When electronics turn deadly

Times Online - The final moments of a family killed in a car crash apparently caused by a faulty accelerator on a Toyota vehicle have been made public as lawyers challenge the company’s safety record. Four members of the same family died in a hired Lexus that allegedly accelerated out of control.

Mark Saylor, 45, an off-duty California highway patrolman, died last August along with his wife Cleofe, 45, and daughter, Mahala, 13, and Mrs Saylor’s brother Chris Lastrella. In a 911 emergency call made from the car just before the crash, Mr Lastrella is heard saying: “We’re in a Lexus. . . and we’re going north on 125 and our accelerator is stuck. . . we’re in trouble. . . there’s no brakes. . . we’re approaching the intersection. . . hold on. . . hold on and pray. . . pray.”
I can only imagine their terror in those final moments. I do wonder though, how come they never pushed it into neutral or just switch the engine off. Toyota is saying the electronics on their cars are alright, that may be true, but I'd err on the side of caution. In the last couple of years, I have noticed a lot of car makers are switching to electronics for the controls of the car, a lot of them are mainly functions like the radio, cd player, GPS systems, climate control etc. However some of them are going even further, like the above where the brakes and the accelerator are controlled by electronics.

My own car has a drive-by-wire throttle, in the old generation of cars, your throttle was physically connected to your gas pedal, but now they've moved to the electronic throttles which offer improvements in efficiency and fuel consumption. Now I don't mind the gas pedal being this way, but I draw the line at the brakes. You gotta make sure that there is a physical connection, so that if the gas pedal gets stuck, you can always mash that brake pedal and it'll come to a stop. I don't care what guarantees the components come with, I don't care if the chairman of Toyota personally promises that it'll be perfectly fine.

It's all worthless when you're heading towards a crowded intersection with no bloody brakes. It can work 99.9% of the time, but it ain't good enough when the 0.1% is all it takes. Lawyers, apologies and compensation can't bring the Saylor family back. So car makers, we don't want that ctrl-alt-del crap for the brakes in our cars. Personally I'd advise people to stay away from cars with too many gadgets and electronic crap, it's all nice and wonderful when you get it, but once that shit starts to break, you'll be pulling your teeth out in frustration. The way I see it, the fewer features it's got, the less shit there is to break.

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