Toyota Accelerator Data Skewed Toward Elderly

An anonymous reader passes along this discussion on the data for the Toyota accelerator problem, from a few weeks back. (Here's a Google spreadsheet of the data.) "Several things are striking. First, the age distribution really is extremely skewed. The overwhelming majority are over 55. Here's what else you notice: a slight majority of the incidents involved someone either parking, pulling out of a parking space, in stop and go traffic, at a light or stop sign... in other words, probably starting up from a complete stop."

Comments

Conflict of interest

[Anonymous Coward]

Obama Motors is just slandering Toyota to sell more cars. Recalls happen all the time.

Driver Error

[frecky]

Seriously,

If people were too stupid to just put car on neutral or turn off the car then I think they should learn more at driving a car. These people may be some danger on the road.

Most car are front wheel drive car. In such a case, if someone was hitting hard on the brake then you should be able to lock rear wheel. If so, then you should be able to see marks on the ground !

For me, all this story is a Driver Error !

Re:Starting from full stop .....

[Anonymous Coward]

'97 Sentras have a small fraction of the computer-driven control that modern cars have. It's mostly mechanical, not computerized. Mechanical engineers tend to be far smarter and much more careful than software developers.

Did you type this on a manual typewriter?

[Flentil]

I hear some people swear by those old things. Nothing like the feel of pressing the keys and having your keypress transferred to strike the paper through an inked ribbon. It's highly tactile. Of course, you'd have to scan the text and digitize it before posting on the internet, but that's just a small price for you to pay to keep that old-school tactile feeling at your fingertips. Manual transmissions? Exactly like this.

Re:Did you type this on a manual typewriter?

[Dahan]

Well, that all may have applied to automatics 40 years ago, or whenever you last drove one, but have you tried driving one made in the last 10 years? When pulling into traffic, they'll upshift later if you press the accelerator pedal down more. In fact, if you floor the accelerator, they won't upshift until the engine hits the redline. Personally, I don't pull into traffic if the conditions are such that I need to get from 0 to 60 in 8 seconds, but maybe that's just me.

Never had problems going up steep hills either.

But you just go ahead and keep knocking automatic transmissions based on outdated information. I'm sure technology hasn't advanced at all in the past few decades.

P.S. I know how to drive a stick, and do think they're more fun to drive than an auto. However, I do not suffer from the delusion that sticks are actually better for general use.

Re:Did you type this on a manual typewriter?

[leehauser]

Hmm. My 2009 Prius consistently gets 80-100% better mileage than my 2002 Saturn SL 4 door 5-speed. And in the stop and go traffic I often have to drive in, I'll take the automatic any day.

Re:Did you type this on a manual typewriter?

[Anonymous Coward]

... great if I didn't have some whacko barreling up behind me at 50 and I need to be going fast enough that he won't smash into me 5 seconds ago.

But you just go ahead and keep knocking people who are better at driving than their cars, I'm sure you know better than they do.

Maybe you should watch traffic so you don't have to floor it when pull out in front of someone going 50. Or is being able to ignore traffic, which is already on the road, because you can floor it a sign of better driving?

Re:Good god, please stop

[Ambiguous Coward]

Now that you're a little bit less of a moron, please go on with your day.

Too bad it's not similarly easy to make someone less of a pompous dick when trying to communicate. :/