Slashdot Mirror
A Car With A Mind Of Its Own
mindriot writes "When Hicham Dequiedt, driving on a highway between Vierzon and Riom in central France in his Renault Vel Satis this Sunday, was overtaking a truck, his car began accelerating to 120 mph on its own, apparently due to a defect in the cruise control system. Stomping on the brakes proved pointless and, having a magnetic card for a car key, he could not cut the ignition. After calling the police from his cell phone who then attempted to clear the streets of any danger to him, in what he described as the most fearful event of his life, he raced down the highway for another hour before finally managing to stop the car. Read about the incident here or, in more detail, in this article by the German 'Spiegel' (translation). The case is still under investigation. Are we putting too much trust in the increasing number of electronic systems that our lives depend upon?"
"Are we putting too much trust in the increasing number of electronic systems that our lives depend upon?"
The problem is that people are buying crap cars like Renaults.
Thats what you get for buying a French automobile.
It's a French car. It just surrenders.
That rotten fish smell is coming from michael's ass from whence this story was pulled to be put on the front page of Slashdot. This means that the driver was most likely inept and couldn't figure out what to do as other posters have already suggested. I agree that it's nearly impossible that a catastrophic "failure" to slow down was anything but the driver's fault in this case.
Remember people, michael likes to post stories which are sensationalist, and he typically never verifies anything, preferring instead to add some fuel to the fire of speculation and sensationalism with his additional quips that are usually tagged on to the story headline. I can't ignore his stories because then I'm out of the loop when trolls make fun of them later in the week, but that's about all they're good for anymore.
If the engine won't quit going to full wot, your brakes will merely become red hot till the brake fluid begins to boil (its just hydraulic fluid), so eventually either the brake line will pop from the pressure or your brake fluid cap will pop and blow off a large portion of your brakes.
So eventually you'll melt the whole damned system and if it's an automatic it'll keep trying even while it's "stopped". So once the brakes melt you'll resume the previous 120mph speed.
At least it was france, nothing worth while to hit.
Fark is the origin of racism and comedy you faggot SOMETHING AWFUL DOT COM
1981? Your wife is fucking OLD!