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From: Neo on 9 Mar 2010 05:59
Runaway 2008 Prius with stuck gas pedal reported in California

summary:

On March 8, 2010, California Highway Patrol assisted a runaway
2008 Blue Toyota Prius when allegedly its gas pedal got stuck
while driving on the California Freeway in San Diego County.
The 61-year old Prius Driver, James Sikes, used his cell phone
to called 911 at about 1:30 Pm after realizing that his Prius
accelerator pedal would not easing up after he had passed
another vehicle going eastbound on Interstate 8 near
La Posta ( near Lake Jennings Park Road/ Flinn Springs).
Mr. Sikes reported that his Prius accelerator pedal had
jumped while passing the other vehicle and had became
stuck in a position. Sikes' Prius reach about 90 mph
when the police car arrived about 20 minutes later. The
police car drove alongside the Sikes' Prius and used
a loudspeaker to instruct Mr Sikes to put the Prius
into neutral, apply the brake pedal to the floor, and
also to apply the emergency brake. Police officer Todd
Niebert said that he could smell Prius brakes burning
up and that he saw the Prius brake lights coming on. As
the Prius went up an upgrade, the Prius started to decelerated
to about 50mph; Sikes then turned off the engine and
the Prius coasted to a halt.The Police cruiser then came
up front the Prius and blocked it. Toyota has dispatched a field
technical specialist to San Diego to investigate this incident.



sources

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/runaway-toyota-prius-reported-in-california-2010-03-08

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gc_pIFqke7WxQovY3MnhcyIYiLgwD9EB15EO0

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/08/chp-helps-stop-runaway-prius/

From: Obveeus on 9 Mar 2010 09:13
On Mar 9, 5:59 am, Neo <residualselfimage1...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Mr. Sikes reported that his Prius accelerator pedal had
> jumped while passing the other vehicle and had became
> stuck in a position.  Sikes' Prius reach about 90 mph
> when the police car arrived about 20 minutes later. The
> police car drove alongside the  Sikes' Prius and used
> a loudspeaker to instruct Mr Sikes to put the Prius
> into neutral, apply the brake pedal to the floor, and
> also to apply the emergency brake.  Police officer Todd
> Niebert said that he could  smell Prius brakes burning
> up and that he saw the Prius brake lights coming on.

If the car is put in neutral, how is it that it was able to keep
going? Only a total idiot would pull the emergency brake rather than
simply putting the car in neutral.

....is the transmission/shift 'fly by wire' as well or is it safe to
say that the operator of this vehicle is simply lying and trying to
create a financial claim?
From: Obveeus on 9 Mar 2010 13:37

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop(a)nastydesigns.com> wrote in message
news:elmop-5EF2F2.13223709032010(a)nothing.attdns.com...
> In article
> <19378fd1-313e-4ed9-9ee4-57697ad4cd0d(a)19g2000yqu.googlegroups.com>,
> Obveeus <obveeus(a)aol.com> wrote:
>
>> ...is the transmission/shift 'fly by wire' as well
>
> Yes, it is.

In that case, there is no way to predict the level of problems that could
occur in a software/electrical failure. Electronics get affected by
electrical fields, magnetic fluxes, sun spots, etc... Not to mention the
near impossibility of tracking down defects internal to a chip or circuit
(shift registers, up/down counters, timers, etc... that work 99.99999% of
the time correctly, but have no recovery mode if they do get out of step).
There are things that can take months to capture even with logic analyzers
and a myriad of attempts to test the conditions of the problem. Sometime
even attaching electrical test equipment can change the circuit enough that
it operates correctly.


From: ransley on 10 Mar 2010 08:32
On Mar 9, 12:22 pm, "Elmo P. Shagnasty" <el...(a)nastydesigns.com>
wrote:
> In article
> <19378fd1-313e-4ed9-9ee4-57697ad4c...(a)19g2000yqu.googlegroups.com>,
>
>  Obveeus <obve...(a)aol.com> wrote:
> > ...is the transmission/shift 'fly by wire' as well
>
> Yes, it is.
>
> But putting it into neutral with my foot on the floor at 78mph worked
> just fine for me, not an hour ago.  The drive disengages and the engine
> goes to idle.

Obviously something isnt disengaging with the computer as the throttle
should not be engaged to cause this. Hopefully this car is not wiped
clean by toyota. But I bet nothing is found. I had an issue with a
Caddy on 02, the computer kept saying maybe once every month
"Stability System Failure", it never recorded in the computer so
everytime I brought it in and shut it off it was clean, then one day
it failed, I canceled my destination and drove right to Cadilac , I
didnt shut it off till the service manager saw it, only then did he
believe me and replace the computer free of charge. They wont find the
issue, shutdown-restart reboots the computers, glitch is gone. Only
way to find it is keep a failed car running till NHTSA puts techs to
it without shutting it off, that could take days, keeping it running.
thats going to be impossible to do.
From: ransley on 10 Mar 2010 09:33
On Mar 9, 4:59 am, Neo <residualselfimage1...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Runaway 2008 Prius with stuck gas pedal reported in California
>
> summary:
>
> On March 8, 2010, California Highway Patrol assisted a runaway
> 2008 Blue Toyota Prius when allegedly its gas pedal got stuck
> while driving on the California Freeway in San Diego County.
> The 61-year old Prius Driver, James Sikes, used his cell phone
> to called 911 at about 1:30 Pm after realizing that his Prius
> accelerator pedal would not easing up after he had passed
> another vehicle  going eastbound on Interstate 8  near
> La Posta ( near Lake Jennings Park Road/ Flinn Springs).
> Mr. Sikes reported that his Prius accelerator pedal had
> jumped while passing the other vehicle and had became
> stuck in a position.  Sikes' Prius reach about 90 mph
> when the police car arrived about 20 minutes later. The
> police car drove alongside the  Sikes' Prius and used
> a loudspeaker to instruct Mr Sikes to put the Prius
> into neutral, apply the brake pedal to the floor, and
> also to apply the emergency brake.  Police officer Todd
> Niebert said that he could  smell Prius brakes burning
> up and that he saw the Prius brake lights coming on. As
> the Prius  went up an upgrade, the Prius started to decelerated
> to about 50mph; Sikes then turned off the engine and
> the Prius coasted to a halt.The Police cruiser then came
> up front the Prius and blocked it. Toyota has dispatched a field
> technical specialist to San Diego to investigate this incident.
>
> sources
>
> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/runaway-toyota-prius-reported-in-cal...
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gc_pIFqke7WxQovY3Mn...
>
> http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/08/chp-helps-stop-runaway...

Whats important here is this is not the new Prius but the second
generation old model. Steve Wozniaks prius [Apples Founder] is the new
one that he can make go full throttle by itself.
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