[waterlesscloud]

So watching the video, I don't see a vehicle stalled on the highway.

What I see is a vehicle slowed considerably, but at least nominally over the legal minimum speed of 40 MPH on highways, and without the driver being able to accelerate on his own. He's travelling in the rightmost lane, explicitly with his hazard lights on. This is not an unusual occurrence on highways. He's then told that to regain control he needs to stop and restart the car, which he does while remaining in motion.

I was surprised, since this is quite different from the way it's being talked about here, as if he was stopped in the middle of the freeway. See GGP comment about "a car stopped in the middle of a multi-lane interstate."

That's not what happened here.

[Natsu]

Here's my attempt at a partial transcript starting from shortly after they disable the accelerator:

  Driver: "It says 43 miles an hour, but it's not really that fast."
  [voiceover omitted]
  Driver: "Guys, I'm stuck on the highway."
  Researcher A: "I think he's panicking."
  Researcher A: "He's not going to be able to hear us with that radio.  So loud."
  Driver: "Guys, I need the accelerator to work again."
  Researcher A: "The accelerator..."
  Researcher B: "It won't work!  You're doomed!"
  Driver:  "Seriously [beep] dangerous, I need to move."
  Researcher A: "You gotta turn the car off!"

Many cars can be seen passing them on the left in the video during the test.

[waterlesscloud]

Right, but the video never shows the car stalled on the highway. It's moving in every highway shot. It's in the righthand lane, not in the center. The driver is somewhat panicked. We can see how fast he's moving relative to the background.

This discussion has been distorted and sensationalized, and it has not been based on observable recorded facts.

[kbenson]

A car stalling does not necessarily indicate it is stopped. Stalled can indicate the vehicle is stopped, or it can also indicate the motor has stopped. Airplanes stall, and obviously they are not entirely stopped, it's just an indication that the motor has stopped. It's unclear as to whether the motor actually stopped, but it's not without precedent to use "stall" to indicate no power available for propulsion.

I don't think this discussion has been distorted. It's based on the information they provided. They put a vehicle on a public highway traveling at the faster end of what's legal in the US on public roads, and then removed a large portion of the drivers ability to control the vehicle. It's unclear whether this affected the steering or brakes, which in a modern vehicle would both be power assisted, generally through the vacuum system of the vehicle. The vacuum is provided by the engine, so if the engine was actually off (which is unknown, but I think it's more likely they just forced the car into neutral), then they removed a large portion of his ability to control the car.

The bottom line is that they put a driver in a situation not only unsafe to himself (which they could have gotten consent to), but unsafe for the other drivers on the road. They did not have consent from the other people on the road to do this (indeed, it's not possible they could have), and if what they purport to happen in the article and video did happen, then they endangered those people. I've seen accidents from stopped cars being hit by others. If the highway is busy enough, the initial accident isn't even necessarily the largest damage, but it moves vehicles into even more obstructing positions and causes follow-on accidents.

https://www.google.com/search?q=stalled+car+accident&tbm=isc...

[Natsu]

I can agree that the car is not shown at a full stall in the video, however it is the case that the driver reports that they are unable to control the vehicle during the test. I cannot agree that this would matter regarding the idea that this is "[beep] dangerous" as was stated by the driver, because that is supported by the driver's own statements as well as observable facts.