...
This whole Toyota Prius thing seems kind of contrived. Parts of the problem are legit. Not only the throttle, but the tranny is also shift by wire, as are several other automotive products of all makes nowadays. Transmission controls are becoming more electric than hydraulic/mechanical. Neutral may not be an option. The start-stop button/switch automatically electrically puts the car in park when shut down, or there is another button to select park only ...all by wire only. It has a mechanical parking brake.
Rant on.
The number of throttle fail incidents is so low that it is probably about average for "throttle-by-wire" manufacturers, but somebody let the dogs out now. I will really be ticked off if our old '07 Prius is banned from the highway over something so irrational. Next banned will probably be the 3/4 ton 7000 pound Excursion. They are both best at what they are designed to do, and we can't have that now, can we!? I currently have a wiring problem in the Excursion that allows the center rear brake light to work, but precludes life in any fender brake-lights or any signal blinkers. Weird. At least the Excursion occupants would be OK in case of stuck throttle; but everybody else would die.
Rant off.
After reading numerous technical reports, I find it hard to believe an electronic computer glitch can cause this in such a fashion that it cannot be overcome by the driver. Closest possibility would be a cruise control bogus call for "full accelerate", but even "cruise" drops power when brakes are applied. And anybody here got brakes so poor, they can't hold WOT? Maybe a diesel truck in low range.
There are instances of throttle by wire not working right on the railroad. I once had the two locomotives behind me suddenly go to 8 throttle (wide open) when I called for notch 3 on my lead unit. Throughout the trip, it caused numerous acceleration jerks that broke several knuckles until we literally ran out of spare knuckles in 200+ miles, despite my best efforts to control it with simultaneous braking. Mechanical forces dropped another spare off to us, from a work truck, 7 miles from home.
And DP (remote) locomotives retain their last settings, including throttle, for an extended period of time, if the lead control unit loses radio contact. That has been more of a problem getting timely release of air and dynamic brakes to me, but not more. A fellow engineer has had a rear locomotive stick in WFO 8 when radio contact should have been fine (no hills between). In his case, a different screen control mode stopped the error immediately, but it was a repeatable error in the original control mode, and constituted an apparent computer error since a wiring error would be consistent regardless of screen IMO.
Most of the locomotives use a Windows operating system, but I have seen one that rebooted in Unix. They do occasionally crash (digitally) while underway. Whatever, full brake application will eventually stop several full throttle locomotives in most lengthy trains. Short trains are trickier and actually more difficult to control.
On our Prius, it would be nice to have a simple positive mechanical power disconnect, even though I think most of the recent problems are contrived for some vague monetary reason. But, I hate to bet my life on anything, since I lived over 18 years old. Before that I was invincible.
Wes
...
Threaded Mode
