HolyCoast: You Can Run But You Can't Stop
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

You Can Run But You Can't Stop

A Prius takes its owner on a wild ride in San Diego County. Here's the video report:

I've never driven a Prius, but I don't understand why you can't just flip the thing into neutral. The engine will race, and may even blow itself up if you can't shut it off, but the car will stop. Popular Science did a video I saw recently in which the driver took a Camry up to speed, jammed on the accelerator and the brakes and was able to stop the car without much trouble, even with the engine at full throttle. They also did the "flip to neutral" thing without any problems.

Maybe there's a Prius owner out there who can explain why these techniques wouldn't work.

2 comments:

Goofy Dick said...

For the most part when a driver is faced with this problem out of the blue they are scared out of their wits. In most cases when fear takes over a person forgets what a normal thinking person would do.

Anonymous said...

Man, I've tried to envision why someone wouldn't just flip it to neutral. You can still steer it as you coast and then turn it off when you get to where you want to park it.

Even if you turn it off right away you'll still have Armstrong Power Steering and manual brakes.

Decades of Unionized Government Education are even taking their toll in this area. It is not a surprise.