Forum Discussion

rhagfo's avatar
rhagfo
Explorer III
Dec 28, 2016

Will "Smart Vehicles" and their marketing cause more crashes

I will start this post with quotes from the 2017 F150 post.
spoon059 wrote:
rhagfo wrote:
We have already seen deaths due to people not turning off their engines when parking in the garage!

I think that has more to due with driver error/stupidity than an auto feature.

Its kinda like the "Runaway Toyota's" from a couple years back. Turns out that it was DRIVER ERROR. Drivers weren't properly securing floormats, which got underneath the accelerator and caused the accelerator to get stuck. Rather than put cars in neutral, they continued trying (unsuccessfully) to mash on the brakes. Didn't work.

mich800 wrote:
rhagfo wrote:



Yes, I do understand the concept and reason, I see a wrongful lawsuit in some car makers future because of this feature.
We have already seen deaths due to people not turning off their engines when parking in the garage!


Death from stop/start. Are you sure you are not confusing push button start. I have not heard of one death blamed on the stop/start function.


First of all let me say I am not anti technology, just one that asks "What If"!
I installed the Factory Curse Control on my 1968 Mustang GTCS in 1969 to control the lead in my right foot. Great option saved me far more than the $75 for the factory kit.
That said much of the marketing around much of the new technology seems to encourage bad driving habits! While not all marketing demonstrates these devices poorly, many do with drivers doing everything BUT driving while behind the wheel!

Used correctly most if not all will add to road safety, BUT for those that think these will allow them to focus their attention on things other than driving just scares me to death.
I travel a lot for my work, and rent many new cars with these features, some great some not so great.
One that I liked but was also annoying was a parking assistance that started beeping as you got closer to objects, well at the house we stay at here in Ireland while visiting the Granddaughter there is a tight gate and arch to the parking area. So every time through the beeper would go off, glad the car this time didn't have it!!

101 Replies

  • 2112's avatar
    2112
    Explorer II
    Thanks for not high jacking the other thread.

    That discussion was leaning towards the Toyota floormat issue, of which I will comment on. My SIL had a 2003 Lexus that experienced unintended acceleration (UA) having nothing to do with the floormat or sticky pedal. It was not human error on her part and Toyota knew it.

    Over a period of two years she experienced UA three times. She concluded it could happen if she drove for over four hours without turning the car off and accelerate at highway speeds without the cruise control engaged. She would slightly accelerate, not floor it, to pass a slower vehicle but when she backed off on the accelerator the vehicle continued to accelerate for a few seconds before decelerating.

    After the second episode she took it to Toyota. After keeping the vehicle for three weeks they said the pedal was sticky and they fixed it. About six months later it did it again so she took it back. Toyota said they wanted to keep her vehicle and offered her a great deal to upgrade so she traded the car in.

    Toyota knew in 2005 they had an unexplained issue.

    Fast forward to 2014 when THIS comes out AFTER the NASA findings. Note that NASA did not have access to the CM source code.

    Considering that it only happened to her after driving for several hours I would place my bet on stack overflow and/or CPU overload.

    I also want to point out she has not had any issues with her 2006 Lexus that she still drives with over 200K miles and counting.

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