<VV> Unintended acceleration (no Corvair)

[Brandes, Guy]

I work at a automobile dealership who's manufacturer did extensive test
on this when Audi was having these issues and found where it could
happen it was virtually impossible to over drive the brake pedal IF it
was applied.  When Audi's issues were brought out in the media, every
manufacture had people running in claiming that the accidents that they
had were caused by unintended acceleration.

Regards,

Guy Brandes

65 VAIR 140


When that Audi incident came to light I scoffed at the poor gal, too.
How 
could a car take off on its own? I saw her on 60 Minutes(?) and she said
she knew 
the difference between the brake and accelerator pedals and swore she
had her 
foot on the brake. I think she believed that, but I figured she had just
made 
a tragic mistake that killed her little boy.

Then, a few years alater, I was driving a rental car (a Taurus) which 
suddenly began accelerating on its own. I was doing about about 55 on a
two-lane 
highway in CC and the car began accelerating to 60, 65... I punched the
Off button 
several times and it had no effect. There was no traffic ahead of me  so
I 
wasn't in big trouble, and when I touched the brake pedal the CC
disconnected 
and all was well. It didn't happen again with that car.

Later, on two or three different cars (all Fords, I think), it happened 
again. One was in town, at a boulevard speed, and it happened twice with
that car. 
I therefore have concluded that such things ARE possible, whether or not
it 
truly happened to that gal. 

Of course, we don't have such problems with our 'Vairs, ha ha. 

--Tom in Ohio

***

In a message dated 5/7/2008 10:07:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes: 
> Craig adds:
> The reason for the "foot on the brake" interlock was precisely to
solve part
> of the Audi "unintended acceleration" issue, which turned out to be
"foot on
> the wrong pedal".  You HAVE to have your foot on the "right" pedal in
order
> for the car to start. Neutral safety switches don't do that. (Sure
made
> Audis a great buy for about 10 years!)
> 
> Craig Nicol