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Comment by kllrnohj | Hacker News Reader

> I think the most important detail is that he slammed on the brakes and the car continued to accelerate. Cars with a computer controlled accelerator should be able to stop accelerating if the brake pedal is pushed.

Actually this points to his story being incorrect. If he slammed on the brakes and the car continued to accelerate than he probably slammed on the gas by accident instead. Testing shows that if you slam on the brakes while the engine is pegged at full throttle, you'll still come to a screeching halt. The brake system vastly overpowers the engine even in high powered cars. In a Camry V6 it actually takes just 16 feet further to stop from 70mph with the throttle wide open at 190ft vs. 174ft.

And the brake system is not drive-by-wire like the throttle is, so it's not susceptible to faulty ECU problems.

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you don't have to talk about me in the 3rd person man. I'm right here. you can ask.

If i pushed the accelerator instead of the brake, you can sure bet I would have done more than just "bump" the taxi in front of me.

The brake was fully pressed to the floor. The engine downshifted and revved to try to move forward. Dunno what else to tell you. Sure seemed like the computer going crazy to me when it happened.

That's possible, but I don't think it's likely. The feel of an accelerator is very different from a brake pedal which normally will not go all the way down. Of course, more details about the story would be nice.

Btw, there have also been Prius recalls due to faulty ABS software, so while you'll probably always have some control, braking action can certainly be affected by software issues.

ABS is an independent pump. It can fail and you'll still be able to slam on the brakes.

Also hitting the wrong pedal is not exactly uncommon. People don't like to admit they just made a mistake, hence claims of "unintended acceleration". But just like the claims against Audi back in the day, the modern claims against Toyota appear to be unsubstantiated.

I don't think they appear to be, after numerous recalls affecting millions of Toyota cars. That there have been real cases on unintended acceleration related to Toyota is not really in dispute, unless you think Toyota did the recall mainly as a PR effort.

Some people might be unwilling to admit that they stepped on the wrong pedal, but the likelyhood that some random HNer would do that and then make a post about it?

ABS brakes work by relieving _or_ reinforcing brake pressure, so depending on the system you could end up with uneven, little or no braking action after a failure. Or you could end up with locked wheels.

You might want to actually take a look at some of those recalls, they're pretty bogus (like the whole "bring it in so we can adjust the floor mats" thing). And yes, I do believe Toyota did the recall as a PR effort. Take a look at what Audi did instead. They, correctly, stated there was nothing wrong with the cars and they took an insane PR hit and sales plummeted. There continues to be no actual evidence of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

And I don't think HNers are somehow less likely to hit the wrong pedal or refuse to admit it. There's always that possibility that they don't even know they hit the wrong pedal.

So, there is NO actual evidence? As in, this is just anecdotal, as in the driver, dealer and technician were all wrong in this instance: http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-avalon-displays-unintende...

..and the 400% increase of unintended acceleration events (from the testimony) starting in 2004 is also a complete accident, or brought on by some witchhunt?

Aren't you stretching the limits of what is a reasonable assumption in order to maintain that opinion?

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