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Comment by weaksauce | Hacker News Reader

you going 100mph and turning off your car is not a great idea since that locks up the steering wheel all but guaranteeing a crash. I am pretty sure most cars should be able to switch into neutral though which would be advisable. who knows though how someone operates under pressure like that. they did call 911 and you can hear the final moments iirc.

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It doesn't guarantee a crash. I've had power steering failures (I've driven cars up to 400K miles). On the highway you don't need to crank wheel over so it's not impossible to hold a lane. The wheel doesn't lock if you turn car off either if that's the concern.

Remember, when you turn car off you are stopping, that's your goal. With brakes you don't need to "drive" that far once car is off. Turn off car, press on brakes, done.

Why is a crash guaranteed? I've driven with a car off (manual start when alternator out). It works OK (tight turns excepted without power steering)

> turning off your car is not a great idea since that locks up the steering wheel all but guaranteeing a crash

To the best of my knowledge, steering locks only engage when the key is removed.

It's really tough to say with any certainty unless there is a standard out there for this behavior. seems like it's a different thing for each car manufacturer but that's just my hunch based off a small subset of cars i've driven.

Just to add, I have a keyless car and the steering lock is engaged when the car has been switched off, in park and the door has been opened.

But I wonder what would happen if I was travelling and I just pressed the start/stop button, if the car would actually switch off.

If you have a safe area it's worth testing how your car works, usually push-to-start is actually a multi-state button between Ignition & Accessory On, Ignition Off & Accessory On, and All Off.

Absolutely, I know that if I press the start button without pressing the brake it will initiate Accessory On but not the ignition.

But power steering/m assist/brake assist likely go away, making the car much harder to control.

Neutral is the solution. But when panicking you’re unlikely to use something you likely never use outside of an automatic car wash.

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