This doesn't mention the horrible spaghetti code NASA found when reviewing the code. 250k lines of C with thousands of global variables. It leaves a pretty bad taste.
Then again, I still wouldn't be surprised if most people were just too perplexed if their car suddenly accelerated like crazy and not stay calm and hit the brakes as hard as possible right away. It might take you a second or two to get what's going on, and by then you might already have lost control.
>Then again, I still wouldn't be surprised if most people were just too perplexed if their car suddenly accelerated like crazy and not stay calm and hit the brakes as hard as possible right away. It might take you a second or two to get what's going on, and by then you might already have lost control.
Without electronics or software involved, many years ago (1980's or so) there was a FIAT diesel engine, that was widely used on mid-sized cars, typically the Ritmo (Strada in the US) that had a servo-brake working by depression coming from the engine that had a defective membrane.
Basically, it could happen that the membrane broke/got a hole in it and the oil from the engine would enter the combustion chamber, to the effect that the engine would go up at full revs.
And you couldn't switch it off, the only way was to depress the clutch pedal, put in fourth or fifth gear and brake hard while releasing quickly the clutch.
It was a terrifying experience for someone not very familiar with cars/engines, though most people using a manual gearbox know that by depressing the clutch and braking would stop the car (so no or few accidents caused by this issue), knowing how to forcibly turn off the engine wasn't (and still is not) common knowledge, the motor would continue going on for a few minutes until something else would break or the oil in the engine would have been mostly burned (leaving the engine with no lubrication at full revs) until the engine would seize up.
I can't speak to what most people would do, but I've experienced unintended acceleration before. The throttle stuck all the way open while I was driving a friend's car because he routed the throttle cable improperly after installing a larger carburetor for more power. I had intended to give it full throttle, but only briefly.
I stood on the brakes and didn't let up. He reached over and shut off the key, which locked the steering and put us in the ditch, but at relatively low speed due to the continuous braking.
No, and I haven't driven a car with that behavior. Most US market cars have a sequence of lock, off, accessory power, on, start as the key is turned farther clockwise. Some cars require manipulation of a lever near the key to reach the lock position.
Very new cars with an entirely radio-based "key" might behave something like that.
Then again, I still wouldn't be surprised if most people were just too perplexed if their car suddenly accelerated like crazy and not stay calm and hit the brakes as hard as possible right away. It might take you a second or two to get what's going on, and by then you might already have lost control.