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  #1  
Old 02-26-2013, 01:39 PM
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Fishy Hyundai Story...

Too much about this doesn't add up.

Full article here: Hyundai Elantra's alleged unintended acceleration sends teen, police on a 113-mile ride

Why didn't shutting off the car work? Neutral not working? Standing on the brakes? Assuming this did start with unintended acceleration, I'm thinking it's more likely the kid was panicky and couldn't actually function well enough to do these things properly. It seems unlikely the driver was simply lying, because he eventually lost control and crashed (survived with broken bones).

In these extreme cases I'm also curious why the troopers don't simply get in front of the driver and gently slow until the car makes contact, then start braking. So long as it is a straight road and there isn't surrounding traffic, that should work, at least with a smaller vehicle. You're not going to stop a concrete truck like that, but a Hyundai?



Quote:
Dispatchers urged the 16-year-old driver to try everything from turning the car off to standing on the brakes and putting the car in neutral, but Lushaj told them nothing was working. Flummoxed, police simply did their best to warn traffic away from the speeding compact with the hope that the car would eventually run out of fuel.
* * *
Hyundai, meanwhile, said that it hasn't heard anything on the case. Spokesperson Jim Trainor reported to WFAA that it was "extremely unlikely for simultaneous and spontaneous total system failures for the brakes, accelerator and transmission to occur at the same time" and notes that Hyundai would like to investigate, but this is the first they've heard of Lushaj's wild ride.


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Old 02-26-2013, 03:18 PM
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hmmm.....
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Old 02-26-2013, 03:26 PM
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haven't their been a couple similar situations like this over the years? ones where nothing could be found wrong with the car and it was concluded to be some kind of stunt perpetrated by the driver for attention?
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Old 02-26-2013, 03:28 PM
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sounds like a hungry sue trigger happy wannabee.
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Old 02-26-2013, 03:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JB3 View Post
haven't their been a couple similar situations like this over the years? ones where nothing could be found wrong with the car and it was concluded to be some kind of stunt perpetrated by the driver for attention?
Had he not rolled the car at high speed that would have been my thought, too. I mean that's really carrying a stunt too far, no matter how much attention you want!
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Old 02-26-2013, 04:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Can't Know View Post
Had he not rolled the car at high speed that would have been my thought, too. I mean that's really carrying a stunt too far, no matter how much attention you want!

the one I was thinking of was where the woman says the car locked in at something like 40mph and drove around for hours with a police escort, later testing showed the car perfectly functional and nothing out of the ordinary.

is this gen 5 elantra limited? 120mph sounds about right for governed top speed. still, seems weird that the kid couldn't do anything. On one hand, a lot of cars require application of the brake to shift into neutral and at that speed its possible he couldn't move the lever. To shut it off, same problem, shifter probably had to be in park to remove the key or shut it off, but he could have still been standing on the brakes and pull the parking brake probably. Maybe he did and they burned out, would be nice when more info is available.

I suppose there is a possibility this actually happened as the kid states.
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Old 02-26-2013, 04:06 PM
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Modern cars....
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Old 02-26-2013, 04:24 PM
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I just googled it real quick and the Elantra is available with a pushbutton start option, so no key to turn off. Probably you can shut down the engine by holding down the start/stop button, but how many owners do you think read the manual and actually learn that fact?

My guess is that all drivers ride the brakes for a while to control speed, not realizing they have enough brake to make one good stop even with the throttle pegged. Once the brakes are hot and faded there isn't much you can do.
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Old 02-26-2013, 04:52 PM
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Perhaps it's time for cars to start coming with a standardized kill switch in a standardized location the way motorcycles do.

The funny thing is they aren't really that useful on a motorcycle since nearly all of them are manual transmission and a stuck throttle can be dealt with by simply pulling the clutch, not to mention most motorcycles have a keyed start and almost all of those are in the same location and work the same way. The kill switch is good for confirming that you aren't quite used to a new pair of gloves though.
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Old 02-26-2013, 04:52 PM
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Modern cars....
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Old 02-26-2013, 05:44 PM
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Is it drive by wire? If it is then all bets are off. Elec problem & it goes to WOT. After the crash there are that many elec faults that it has probably reset itself.
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Old 02-26-2013, 05:48 PM
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yes sir its drive by wire - but its transmission control lever - aka gearshifter is still mechanical and can be moved to N even without any other action - just push it and its in N - let the engine rev its guts out - at least you remain safe.
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Old 02-26-2013, 05:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zulfiqar View Post
yes sir its drive by wire - but its transmission control lever - aka gearshifter is still mechanical and can be moved to N even without any other action - just push it and its in N - let the engine rev its guts out - at least you remain safe.
If its manual, I would agree. In autos it may be a mechanical leaver into the gearbox, but it only moves things in the valve body. There are often electronic controls within the box that control the fluid pressure to the various clutch control pistons.
Some how I cant see the Koreans bothering to make it all fail safe.
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Old 02-26-2013, 06:07 PM
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I've posted it before, and I'll post it again. All automobiles are designed so that the brakes are more powerful than the engine. The factor of safety is somewhere around 3, meaning that the brakes can handle 3X the HP of the engine. If someone is standing on the brake pedal, there is no way that the car accelerates on its own.
Driver error. Or in the words of the safety investigation on the Audi, " Pedal misapplication"
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  #15  
Old 02-26-2013, 06:17 PM
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hyundia wants to investigate!gonna go get em the black box and see just what this boy been up to yo!just like the NYtimes auto reporter that said the tesla was a piece of crap.get the box and see just what he was doing.

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