Slaves2Darkness: shiat and here I thought buttoning was something else involving wooden plugs and lots of lube.

Silly head.

"Lube". Heh.

No sale.

If you make it some big giant easy to nail button, people would nail it while:

1. Reaching for the drink.
2. Applying makeup
3. Fiddling with the GPS
4. Dicking on the cellphone
5. Air drumming along to Phil Collins
6. Reaching over to adjust a mirror/air vent/etc

So you'd have people doing unpredictable stops on the highway when they hit the cutoff and we'd have a plague of rear end collisions because of it. I'll pass, unintended acceleration isn't that common.

ha-ha-guy: No sale.

If you make it some big giant easy to nail button, people would nail it while:

1. Reaching for the drink.
2. Applying makeup
3. Fiddling with the GPS
4. Dicking on the cellphone
5. Air drumming along to Phil Collins
6. Reaching over to adjust a mirror/air vent/etc

So you'd have people doing unpredictable stops on the highway when they hit the cutoff and we'd have a plague of rear end collisions because of it. I'll pass, unintended acceleration isn't that common.

I think you have bigger problems than an emergency shut of switch if you're air drumming to Phil Collins.

Dude O Matic 5000: air drumming to Phil Collins

Just the build-up at around 3:40 in "In The Air Tonight". It's pretty much impossible not to.

studebaker hoch: Here's what the emergency cutoff switch needs to do in a regular passenger car:

• Disconnect the engine from the transmission.
• Drop engine revs to idle levels
• Activate hazard lights
• All hydraulic and electrical systems remain active
• Optionally, a distress call could be sent to a concierge service like OnStar or similar

And then

• Fire explosive bolts to jettison scary engine from car.
• Fire linear shape charges to cut scary roof from car. Kicker charges push it up into the air momentarily then rocket thrusters move it aside.
• arm ejection seat sequencing for all passenger seats.
• Illuminate the "fasten seatbelt" light on the dashboard and have it make that "Ding!" sound.
* Fire the ejection seats.

Once all cars are suitabily equiped, you have no need to fear losing track of the brake pedal ever again.

I hope nobody has a wreck in a tunnel.

Znuh: Actually, e-stops should *NOT* go through the computer any more than they absolutely must. One of the things they must guard against is a haywire computer.

Exactly the point I was making - I want a killswitch that drops the electrical system dead, independent of the computer.

I disagree. It should *NOT* kill the whole electrical system. What if it happens at night? Hit your disconnect and you can't see!

I can think of two good targets to drop--the fuel pump and the ignition system. Run their power wires up to the dash, when you pull the disconnect they are unplugged.

Since the engine is still coupled to the wheels it will still be turning and thus you'll still have power steering and power brakes until the car is almost stopped.

My GTA had the accelerator stick on the mat one time, I couldn't kick it loose so I just turned off the car and let it coast to a stop. How hard is that?

It won't work.

The manufacturers would have to put a molly guard over the button to prevent people pressing it out of carelessness or accident. Then people in a genuine emergency will panic and ineffectually slap the guard over and over again. Then probably sue the manufacturer for covering the button, because people* are nothing if not stupid and litigious.

*especially American people.

Znuh: When some people hit a certain degree of terror, they tend to go into full lizard-brain mode. Simple stuff like where the brake is, fades into nothingness.

The purpose of practice is to habitualize something so deeply that it doesn't require conscious thought.

If you "forget" where the brake is in an emergency, then you need more practice driving... and your license should be suspended until you've got it down.
=Smidge=

In a panic, a big, red, obvious button will be easy to see and react to, almost without thinking

This is farking stupid. I'm using the pedals for years entirely on instinct and if an emergeny arrises, I sure as hell won't push a button I have never operated before. If your brain can't comprehend that you should lift your foot of the gas pedal when you have the unintended acceleration and push the farking brake, then you should be taken outside and shot. Or crash and burn.

FTA "Also, it can be activated from outside the car"

New extreme sport anyone? How about motorbike motorway car cutoff? Bicycle suburb motorist hassle? Local kid won`t let you drive off syndrome?

This is just a huge sign to kids saying "Hit this button as often as you can, it will be funny every time!"

fluffy2097: randroid: Look out guys, we got a badass here!

Computers and cars go together better then you might think. Also fabrication.

Geeks like knowing how things work and they enjoy fabricating things.

Not arguing that. I'm a developer/integrator, and motorcycle enthusiast. I'm just suspicious of this guy being a programmer by day, and race car driving instructor by night. What if I told you I pilot the space shuttle on the weekend? Aerospace and computers go together well, after all...

Saiga410: Hmmm not in the automotive industry but I would expect the pedal sensor to be PWM. In a failure mode for a PWM sensor you either go to to 0 or 1. A way of doing the pedal setup should involve having WOT with a PWM output of .8ish. If you get a signal of 0 or 1, an error code gets thrown and engine goes into limp.... ar at least that is how I would design it.

That's why in an electronic system so many different things have to fail in just the right ways. Compared to a mechanical system, drive by wire is much safer. I generally doesn't matter if even one or just two pieces fail, many have to and they have to fail a special way. A throttle return spring breaks, on the other hand, if you don't stand on the brakes, you go into a ditch and die.

Jim_Callahan: They're probably making this reference because the person that wrote the article is an idiot and didn't bother to look that up before frontloading the blarney.

His point is perfectly valid and he made it clear up front: once the car is careening out of control and threatening everyone else it doesn't matter WHY it started to happen, what matters is that there should be an easy, idiot-proof way to stop it (and shifting gears or fumbling for keys isn't it: people panic and those actions do require some small measure of control to undertake).

I'm not going to feel any better if I get run done by some ninety year old who smashed the pedal instead of the brake if I can tell myself "oh, well, at least it wasn't the car's fault". I will feel better if that dolt can just facesmash a big button and doesn't hit me in the first place.

hinten: Thanks for outing yourself. Google results do not an argument make.

Yea, what a fool I am. Citing three historical examples for each of the last three decades of cars recalled for defects that caused uncorrectable unintended acceleration to prove that you're completely wrong about your comment that only driver error causes unintended acceleration. What a dumb argument that is. Using facts and shiat.

Go be stupid somewhere else, we're through discussing anything since you've chosen to simply start lying. I don't care to have my time wasted by such dishonest people.

mjjt: Oh dear, - you're calling other people dumb, but you don't know when to use 'reign' and when it should be 'rein'?

If you're going to be a pedantic twat about typos you could at least try using punctuation that makes the slightest lick of sense.

moothemagiccow: Ah, joy of joys. An intelligence-related insult containing a popular misspelling.

Oh no! A typo! My whole dissertation is ruined and my dad is going to kill me for wasting his tuit.... oh, wait, you're confusing a typo on the internet with something formal. My bad, I initially mistook you for someone with basic intelligence.

justtray: Driving down a 45 MPH road. This road is notorious for people driving 30 MPH, well under the speed limit, so I usually just pass them.

Green light ahead of me, guy in front of me SLAMS on the breaks right in front of the greenlight. I barely avoid rear ending him.

You were following too closely. End of story.

Did anyone point out that motorcycles have kill switches and have had them for, well, ever? It's often a fun prank to ride up next to your buddy and hit his kill switch. It's funny the first time or two but gets annoying fairly quickly if you keep doing it.

rohar: This is where TFA is brilliant. At highway speeds you don't need to turn that much anyway, you'll barely notice the loss of power steering.

FTFA: Here's what the emergency cutoff switch needs to do in a regular passenger car:

• Disconnect the engine from the transmission.
• Drop engine revs to idle levels
• Activate hazard lights
• All hydraulic and electrical systems remain active
• Optionally, a distress call could be sent to a concierge service like OnStar or similar

I know not RTFAing is a proud tradition on Fark, but seriously, you (and everybody else in this thread) take it to new heights.

I'm still pretty sure Toyota changed their pedal spacing/height. Me and my family have been driving Toyota cars for 16+ years without incident, and in the six months since we had a new one, both me and my parents have both had it happen, thankfully no collisions. Either they're closer together or the accelerator is higher up now so if you mash the brake you can push the accelerator hard enough to overcome the brake.

Scary as hell having a car a few yards ahead of you, you've got the brake mashed and every few seconds the car lurches forward a foot. I've since made a point of keeping my foot further to the left on the pedal and it seems okay.

fluffy2097: why would it listen to the stop button on your dash? The only way to sidestep a haywire engine management system is killing power to the ignition.

You've apparently never heard of the concept of a non maskable interrupt. It's a (line/pin/interrupt/other control device) that cannot be ignored by the system regardless of the state it's in.