On Mar 2, 7:01*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Mar 2, 5:55*am, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:

"mm" wrote

Yes. And some of them won't turn off either, some of the ones with no
keyhole.
You have to hold the button for something like three seconds. *That sounds
like a very long time if you are accelerating in traffic.

Apply brakes, shift into neutral.

No more acceleration.

Do you know for sure how the shift mechanism works on all these cars?
The throttle is fly by wire, what makes you so sure there isn't
something similar for the tranny that could block it from being moved
into certain positions under certain conditions? That even seems
desirable, does it not? Like preventing it from being moved into
park while it's moving?

As for the 3 seconds to shut the engine off via the starting button on
the Lexus, that is indeed the case. And it's worse than that it
could take 3 seconds while roaring down the highway. Who would know
that it takes 3 seconds and hold the button in for that long?
Apparently it takes 3 secs while the car is moving, which is not the
normal shut-down sequence you would experience everyday. In fact,
you'd most likely only experience it when something was seriously
wrong. And then it would seem more likely many people would continue
to push the button again and again instead of just holding it in. To
top it off, the Lexus was a rental, so the driver had no familiarity
with it.

I'm quite amazed at how people want to just attribute this to driver
stupidity. In the famous Lexus case the driver was an experienced CA
highway patrol officer who had taken special driving training as part
of his job. I'd be pretty amazed if he didn't try to put the car in
neutral.