Worst advice EVER
 

I'll look for a link to the audio later, but NPR just played their interview with the President of Toyota NA on the subject of their recall. Well, the final question asked what owners should do if their gas pedal sticks. His answer?

Depress the brake pedal with both feet as hard as you can and put the car into neutral.

I'm not making this up.

I can think of worse advice.

What would you advise? :dunno:

I have seen a lot of experts talking about it and they are all on the same page about this one. At open throttle, the brakes can stop the car but you have to step on it pretty hard to bring your 50mph+ accelerating car to a stop. Even harder if your car takes off at 70mph or 80mph and climbing.

I think I get the point that you are trying to make that it is dangerous to just stomp on the brakes on the highway. Yes, probably a valid point that you take the risk of getting rear ended if you do this. But, if you don't apply enough force to the brakes you probably won't be able to slow down the run-away car and the average driver will end up much worse off with the resulting collision.

You're missing the part about "put it in neutral".

Car in neutral + two feet on the brake = car rapidly decelerating and probably losing control. Throw in a typical Camry driver and you have disaster. Best case, one stops straight and gets rear-ended.

You might need two feet on the brakes if the car won't go into neutral. But if neutral is accomplished, how about we all slow down gradually as we find a safe place to stop.

I agree. If this unintended acceleration happens, they should be saying:

Step 1 - Put car in neutral

Step 2 - Brake in a normal fashion as conditions allow to come to a complete stop.

2 feet on the brake almost says (IMO) "Slam on the brakes and Panic"

*shrug* People aren't bright enough to get the car into neutral. They also, apparently, aren't bright enough to get on the brakes hard enough to keep them from fading.

Both feet on the big automatic brake pedal is better than anything else the drivers are likely to do.

Yep... remember that they are talking about 2M plus vehicles sold to people that overwhelmingly don't know how to respond in this situation. They need to be as plain and simple as possible. Jump on the brake with all your power is probably the only way they can ensure that people will be able to stop so they won't have to deal with more run-away car accidents.

What is a typical Camry driver? Is that similar to a typical Merkur driver?

dull, boring, has no interest in driving, likes driving an automotive appliance. :dunno:

:lol:

I think it's appropriate advice, keep in mind, a stuck gas pedal means rapid acceleration, most drivers in that situation would panic, so stomping down on the brakes before doing anything else is good advice - it'll help slow the car before shifting to neutral.

Being rear-ended is better than driving into an oncoming car while accelerating.

Ed