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Is the Tesla Model S Pedal Placement A Safety Hazard?
cartechboy (2660665) writes "When things go wrong with the Tesla Model S electric car, its very loyal--and opinionated--owners usually speak up. And that's just what David Noland has done. An incident in which his Model S didn't stop when he pressed the brake pedal scared him--and got him investigating. He measured pedal spacing on 22 different new cars at dealers--and his analysis suggests that the Tesla pedal setup may be causing what aviation analysts call a 'design-induced pilot error'. And pedal design, as Toyota just learned to the tune of $1.2 billion, is very important indeed in preventing accidents."
For a car to have no gears, the drive shaft directly couples to the drive wheels. Even if there is only one gear ratio, the car has a gear that alters the output of the drive shaft before connecting to the drive wheels.
I could cobble together two different bicycles with a single speed. The gear ratio would vary enough that you would notice a huge difference in riding them. The inability to change the gear ratio does not mean that there is no gear ratio involved.