Pedal just stuck!

[Altitude]

Originally Posted by YAR1S

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/08/cal...ex.html?hpt=T2


Hope the Yaris is not next.

This guy doesn't strike me as credible.

[sbergman27]

Originally Posted by Altitude

This guy doesn't strike me as credible.

One of the things that makes all these "incidents" totally unbelievable is the way the "victims" always claim that the brakes couldn't stop the car. 0-60 in the Prius is about 10 seconds. About a 0.27g acceleration. 60-0 braking distance is 128 ft, which works out to about 0.9g. The brakes can stop the car well over 3 times faster than the engine can accelerate it. And *that* is limited by the tires' traction, and not the ability of the brakes to stop the wheels. That capacity is *far* greater.

THERE IS NO FREAKING WAY IN HELL that even the most frail grandmother would be unable to stop the car using the brakes, even with the engine at full throttle. Which tells me that these people are either doing what most investigations reveal, which is stomping the wrong pedal... or in the case of this guy, lying through their teeth.

Car & Driver has done actual testing. The result? Under no conditions were they not able to easily stop any of the cars they tested. In fact, the Toyota Camry, with its throttle wide open, had a *shorter* stopping distance than the Ford Taurus' *regular* stopping distance. (A nice demonstration of yet another way in which the the Ford Taurus, and the American competition in general, sucks.)

http://tinyurl.com/yckntxs

Keep all this in mind as you evaluate future TV reports. Quite frankly, this whole situation is really starting to stink. And goes to show that world is full of people who are stupid, liars, or both.

-Steve Bergman