Michael Fumento looks at the public details about the “runaway” Prius:
Now let’s recap just one of my findings in the Forbes.com piece that the CHP report doesn’t deal with because it concerns later events.
The 911 dispatcher, as you can hear on the Web, repeatedly begs Sikes to either stop the engine with the ignition button or put the gear into neutral. Sikes refused to do either, later giving various bizarre reasons. “I was afraid to try to [reach] over there and put it in neutral, he told CNN. “I was holding onto the steering wheel with both hands — 94 miles an hour in a Toyota Prius is fast.”
Yet:
# We know Sikes spent most of the ride with a cell phone in one hand.
# Sikes claimed at a press conference that he reached under the dash and yanked on the floored accelerator. I’m thin with arms the average American length, but fell three inches short. Sikes almost certainly can’t do what he claims, but nobody’s asked him to repeat the motion. In any event, it can hardly be done with both hands on the wheel.
# Finally in the 2008 Prius the shift knob is mounted on the dash expressly to allow shifting by merely reaching out with a finger.
Just what exactly does it take to convince the press?
Personally, I found the timing of the event to be a little too perfect for a certain narrative: exactly as the Toyota CEO was being subjected to the Star Chamber treatment by US lawmakers. A few days before or after that, I might have been willing to believe it was a genuine event, rather than (as it certainly appears now) a staged hoax.
Full disclosure: I’ve owned several Toyota vehicles, currently including my own Tacoma pickup truck and (as of last Wednesday) Elizabeth’s Matrix sedan.
Another benefit1 to driving manual transmission, rather than the North American default choice of automatic: so far as I know, none of these cases of “runaway” Toyotas involved manual transmissions.
1 The primary benefit is, of course, theft reduction: driving stickshift has become an almost unheard-of skill among car thieves.
Comment by Nicholas — March 22, 2010 @ 09:49
From http://www.businessinsider.com/a-deep-dive-into-toyota-sudden-acceleration-accident-stats-2010-3 and http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/I-am-not-afraid-of-my-Toyota-Prius-87361597.html:
Toyotas discriminate against old people.
Comment by Lickmuffin — March 22, 2010 @ 09:10
Now, all that said, I wonder if perceptions of unwanted acceleration might be due to drivers inadvertently hitting a power band in a particular speed range.
On my Echo, I recently discovered this sort of thing at speeds over 120 km/h. That’s been my normal highway cruising speed for years. Lately, though, traffic on Highway 404 has gotten much faster — 130 km/h seems to be the new normal.
In matching the new normal, I’ve found that the Echo is very responsive to accelerator input in the range between 125 and 140 — which was a huge surprise the first few times I noticed it, but not at all unwelcome or unsettling. One does not expect this sort of thing on a small-engined car, but it seems to be there at that particular speed range.
How might a similar phenomenon affect a Prius driver? Considering that they are not likely expecting any sort of power performance from a Prius, it would likely come as a surprise. And considering that that average Prius driver is a precious flower, unique in all the universe, and raised to believe that their special, special, special preciousness is the most fragile beauty to ever issue forth from Mother Na’vi Gaia’s womb… well! Such a person would be utterly terrorised when they discover that their Pandora-caressing ecomobile can actually move.
The spastic shock would send their foot to the floor faster than a Baby Boomer pouncing on an entitlement.
Therein, perhaps, the problem lies.
Comment by Lickmuffin — March 22, 2010 @ 10:20
There can’t be that many Priuses (Priusii?) in the hands of spectactularly shallow, smug, self-important, self-regarding, self-satisfied . . . oh, wait — of course there are — the boomers are retiring now.
You’re quite correct. Diagnosis is spot-on.
Comment by Nicholas — March 22, 2010 @ 13:47
Lickmuffin…Good Job Buddy!
Comment by Da Wife — March 23, 2010 @ 07:58