It’s hard to believe that there can be that many people who mistake the accelerator for the brake. Toyota has a vested interest in maintaining its electronic throttles were not at fault, due to the litigation it is facing.
Also, the fact that Toyota decided to save money by not creating redundancy as a fail-safe could also be a factor. Plus, failing to program the car so that the brakes ALWAYS override the accelerator could be construed as negligence.
Cars have become computers, so automakers are adopting the refrain of tech-geeks: “Blame the user.”
Have you seen how clueless Prius drivers are? It doesn’t surprise me in the least that it was driver error. These people can’t seem to get out of their own way and always seem totally oblivious to everything when behind the wheel of these electric tissue boxes.
The smart cars are not cars. They are coffins with wheels. Any accident involving a smart care will be a total loss. I’m surpised that the government allowed a car that small on the road. Smart car owners should also be refered to as organ donors.
I once owned a Pinto (exploding gas tank), 20 years ago drove an Audi for a company car (unintended acceleration), still take Tylenol for headaches, attended a school full of asbestos insulation and drive a Prius – I must be clueless and live a charmed life or is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself (or class action suits)?
I have been a Toyota owner, having owned several different models over the years, since 1983. The 2000 Solara that I drive now has just about 140K miles on it, and after I am finished running this Toyota into the ground, I will be going to purchase another one. Toyota’s are not throw away vehicles like Subarus, Kias, etc…and really…SMART CARS??? Puh-leeeze!!
Maybe Obama and the UAW, have played a little Chicago game of deception against Toyota. Just look at the reliability ratings of Toyota compared to GM. They blow them away.
Just another example of the new Culture of Coruption with this administration.
How absurd TOYOTA knows for a fact that any time a satellite changes or any one that has cabability can tamper with their chips in all their vehicles as amatter of fact so can almost any vehicle on the road at the right time and at the right freqeuncy have this occurence. its all a matter of remoteness and freqeuncy who made the chips for the acceleration units??? Who designed them? HUMMM.
LMAO you guys have the funny bones cranking today. What an interesting case we have here and I don’t think we have heard the last of it. I have to echo the Prius comments…… the “green” drivers appear to have all smoked some “green” before getting in those turds on wheels.
The Smart car? It looks enough like a bumper car that I might feel compelled to nudge one into a wall one day. Love it!
Boon Doggle…..your post reminded me of that Geico commercial w/ the little kid go cart driver. “when it comes to Mike Wallace the story ends with me putting him in the wall”
Lol…silly prius and smart cars. You can keep them both and i’ll continue enjoying my turbocharged 450hp vehicle with cat-less 3.5″ exhaust :) 15mpg but damn does she pull like a freight train :)
I owned a Prius for 4 years and never doddered. Now I own a Camry Hybrid…I get 40 mpg city, more highway. Big car, plenty of acceleration. No 15 mpg for me, won’t send more of my money to Bin Laden.
Had a Prius for two weeks (for my daughter) then sold the death-trap. I’ll keep my S63 AMG Mercedes. quit all this chatter, get back to work, and you’ll earn yourself one too
Will Congress call all these owners to testify so they can rake them over the coals and get them to apologize. Don’t hold your breath
P.S. When the 80,000 tractor trailer his your Smart car, I will be glad to slip it under the door for a keepsake memory to a “green” committment to life.
Hey Joker and Lost-Boss, As owner I have no boss, just a lot of stress. You wannabes should REALLY get to work if you want to achieve success and BE the Boss. Put your pom-poms down and get in the varsity game!!
How stupid are these drivers? If the throttle was the problem,how about turning the ingition off or put the trans in nuetral.Are you American drivers that F$!%!!$in stupid / PLEASE !!!!!!!!
Coming home from Vermont yesterday, I myself was the victim of an unitentional lane change. The car in the lane next to me wanted to pass the car infront of him & went into my lane just like that!
It doesn’t take a whole lot of IQ to realize that the problem is not the throttle or floor mats. Based on some of the reports where the speed changes as the vehicle is out of control, it can only be the computer itself. Direct link throttle should never have been allowed to switch to electronic control. I am surprised that when stepping on the brakes the car doesn’t say “are you sure”…
As long as I can I’ll drive a car with real throttle and steering.
PS: we have some smart cars in our fleet, they are great. An 80,000 lb semi will crush the big car as flat as the smart car, seen it when I was working ambulance.(Smart cars are built by Mercedes)
GB, maybe you missed the basic physics about mass, velocity, and distance were overlooked. Last I looked at a smart car, the distance from the front, or back of the vehicle to your knees and back was about the distance between injury and death. You can’t for one moment believe that survivability in a Smart Car is the same as that of a Lincoln Town Car. If you can stretch out and have your feet touck touch the car ahead of you, and have your head touch the bumper of the vehicle behind you, then don’t be surprised if you are head over heels when the truck hits you.
Actually Tom, I didn’t miss the basic physics. When you hit an egg with a sledgehammer it doesn’t matter if it is hard boiled or raw, the result is the same (80,000 lb semi vs any car, at the speed mentioned you won’t survive). It’s the in between stuff that counts. Check out ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJHpUO-S0i8 “. It is still a compact but fares better than most cars in it’s class.
Having handled over 5,000 tractor-trailer v car claims, I can tell you that size does matter. If it didn’t, then you would have the same chance on a motorcycle as you would in a car. I reiterate, you don’t want to put your 16 year old daughter in a SC and have her hit by a T-T, even at 15 MPH. I will grant your point that a TT going 100 MPH hitting a stopped private passenger vehicle will yield the same result for a SC driver or a Lincoln driver. My point is all the accidents in between. End of story, end of this email discussion. Thanks, and good luck
Nope, I have a 2002 Indian and I know what the risks are and accept them. I assume the same for you. I wouldn’t let her on the interstate on a motorcyle, a SC, or a Geo Metro for that matter. I want a lot of metal around her until she has a lot of experience, knowledge and maturity to make her own decisions. As you can see, I am not against SC owners, just that they should appreciate the risks.
It’s hard to believe that there can be that many people who mistake the accelerator for the brake. Toyota has a vested interest in maintaining its electronic throttles were not at fault, due to the litigation it is facing.
Also, the fact that Toyota decided to save money by not creating redundancy as a fail-safe could also be a factor. Plus, failing to program the car so that the brakes ALWAYS override the accelerator could be construed as negligence.
Cars have become computers, so automakers are adopting the refrain of tech-geeks: “Blame the user.”
Have you seen how clueless Prius drivers are? It doesn’t surprise me in the least that it was driver error. These people can’t seem to get out of their own way and always seem totally oblivious to everything when behind the wheel of these electric tissue boxes.
The worst are those Smart cars…they are no larger than a deck of cards. Pathetic excuses for a vehicle.
The smart cars are not cars. They are coffins with wheels. Any accident involving a smart care will be a total loss. I’m surpised that the government allowed a car that small on the road. Smart car owners should also be refered to as organ donors.
I once owned a Pinto (exploding gas tank), 20 years ago drove an Audi for a company car (unintended acceleration), still take Tylenol for headaches, attended a school full of asbestos insulation and drive a Prius – I must be clueless and live a charmed life or is the only thing we have to fear is fear itself (or class action suits)?
I have been a Toyota owner, having owned several different models over the years, since 1983. The 2000 Solara that I drive now has just about 140K miles on it, and after I am finished running this Toyota into the ground, I will be going to purchase another one. Toyota’s are not throw away vehicles like Subarus, Kias, etc…and really…SMART CARS??? Puh-leeeze!!
Maybe Obama and the UAW, have played a little Chicago game of deception against Toyota. Just look at the reliability ratings of Toyota compared to GM. They blow them away.
Just another example of the new Culture of Coruption with this administration.
How absurd TOYOTA knows for a fact that any time a satellite changes or any one that has cabability can tamper with their chips in all their vehicles as amatter of fact so can almost any vehicle on the road at the right time and at the right freqeuncy have this occurence. its all a matter of remoteness and freqeuncy who made the chips for the acceleration units??? Who designed them? HUMMM.
Sounds like Toyota is ready to “throttle” some drivers!!!
LMAO you guys have the funny bones cranking today. What an interesting case we have here and I don’t think we have heard the last of it. I have to echo the Prius comments…… the “green” drivers appear to have all smoked some “green” before getting in those turds on wheels.
The Smart car? It looks enough like a bumper car that I might feel compelled to nudge one into a wall one day. Love it!
Boon Doggle…..your post reminded me of that Geico commercial w/ the little kid go cart driver. “when it comes to Mike Wallace the story ends with me putting him in the wall”
Lol…silly prius and smart cars. You can keep them both and i’ll continue enjoying my turbocharged 450hp vehicle with cat-less 3.5″ exhaust :) 15mpg but damn does she pull like a freight train :)
I owned a Prius for 4 years and never doddered. Now I own a Camry Hybrid…I get 40 mpg city, more highway. Big car, plenty of acceleration. No 15 mpg for me, won’t send more of my money to Bin Laden.
Had a Prius for two weeks (for my daughter) then sold the death-trap. I’ll keep my S63 AMG Mercedes. quit all this chatter, get back to work, and you’ll earn yourself one too
Will Congress call all these owners to testify so they can rake them over the coals and get them to apologize. Don’t hold your breath
P.S. When the 80,000 tractor trailer his your Smart car, I will be glad to slip it under the door for a keepsake memory to a “green” committment to life.
I don’t see Smart Car owners as organ doners at all. Not that much left after a semi squashes one.
The true test of a Smart car owner—Would you put your 16 year old daughter behind the wheel of a SC and send her out onto the Interstate?
Hey, “Revenue Maker”, this is your boss. Have you finished washing my Mercedes yet? Stop goofing off and get back to work!
…and whats with the wax build up on these shoes? I want them cleaned and buffed with a fine shammy and I want them now…chop chop!
I drive a Dodge Stratus!
Hey Joker and Lost-Boss, As owner I have no boss, just a lot of stress. You wannabes should REALLY get to work if you want to achieve success and BE the Boss. Put your pom-poms down and get in the varsity game!!
How stupid are these drivers? If the throttle was the problem,how about turning the ingition off or put the trans in nuetral.Are you American drivers that F$!%!!$in stupid / PLEASE !!!!!!!!
Coming home from Vermont yesterday, I myself was the victim of an unitentional lane change. The car in the lane next to me wanted to pass the car infront of him & went into my lane just like that!
It doesn’t take a whole lot of IQ to realize that the problem is not the throttle or floor mats. Based on some of the reports where the speed changes as the vehicle is out of control, it can only be the computer itself. Direct link throttle should never have been allowed to switch to electronic control. I am surprised that when stepping on the brakes the car doesn’t say “are you sure”…
As long as I can I’ll drive a car with real throttle and steering.
PS: we have some smart cars in our fleet, they are great. An 80,000 lb semi will crush the big car as flat as the smart car, seen it when I was working ambulance.(Smart cars are built by Mercedes)
GB, maybe you missed the basic physics about mass, velocity, and distance were overlooked. Last I looked at a smart car, the distance from the front, or back of the vehicle to your knees and back was about the distance between injury and death. You can’t for one moment believe that survivability in a Smart Car is the same as that of a Lincoln Town Car. If you can stretch out and have your feet touck touch the car ahead of you, and have your head touch the bumper of the vehicle behind you, then don’t be surprised if you are head over heels when the truck hits you.
Actually Tom, I didn’t miss the basic physics. When you hit an egg with a sledgehammer it doesn’t matter if it is hard boiled or raw, the result is the same (80,000 lb semi vs any car, at the speed mentioned you won’t survive). It’s the in between stuff that counts. Check out ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJHpUO-S0i8 “. It is still a compact but fares better than most cars in it’s class.
Having handled over 5,000 tractor-trailer v car claims, I can tell you that size does matter. If it didn’t, then you would have the same chance on a motorcycle as you would in a car. I reiterate, you don’t want to put your 16 year old daughter in a SC and have her hit by a T-T, even at 15 MPH. I will grant your point that a TT going 100 MPH hitting a stopped private passenger vehicle will yield the same result for a SC driver or a Lincoln driver. My point is all the accidents in between. End of story, end of this email discussion. Thanks, and good luck
Question Tom, You brought up Motorcycle, would you let your daughter ride one?
Nope, I have a 2002 Indian and I know what the risks are and accept them. I assume the same for you. I wouldn’t let her on the interstate on a motorcyle, a SC, or a Geo Metro for that matter. I want a lot of metal around her until she has a lot of experience, knowledge and maturity to make her own decisions. As you can see, I am not against SC owners, just that they should appreciate the risks.