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Recent Comments by silvercord
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Ballad of Bilbo Baggins as Sung by Leonard Nimoy
swampgirl
In reply to this comment by swampgirl:
*promote
geo321
In reply to this comment by geo321:
*promote
Average Guy Runs Against World Class Athletes
Average Guy Runs Against World Class Athletes
Dan Rather: Obama "couldn't sell watermelons"
How To Handle Unintended Acceleration
What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.
Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.
The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.
No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.
My understanding is that the car driven by the off duty officer was a 2009 Lexus ES 350. That is not a hybrid. That said, I tried the 'move the shift to neutral' trick yesterday in my Windstar and it worked just fine.
However, the link I provided also noted: Last month, Consumer Reports found that models that don't have so-called smart-throttle technology, which allows the brake to take precedence over the throttle, a vehicle might not have adequate brakes to overcome a stuck throttle at 60 mph.
So, jam your foot down on the brake and kick it into neutral, pray like hell that you hit a truckload of Snuggies.
As for the electric cars, maybe a nuclear air burst that issues an effective electromagnetic pulse would do the trick.
Ukulele Orchestra of GB - The Good the Bad the Ugly
Ukulele Orchestra of GB - The Good the Bad the Ugly
Olbermann Invited To the Dallas Tea Party
choggie
http://videosift.com/video/Olbermann-Invited-To-the-Dallas-Tea-Party
WTF
Amazing Sledgehammer looping cover
IQ's Just Went Up