Toyota fault is maybe electronic!

I don't like the car's computer to turn off the engine when I am passing on a two-lane highway and a big truck is coming at me. It should have a timer or something to allow me to finish the pass then it can do anything it wants.

My older car had a turbo. It did not have a governor. It could go faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and ....
It survived then died very old.

The brakes still have vacuum assist for a couple of pedal presses when the engine is turned off. If the car is big then it is very difficult to stop when the vacuum assist is gone.
My new car has electric power steering that still works when the engine is turned off (but the ignition switch is still turned on).

Machines should never try to be "smarter" than humans for safety reasons. Natural selection must be allowed to do it's job.

All right I understand now. I'm a bit slow when it comes to mechanical stuff

Welcome to the world of 'fly by wire'. Now you guys got me wondering. I think I am going to try my daughter's Lexus, driving it down the road at 45-50 mph and hit the 'off' button to see if it kills the engine. I can see the firmware not letting you put it in reverse in that condition, maybe not even let you go to neutral as engine would overrev, but if someone decided to ignore 'off' button because you will lose power steering or power brakes when engine stops, that has gone too far. I can see that a push start/stop button has a problem with it easily being inadvertently hit. Maybe their solution to this is to ignore it when car is rolling.

I did hear that one of the 'runaways' investigation found the emergency brake had been fully engaged. There was no mention of the brake pad condition. I believe the vacuum is only used for power brake assist. The brake hydraulics still works, just takes more peddle pressure without vacuum power assist and the vacuum assist usually lasts for tens of seconds after engine quits. Power steering assist goes away immediately when engine stops turning hydraulic pump.

Sound like the system needs a good going over, applying two fault rule to failure analysis.

The new all electronic stuff has another flaw. Most of the full electronically controlled automatic transmissions go into neutral as soon as the key is shut off. The old ones where all mechanical so as long as the vehicle was moving they would transfer power back to the engine and keep it turning.

I like having older vehicles without speed governors, no remote or automatic shut down capacity, mechanical linkages between the gas peddle and the throttle blades, and a key switch that still opens a set of contacts that actually turn off the power to the ignition.

Ahh nothing beats a classic.

**broken link removed**

Well in my case if my new Mitsubishi Triton dual cad turbo diesel ute decides to go WOT I'll just have fun dodging the traffic then find a new merc or better vehicle to ram. Afterall it is a company ute and well if I brake it I'll just get another one and if I say it went WOT then yet another Japo car company will be explaining their cars arent at fault.

Even electronic transmissions can be manually placed into neutral through mechanical linkage. It's an override of the system. I haven't been in a vehicle yet where you can't simply turn off the ignition and put it in neutral and apply the brakes.

HiTech said:

Even electronic transmissions can be manually placed into neutral through mechanical linkage. It's an override of the system. I haven't been in a vehicle yet where you can't simply turn off the ignition and put it in neutral and apply the brakes.

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I would be truly frightened to drive a vehicle which didn't have at least that level of override. Sure, I might lose power steering or brakes in my truck but I have fallbacks--it's a '96 Nissan so it has EFI and not a lot of other electronics, and I like that. There is always a way to control the vehicle. You'd never find yourself in a position where you'd have to yank fuses to get control back. Hell, I don't even know if you *can* yank the computer's fuse in the newer vehicles.

But then, I don't even like ABS brakes or HID lamps so maybe I'm a driving Luddite.


Torben

P.S.:

Hello, HAL do you read me, HAL?
- Affirmative, Dave, I read you.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
- I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
What's the problem?
- I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
What are you talking about, HAL?
- This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

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HiTech said:

I haven't been in a vehicle yet where you can't simply turn off the ignition and put it in neutral and apply the brakes.

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In a Prius I drove once there was no key for the ignition - if your key fob is in or near the car it knows. To turn it on or off you press a button on the dash. (Why they bother I don't know.) If you request the car to slow down (with the pedal formerly known as brake), first the motor is rearranged as a generator and feeds energy back into the batteries. When the computer decides that is enough it activates the real brakes.

I'm told that in an emergency you must press and hold the button for 3 seconds (sound familiar?).

Does a BSOD at 100mph constitute an emergency?

Hero999 said:

Does a BSOD at 100mph constitute an emergency?

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Come on we all know Bill Gates tries to get his winblows everywhere but do you think car makers would be gullible enough to use it in a vehicle.....

I miss the squealing noise old cars made when you slammed on the brakes or accellerated at WOT.
Now ABS and traction control prevent the tires from burning and making that cool noise.

audioguru said:

I miss the squealing noise old cars made when you slammed on the brakes or accellerated at WOT.
Now ABS and traction control prevent the tires from burning and making that cool noise.

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Then don't buy a car with ABS or traction control (although traction control can normally be turned OFF anyway).

I haven't been in a vehicle yet where you can't simply turn off the ignition and put it in neutral and apply the brakes.

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Auto engineers are diligently working on finding solutions to that problem as we speak.

SO when did making things more complicated, expensive, and less reliable become better than basic, cheap, simple and always worked?

tcmtech said:

Auto engineers are diligently working on finding solutions to that problem as we speak.

SO when did making things more complicated, expensive, and less reliable become better than basic, cheap, simple and always worked?

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Why sell one well-built unit which lasts 20 years for $n when you can build the same thing so that it will break in 5 years, then charge $(n/2) for it and sell it to them 4 times? People really are gullible enough to not only fall for it, but to think they're getting a deal.


Torben