Speed Kills

[squarepeg]

Makes you worried about driverless cars. Who is going to hack into those and start murdering people?

Murder is no fun. Hacking the driverless cars to take you into an unmanned automated car park and leaving you there for the night is... need to order some micro controller boards...

[VectraMan]

Possibly a DSG box, the gears are shifted by an electro-mechanical unit called mechatronic. I guess if the control unit has failed, shifting to neutral or park won't do a damned thing.

Another good reason to drive a manual. And a car with a proper ignition key (which mine doesn't have).

Brakes are manual though. And brakes vs engine the brakes should still win, at least until they catch fire.

I experienced a sticky throttle on my 125 on one cold winter night. That was terrifying. I guess moisture had got into the cable and frozen; so it's not necessarily electronics that try to kill you.

[Paddy]

Another good reason to drive a manual. And a car with a proper ignition key (which mine doesn't have).

Brakes are manual though. And brakes vs engine the brakes should still win, at least until they catch fire.

I experienced a sticky throttle on my 125 on one cold winter night. That was terrifying. I guess moisture had got into the cable and frozen; so it's not necessarily electronics that try to kill you.

On the old Mk 1 Mini, the earth strap connection used to corrode and fail, and when starting up the shortest path from the body to engine was via the throttle cable thus melting it.

[WTFH]

Another good reason to drive a manual. And a car with a proper ignition key (which mine doesn't have).

Brakes are manual though. And brakes vs engine the brakes should still win, at least until they catch fire.

I experienced a sticky throttle on my 125 on one cold winter night. That was terrifying. I guess moisture had got into the cable and frozen; so it's not necessarily electronics that try to kill you.

Yup, brakes should win.


I would guess he had a flappy paddle gearbox, one that doesn't have a mechanical "Neutral" position for the gearstick, but only an electronic one.
I'd also guess that instead of switching off cruise, double flicking the handbrake and standing on the brake pedal, he didn't try any of those.
I'd also wonder if the car had been modified/chipped.

[vwdan]

Another good reason to drive a manual. And a car with a proper ignition key (which mine doesn't have).

Brakes are manual though. And brakes vs engine the brakes should still win, at least until they catch fire.

I experienced a sticky throttle on my 125 on one cold winter night. That was terrifying. I guess moisture had got into the cable and frozen; so it's not necessarily electronics that try to kill you.

Indeed - my old '68 Van had a crap accelerator linkage that got exposed to, well, everything. Ever few years it'd start seizing up which was always good fun.

I find it very hard to believe that he couldn't physically brake or otherwise stop the car, though - peculiar case.

Having read the article, it screams "honorable suicide" to me.

[Lockhouse]

I once witnessed a unmanned runaway XJ6 speed down a residential street at 40mph bouncing off parked cars on either side of the road. It was like a Stephen King film.

[sasguru]

Having read the article, it screams panic and therefore illogical action due to brain freeze to me.

FTFY.
It's surprising what happens to the human mind under stress.
It says no evidence was found of braking and the accelerator was pressed until the last moment.
Could be as simple as he thought he was pressing the brake pedal (which should have disconnected the cruise control?) but was pressing the accelerator instead.
Happens all the time with older people who are losing their marbles.
And consistent with the facts ....

[vetran]

Indeed - my old '68 Van had a crap accelerator linkage that got exposed to, well, everything. Ever few years it'd start seizing up which was always good fun.

I find it very hard to believe that he couldn't physically brake or otherwise stop the car, though - peculiar case.

Having read the article, it screams "honorable suicide" to me.

Unfortunately many modern cars are completely drive by wire. I would imagine the brakes are electronic.

People did mention that both an electronic fault could cause a serious crash (which is why aeroplanes have redundant circuits & manual controls) and that it would be difficult to fault find afterwards which is why aeroplanes have black boxes.Cars seem to have neither.

[VectraMan]

It says no evidence was found of braking and the accelerator was pressed until the last moment.

The accelerator is drive by wire, i.e. it's a potentiometer that the computer is reading. So just because the data says the accelerator was pressed doesn't mean it really was. In fact that backs up the story - the computer thought he was giving it full throttle.

[VectraMan]

Unfortunately many modern cars are completely drive by wire. I would imagine the brakes are electronic.

Fortunately brakes are hydraulic from the pressure from your foot. But having said that ABS can cut certain brakes, and a lot of cars have Electronic Brake force Distribution to really **** things up.

My car's due a recall because if your knee repeatedly bangs against the right part of the trim in the driver's footwell it can cause a connector to wear and ultimately lead to a power steering failure.