV

Your explanation makes perfect sense in Riner's case, but what about the others stated in the article? Especially the case where the guy was test driving the dealer's Prius with a salesperson in the car. It's certainly possible that the writer picked his quotes, but you'd think that the salesperson would look over and make sure the driver was pushing the correct pedal (i.e. brake pedal), and not the accelerator. What about the Prius that was left unattended and accelerated into another car?

This is all anecdotal evidence, of course, but so was the Xbox 360 RRoD, for months.

In the first case, we don't have the salesman's report. Only the potential buyer's. Hardly a neutral party.

As for the second, cars don't move forward unless someone leaves them in gear. I would put money on the guy having the car in neutral and accidentally bumping the shifter as he exited the car.

Since these cars have been on the road for many years now (going into their 3rd generation) it is very unlikely that this is an endemic problem. Occam's razor suggests that these are all cases of operator error. If you look long enough, I'm sure that most models of cars on the road have a few people claiming that they "just accelerated out of control".

ZV

Good points, thank you. Although the saleswoman is not likely to go on record as acknowledging any kind of malfunction on a product she is trying to sell. Also, why would smoke pour from the tires if the driver was only pushing on the accelerator?

Also, is there anything unusual about the Prius's gear shifter (i.e. computer controlled)? In other words, could there be a physical disconnect between the position of the shifter, and the actual gear engaged? And even if the car were in gear, why would it "slam" into another car? How fast does the thing idle?

Again, it's only anecdotal evidence, and quite possibly inaccurate.

The Prius gear shifter is a spring loaded electrical switch that you push to the desired position and release, at which time it spings back to its start position.

Text

To get it to go into any gear you need to apply the brake first.

 

[piasabird]

Maybe it is possible to hit the brake and accelerator at the same time. Never driven one myself. Many police reports have claimed when people panic that they sometimes are depressing the accelerator in non-Hybrid accidents. It is also possible that the POT (Electronic Accelerator switch) could be jamming. I was reasearching this and it may not be impossible to brake and accelerate at the same time.

In my research I have seen blurbs of failsafe devices in the software that kills the power when you press the accellerator and brake at the same time. Since I think this is a new feature, it must have been introduced for a reason.

I kind of like reading about building Electric cars because it interests me. Engineering in this area keeps getting better. It is entirely possible to make a vehicle so complex that it could self destruct all due to a software glitch in the controller. These cars should have a failsafe emergency breaker that when pressed automatically slows down the car and/or kills the power.

Lets just say I am skeptical.

It could be the people were practicing techniques to extend the driving range and something backfired.

 

[ElFenix]

being intimately familiar with houston freeways, particularly near the galleria, anyone who is paying that much attention to their gauges to figure out if they're sticking it to the oil companies is being completely negligent.

 

[LTC8K6]

As long as the brakes are working properly, they will easily overpower the engine in any normal street car and quickly bring it to a halt.

If you hold the brake on firmly, and floor the throttle at the same time, you will not get anywhere.

In fact, the stopping distance with the accelerator held to the floor is not all that much longer, iirc.

IIRC, Car and Driver did such a test with an Audi. They compared braking distances with the engine at idle and at full throttle, and it did not make that much of a difference.

What could happen is that the driver does not make much of an effort to use the brakes out of panic, so the brakes are partially on for a while as the driver is deciding what to do, and the brakes overheat and lose much of their effectiveness. Except for Louissssss...

What you need to do is decide you are going to use the brakes, and use them firmly.

 

[Nyati13]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
[
New FJ Crusiers are tearing the unibody structure apart in the front wheel wells.

This one doesn't pass the smell test. FJ's are not unibody vehicles, they are body on frame vehicles.

 

[JeepinEd]

Originally posted by: Nyati13

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
[
New FJ Crusiers are tearing the unibody structure apart in the front wheel wells.

This one doesn't pass the smell test. FJ's are not unibody vehicles, they are body on frame vehicles.

FJ's are technically body on frame, but they are having problems with the inner fender well aprons cracking and ripping.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Nyati13

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
[
New FJ Crusiers are tearing the unibody structure apart in the front wheel wells.

This one doesn't pass the smell test. FJ's are not unibody vehicles, they are body on frame vehicles.

Smell this it's actually a serious issue affecting some FJ owners. Most of which are off-roaders, but there's still a frame problem for sure.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Pens1566
A prius can hit 84mph?????

Seriously.
That's the only news in this report.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
being intimately familiar with houston freeways, particularly near the galleria, anyone who is paying that much attention to their gauges to figure out if they're sticking it to the oil companies is being completely negligent.

With a new driver it takes far less attention than a cell phone. With more than a month of experience it takes no more attention than keeping track of what your speedometer displays. If anything 'we' are (on average) more defensive / attentive drivers than the general population.

 

[Nyati13]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Nyati13

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
[
New FJ Crusiers are tearing the unibody structure apart in the front wheel wells.

This one doesn't pass the smell test. FJ's are not unibody vehicles, they are body on frame vehicles.

Smell this it's actually a serious issue affecting some FJ owners. Most of which are off-roaders, but there's still a frame problem for sure.

The statement was that FJ are unibody and having issues, which is bull.

The FJs are body on frame, and do have some issues, but any statement that involves incorrectly claiming the vehicle is unibody has a deeper agenda than just bringing up possible problems.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity

Originally posted by: ElFenix
being intimately familiar with houston freeways, particularly near the galleria, anyone who is paying that much attention to their gauges to figure out if they're sticking it to the oil companies is being completely negligent.

With a new driver it takes far less attention than a cell phone. With more than a month of experience it takes no more attention than keeping track of what your speedometer displays. If anything 'we' are (on average) more defensive / attentive drivers than the general population.

in that area if you glance at your speedo you're going to get run into/run into someone/etc.

Originally posted by: Nyati13
The statement was that FJ are unibody and having issues, which is bull.

The FJs are body on frame, and do have some issues, but any statement that involves incorrectly claiming the vehicle is unibody has a deeper agenda than just bringing up possible problems.

ok noto12ious.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Nyati13

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Nyati13

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
[
New FJ Crusiers are tearing the unibody structure apart in the front wheel wells.

This one doesn't pass the smell test. FJ's are not unibody vehicles, they are body on frame vehicles.

Smell this it's actually a serious issue affecting some FJ owners. Most of which are off-roaders, but there's still a frame problem for sure.

The statement was that FJ are unibody and having issues, which is bull.

The FJs are body on frame, and do have some issues, but any statement that involves incorrectly claiming the vehicle is unibody has a deeper agenda than just bringing up possible problems.

It's semantics when you look at JL's post, he's commenting on the quality, regardless of the frame type. There's no "agenda" if you ask me, JL just had the wrong idea of what type of frame setup the truck is using. You can't discount the argument just because he didn't know it was BOF, the frame still rips and tears and that's a problem.