Runaway Prius owner was told his car isn't on the Recall list

[Obsidian]

I am willing to bet operator error. I just can't understand people, how freaking hard is it to put the car in neutral?????

I'm willing to bet 99% of all the so called "unintended acceleration" issues are driver error. With the mass hysteria, there will just be more and more reports of it.

[ELVATO]

I remember one time when my mom was driving the 250 and we were waiting to turn onto the road. The truck starts lurching forward, even with the brake a clutch fully pressed. IIRC, my mom said the clutch just went limp. So she just shut the engine off. Can't remember what the dealer said it was, but they fixed it.

I'm happy to say, though, that if my mom ever drove a Toyota she wouldn't be one of "those" drivers.

[Freebird]

This of course only happens when all the criteria is met that the programmer installed in the bug. This is why it is so hard for Toyota to reproduce.

This is known as a "logic bomb" - a bit of malicious code inserted somewhere into the regular program and programmed to go off at a certain time or under a certain set of circumstances.

It would be really insidious if the logic bomb then erased itself after being triggered. Then there would be even less evidence after a crash.

Thanks for the correct wordage. I agree to erase its trail would be really sharp.

That would explain why toyota cant find a problem after the fact.

Could you imagine if your Toyota did this how frustrated you would be explaining what happened and being treated like an idiot by the mechanics at Toyota?

[Freebird]

It appears to use the cruise control in the encounters I have read about. Several of the owners reported their cruise control light coming on just as the car accelerates on its own. If I owned one of these cars I think I would remove the cruise control fuse until this is all cleared up.

[lugnuts]

This guy must have been in a total ditz-panic, completely unable to think for himself.

he is from Kalifornia and he does drive a Prius

[upstatedoc]

This guy was on the nightly news last night and a reporter asked him why he didn't put the car in neutral to which he replied " I'm not familiar with the transmission system on those cars" or something like that. I couldn't pull up the video from last night but he was an obvious tool.

[kpatz]

This guy was on the nightly news last night and a reporter asked him why he didn't put the car in neutral to which he replied " I'm not familiar with the transmission system on those cars" or something like that. I couldn't pull up the video from last night but he was an obvious tool.

Like this isn't blatantly obvious:
The site also says it's shift-by-wire, so what do you want to bet that the shifter has no effect when accelerating out of control?

It appears to use the cruise control in the encounters I have read about. Several of the owners reported their cruise control light coming on just as the car accelerates on its own.

That would point to a software issue, if the CC kicks on at a high speed and doesn't immediately disengage when pressing the brake.

[ELVATO]

What's B?

Never mind, found it. Apparently it acts like the 1 or 2 selection on a normal automatic...

[SoulSeeker]

I'm in the market for a Prius if he doesn't want the car I'll take him up on it 4 sho.

[kpatz]

What's B?

I think that switches the Prius to battery-only power. You'd think he could have at least flipped the shifter to B if not N and gotten the car slowed. But, like I just posted in the Take Turn Sign where roundabouts are discussed, that requires the driver to not be an idiot, and those are exceedingly rare, at least in the real world outside this forum.