I was kinda assuming the driver messed up this time. The fact that it was pressed to 100% through the crash and still after makes me think he thought it was the brake.
Absolutely. I said it the last time this was posted, that this is an extremely common wreck with every model of car. About half of the drivers in my family growing up caused an accident this way. People press the accelerator when they think they’re pressing the brake. The car goes faster, so they press the “brake” harder.
And even after the crash, the driver often insists that it’s a problem with the car.
It’s a driver error. A foot misalignment problem. It probably does happen more with any “self driving” car or anybody who uses smart cruise control, because the driver may not be using the pedals at all before the incident.
It probably does happen more with any “self driving” car or anybody who uses smart cruise control, because the driver may not be using the pedals at all before the incident.
a really good point I’d never considered when thinking about accidents like these.
Intuitively it makes sense. If my heel remains planted in front of the accelerator pedal even if I’m not pressing it, I still have a frame of reference to know where the brake pedal is. If I’m using all the fancy assisted driving stuff on a long stretch I may relax a bit and pull my foot back, but that does mean if I need to slam on the brakes my reaction time will be worse, and I run the risk of hitting the wrong pedal since I don’t have that anchor point anymore.
good thing to be mindful of when using cruise control of any type, newfangled or old school.
Yeah, for sure. Even when I use cruise control, I rest my foot on the brake pedal, both so I can react more quickly and so I don’t miss the pedal somehow.
I have the adaptive cruise stuff and I never considered people didn’t do this, seems dangerous to not be in an active driving position while the vehicle is actively driving.
Yeah. That’s always been my nightmare driving a regular car too, the “stop” and “go faster” buttons are right next to each other and in a place you can’t see them. Such a weird standard, presumably a result of the requirement for physical linkages from early in car history. Would have been nice if electric vehicles had provided an opportunity to rethink that paradigm.
In 2010 there was “gas pedal gate” when a lot of Toyotas went on fire sale because people claimed the gas pedal was getting stuck (new drive by wire throttle systems), but the reality is, after years of research, it’s come down to a skill issue. People stepping on the gas instead of the brake and sending it accidentally
Toyota even got NASA involved in testing for interference with radiation and cosmic rays causing a possible bit flip that could command the car to full send… but that didn’t work.
The telling part was when they saw a large percentage of people in the accidents were old, diabetic, or both - two categories that have poor proprioception, (knowing where your limbs are) which was a major factor, as some of the cars on the list and lawsuits were made before drive by wire throttle - that is, they were mechanical linkages, so blaming the computer is impossible when there’s no computer to blame.
People usually don’t want to blame themselves first when a problem comes up. I normally look at my actions and see if there’s something I could do differently next time, but I noticed most people don’t want to even begin to think that they did something wrong.
Legally, I probably would have kept my mouth shut and made them prove I was wrong too though.
I was kinda assuming the driver messed up this time. The fact that it was pressed to 100% through the crash and still after makes me think he thought it was the brake.
Absolutely. I said it the last time this was posted, that this is an extremely common wreck with every model of car. About half of the drivers in my family growing up caused an accident this way. People press the accelerator when they think they’re pressing the brake. The car goes faster, so they press the “brake” harder.
And even after the crash, the driver often insists that it’s a problem with the car.
It’s a driver error. A foot misalignment problem. It probably does happen more with any “self driving” car or anybody who uses smart cruise control, because the driver may not be using the pedals at all before the incident.
a really good point I’d never considered when thinking about accidents like these.
Intuitively it makes sense. If my heel remains planted in front of the accelerator pedal even if I’m not pressing it, I still have a frame of reference to know where the brake pedal is. If I’m using all the fancy assisted driving stuff on a long stretch I may relax a bit and pull my foot back, but that does mean if I need to slam on the brakes my reaction time will be worse, and I run the risk of hitting the wrong pedal since I don’t have that anchor point anymore.
good thing to be mindful of when using cruise control of any type, newfangled or old school.
Yeah, for sure. Even when I use cruise control, I rest my foot on the brake pedal, both so I can react more quickly and so I don’t miss the pedal somehow.
I have the adaptive cruise stuff and I never considered people didn’t do this, seems dangerous to not be in an active driving position while the vehicle is actively driving.
Gotta always cover the brake for sure.
Yeah. That’s always been my nightmare driving a regular car too, the “stop” and “go faster” buttons are right next to each other and in a place you can’t see them. Such a weird standard, presumably a result of the requirement for physical linkages from early in car history. Would have been nice if electric vehicles had provided an opportunity to rethink that paradigm.
In 2010 there was “gas pedal gate” when a lot of Toyotas went on fire sale because people claimed the gas pedal was getting stuck (new drive by wire throttle systems), but the reality is, after years of research, it’s come down to a skill issue. People stepping on the gas instead of the brake and sending it accidentally
Toyota even got NASA involved in testing for interference with radiation and cosmic rays causing a possible bit flip that could command the car to full send… but that didn’t work.
The telling part was when they saw a large percentage of people in the accidents were old, diabetic, or both - two categories that have poor proprioception, (knowing where your limbs are) which was a major factor, as some of the cars on the list and lawsuits were made before drive by wire throttle - that is, they were mechanical linkages, so blaming the computer is impossible when there’s no computer to blame.
People usually don’t want to blame themselves first when a problem comes up. I normally look at my actions and see if there’s something I could do differently next time, but I noticed most people don’t want to even begin to think that they did something wrong.
Legally, I probably would have kept my mouth shut and made them prove I was wrong too though.
Off-by-one error