Cruise Control Issues

[securespark]

Seen a few stories like this over the years.
I find it hard to believe that dipping the clutch or knocking the box out of gear or hitting the brakes won't have an effect.
What say you?


Driver decapitated after car's cruise control 'got stuck' on motorway http://www.dailymail.co.uk/~/article-3968218/index.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

 

[JohnD]

It is sad to speculate about the poor fellow

But

Cases are known where drivers have claimed that their car ran away and would not stop.

Usually in an automatic

They had put their foot on the accelerator thinking it was the brake

And of course, the more they panicked, and the harder they pressed, the faster it went

Perhaps that happened.

The investigator said there was no sign that the brakes had been applied and the accelerator pedal was fully depressed.

I've heard that some people like to drive along on cruise control with their feet off the pedals.

 

[Justin Passing]

"He didn't press the brake"... needs investigating. Maybe he panicked. Humans do human things.

 

[motorbiking]

I'd have to do some experiments, but I'm pretty sure my car ignores you if click it in to manual and keep trying to select a lower wrong gear with the paddles. But yes the poor chap should have tried the brakes or clicked it in to neutral.

 

[JohnD]

But yes the poor chap should have tried the brakes

He may have thought his foot was on the brake.

 

[jono_h]

I had a near miss with cruise control once, but it was entirely down to human error - not knowing where my feet were in relation to the pedals Because I’d had them flat on the floor.

Now I always hover my foor over the accelerator and have the side of my foot brushing the brake.

 

[Brigadier]

Once while in cruise control (not adaptive) on the motorway, my car started accelerating all on its own.

Turned out that the (heavy, rubber) car mat had slithered forward enough to be sitting on the edge of the accelerator pedal.
I'd put this extra mat over the fitted one, as the latter was developing a hole in it where my heel rested.

No matter how smart the engineer, a human end user can always do something stupid, unforeseen, or both.


After that, I just riveted an aluminium sheet into the mat there instead, to save wearing through to the carpet itself.

 

[bernardgreen]

No matter how smart the engineer, a human end user can always do something stupid, unforeseen, or both.

Very true, and of course the engineer is ( probably ) also a human.

 

[mattylad]

I find it hard to believe that eve in IF cruise control got stuck that the driver was unable to use the brakes or the cluthc/gears to bring the car to a stop.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I find it hard to believe that eve in IF cruise control got stuck that the driver was unable to use the brakes or the cluthc/gears to bring the car to a stop.

It suggests he made no attempt to use the brakes, at all, and it had to be suggested to him to use the handbrake. Brakes will show evidence of usage, if they are used hard at such speeds.

 

[Justin Passing]

on the call:

"I am trying. It is not stopping at neutral."

court:
"the makers of Skoda, told the inquest that in the five seconds before the crash, the vehicle was travelling at 116mph and the accelerator pedal was fully depressed. He added there was no braking recorded. "
"'There is no indication that there was any error or problem with any of the electronic systems of the car in the five seconds leading up to the collision.'"
"data analysis from the mangled car's airbag systems failed to provide evidence of the defects Mr Gandhi was describing to the call handlers."

There's not much doubt, then.

 

[Trazor]

He may have thought his foot was on the brake.

And it may have been suicide,who can tell for certain.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

And it may have been suicide,who can tell for certain.

Then why ring 999? On the face of it, he just didn't seem to have much of an idea how to stop it.

 

[Trazor]

Then why ring 999? On the face of it, he just didn't seem to have much of an idea how to stop it.

Trying to make it not look like suicide, for insurance purposes, possibly.

 

[robinbanks]

I'm not aware of a manual car that has an electric clutch that could ignore being pressed if the cruise control decided to go Skynet; far as I've experienced the clutch is a mechanical affair that disconnects the engine from the road when pressed

Further, a manual car that's cruising along will pull out of gear pretty easily. If it's accelerating hard is more difficult but possible

"Not stopping at neutral" implies it's not fully manual though? A DSG or full auto box?

Brakes are also a manual affair that no electric system of the car can override, and I find it hard to believe that the cruise control would ignore a press on the brakes/fail to disengage, but a hard lean on the brakes would slow the car even if it were in gear and accelerating, unless the brake assist system was defective

---

Rubbing the car down the barrier would have been preferable to using the back of a lorry to come to rest, but perhaps it would have been best to hold the stop/start button down first - all the keyless cars I've driven have an emergency shut off facility whereby holding the start/stop button while the car is active and driving will perform an forced power off of the control systems (but helpfully leaves the steering lock disengaged, unlike pulling the key out of an ignition barrel style car with a mechanically deactivated steering lock)

---
Whether this person acted deliberately or accidentally it's perhaps a useful reminder for people who have keyless cars; practice doing an emergency shut off of the engine before you really need to use it - find a flat straight road and cruise along, then turn the engine off (nothing bad happens, it just slows down in exactly the same way that lifting your foot off the accelerator does) - give it some seconds then push the start button again to resume. In my Ford I don't have to dip the clutch; the engine was spinning the whole time so the dash simply lights up again, the computer starts supplying fuel and the engine carries on as if nothing happened