Associated Press | General Motors says it will install a new brake
safety measure that can prevent unintended acceleration on all its new
vehicles worldwide by 2012.
The announcement Monday comes as federal regulators consider making the
technology mandatory on new cars and trucks after Toyota’s big problems
with vehicles that can speed out of control. Congress is also exploring
the issue after a series of hearings last month on Toyota’s recall of
millions of vehicles over gas pedals that get stuck or trapped on floor
mats.
GM has not had major problems with unintended acceleration, but the company said it was taking the step as a means of reassuring customers about the safety of its vehicles.
A brake override reduces power to the engine when the driver steps on both the brake and accelerator. It should also slow a vehicle if the gas pedal is stuck.
GM plans to install the software for the system in the electronic throttle control systems of newly manufactured vehicles. The automaker already used it in several models in the United States, mostly high horsepower vehicles like the Chevy Corvette.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates auto safety, is exploring whether to require the brake override on new vehicles. Toyota has already said it would use the system in most new Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the end of 2010.
Well that’s going to cut my 60′ times with the transbrake.
Why not speed limit all cars/trucks to 80mph. Where exactly, and why exactly, would any vehicle sold in the US need to go faster than that?
How about black boxes that detect cellphone usage? Maybe with a recording feature that will store a minute of passenger compartment sounds before the crash?
Really strange how technology is soooooo easy to install, as long as it masks stupid behavior. Wonder how the old man I seem to end up behind every day that drives with two feet: one foot on the brake and the other on the gas is going to deal with no power?
It seems that all of the unintended acceleration accidents occur with cars having automatic transmissions. The easiest solution is for people to learn to drive so that they would not need automatic transmissions.
I see the deep thinkers have already taken over this forum.
For FRE, manual transmissions are being replaced by autoshifting ones. I’m sure pushing on the N paddle is going to tell a a messed up computer to quit accelerating.
As Car and Driver pointed out Nissan already puts such a device on its brakes. If carmakers are so going to automate their cars that it takes 6 seconds on the start button to stop it in an emergency, the others, like GM will do, should follow suit.
I think a better solution to the problem is to return to the tried and true method. Return to the old method and have a wire connected to the accelerator and the throttle. This worked for 100 years!