Unintended Acceleration? Not Just a Toyota Problem: A Kill Switch For Every Car
By Gunnar Heinrich
REGARDING Toyota’s sticking accelerator problem, the solution at hand is simple and should implemented system wide: all cars need kill switches.
In another era, if a vehicle’s throttle cable got stuck, all you had to do was turn off the ignition – if throwing it in neutral didn’t do the trick. You’d lose power, but you could still pull over to the side of the road; averting certain calamity.
Do that today in a car that uses a metallic key and the best you can hope for is a locked steering wheel that sets your course straight into what you might call an involuntary off-road excursion (IORE).
That said, more and more cars – including Toyotas – no longer use the old system, vying instead keyless go. Touch the door handle, get in, and push the “START” button. Once under way, these systems are designed not to turn off until the car’s parked.
Sure, if you bother to read the owner’s manual, on page 105-B it will likely state that you can hold onto the stop button for several Mississippis and pray that the engine will turn off. But guess what? Once that happens, the steering wheel will automatically lock and you have an IORE in your very near future.
Further troubling is with drive-by-wire throttles, the danger for a computer malfunction is equally unsettling. With no throttle cable to jimmy by hooking your foot under the go-pedal, there’s little recourse for the wayward driver.
So, like those nifty glow-in-the-dark trunk releases that help the hapless escape an enclosed boot, it’s time that legislation be introduced to force automakers into providing every car with a kill switch.
What this kill switch should do is interrupt power to the engine while a) preventing the steering from locking, b) turns on the hazards and c) activating an emergency hydraulic reserve that would maintain pressure assistance for applying the brakes.
Such a device would minimize your chance for an IORE by keeping the vehicle under control.
When a car’s throttle jams wide-open, drivers are startled at best, panicked at worst, and have seconds to act before their car kills them. By engineering a simple kill switch that’s readily accessible by the driver but not easily brushed or bumped, we will have solved a hazardous scenario that should’ve been addressed years ago.
Let’s save some lives. A kill switch for every car.
About the Author: Gunnar Heinrich is publisher of Automobiles De Luxe online and is executive producer of the Automobiles De Luxe Television series on PBS member station CPTV.
Brad Starcevich | Jan 28, 2010 | Reply
One has to wonder just how much “real progress” some new technologies actually provide. I had a new key made for the Silver Cloud the other day. It cost me exactly one dollar. About a month ago, I lost the electronic key to the Prius. The cost to replace it was in excess of one hundred dollars. Is convenience really worth the safety and monetary costs? Costs aside, I actually prefer the old mechanical key. In a world where technology is included simply for it’s novelty (gadgetry for gadgetry’s sake), I find that I appreciate the simplicity and elegance of older technologies. But then again, I’m an old codger.
Gunnar, as always, I really enjoy this site. Keep up the great work.
Best,
Brad Starcevich
Gunnar | Jan 28, 2010 | Reply
Ah, Yale keys…
Thank you so much, Brad. Means a lot.
Richard Mamches | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
As owner of a 2009 Toyota Corolla that has been recalled to fix the gas pedal, I absolutely agree that all cars now need kill switches! And did we really need to build 21st century cars with electronic throttle control when steel cables were doing the job just fine?
Joeyu | Mar 8, 2010 | Reply
“did we really need to build 21st century cars with electronic throttle control”
What a lot of people don’t realize is that, for a variety of reasons, mostly centering around safety features, emissions and fuel economy, automakers found it necessary to take away direct control of the engine from the driver. For example, if your car has stability control the computer overrides the driver and retards the throttle when stability control engages. Same thing with anti-spin control, newer generation anti-lock brakes, etc. Also, the computer controls the engine in stick shift cars to avoid sudden RPM drop bursts of unburned fuel thru the exhaust. When you try to shift, the computer holds the RPMS high even though you’ve let off the throttle. That keeps the exhaust hot, and keeps burning the fuel.
Automakers will give you 100 reasons why their “intelligent” computer is smarter than you in controlling the engine. My ’06 Tundra’s engine has a mind of its own. Every time I shift, no matter when I let off of the gas I get a 100-200 RPM INCREASE in RPMs. The effect is like riding with a 15-year-old learning to drive a stick.
If I shift to neutral at about 30 MPH and coast down, you should see all the speed-sensitive RPM increases and decreases that take place until the truck comes to a stop with no input on my part whatsoever (brake or gas). It’s frightening, and one reason I like to drive stick–at least I have the option of putting in the clutch and/or forcing the manual tranny into neutral.
And the ’06 also still has a key, something that should never have been eliminated from other cars. How stupid to put a “computer controlled” ignition into a car–just like the on/off switches on a laptop. How many times does my laptop crash or refuse to go on or off during the year, but at least it doesn’t crash at 100mph with my soft pink self imprisoned inside. To transfer what’s effectively the same technology (“press the power button for 3 seconds to force the car to shut down”–only a technician should have to know this stuff!) to an automobile is asking for carnage IMHO.
tslate | Mar 11, 2010 | Reply
Yeah, if and only if the car actually shutdown after holding the “start” button to “stop” it. I own a 2006 Avalon which my wife drives. After this last scare with the Prius I think that’s it, we’ll have to find some other car until this thing is fixed. By the way her car revs at high RPMS un-provoked and I think the guy with the RPM explanation sounds reasonable for this problem. Years ago my wife took it back and the mechanics stated nothings wrong plus they tried to blame my wife’s driving. Amazing!!!!
I disagree on the creating a law, lets do an executive order now, force all manufacturers to install kill switches depending on the control factors regarding electronics and software. I wish someone would start advertising this for Toyota’s, I’d get it today.
The problem is Toyota will never admit a problem and the government will wait forever to act. So more people will die unneccesarily. I can’t believe they actually blamed the Lexus crash on foot pedal and pads, what BS. I’m not saying that the pedal can’t stick or the pad can’t jam the pedal but it’s just not that believable or it would have happened a lot more.
For whatever reason, faulty software, electronics or signal interference from cell-towers, Toyota has a problem that will not soon be fixed. If they cannot easily repeat the scenario in the lab, kill switch is the only thing left, otherwise we all have a bunch of boat anchors. <>
And like others have mentioned it’s not just a Toyota problem.
Thanks, someone finally said what you said, which I muttered since day 1 but does Toyota? GM? Obama? noooooo.
And you know what else bothers me, Toyota’s override braking system, now isn’t that going to operate with the same software and electronics that the rest of the car uses? So I’ve already have a time-bomb, what if the override braking system decides NOT to engage when it’s running away at full throttle?
Sorry but I’m a software engineer and if the system is running away at full throttle nothing but a kill switch will stop it, because it’s not listening to any inputs. So if they put the brake override system on using a separate circuit, etc. there’s still collusion in the electronics somewhere. What makes anyone think that the same unexplained bug in a runaway car can’t occur in the brake override. Damn that’s it, I will have a new gas tank installed with a removable plug on the bottom, which of course has a cable attached to it. Runaway, no problem, I just pull the cable, no more gas!!!!
Better yet, just tie a cable to the fuel line so I can just rip it out. I know I know I may start a fire, but hey by the time the car stops it probably won’t have spread too far and I can run away! LOL!
Thanks for the article.
tslate | Mar 11, 2010 | Reply
Just an FYI, I have a Ford Explorer and was part of the Firestone tire recall. A lot of people died uneccessarily before Ford took action, more than Toyota so far. I got new Michelin tires right away as soon as I heard and waited a long time for the rebate to occur.
But the point is, they wait too long and to this day, neither Ford nor Firestone accepts fault. So I’m not holding my breath. Even if kill switches were announced tomorrow, it be sometime before we’d see it through Toyota.
However, some enterprising mechanics should be able to pull this off quickly. Anybody doing this?