[quote=jimmyle]I am driving a Prius but I don’t believe the floor mat is the problem like Toyota have said. There is a lot of gas pedal clearance in the Prius. The main problem is in the electronic throttle. Now Toyota will update the software so that once you apply pressure to the brake, the gas throttle will shut off. Before, you could practically stand on the brake pedal and your car could still run because the gas throttle stuck in the open position (faulty electronic/software?). Obviously fixing the software with the override fix will help but it is not the full solution. The problem is that if you are close to another car and your car suddenly plunge forward you don’t have time to apply the brake to kill the throtlle. But this partial software solution will prevent life lost like what happened to the policeman and his family.
I think fixing the throttle and the electronics is too costly so they try to avoid it.[/quote]
Jimmle, what folks have been saying which makes sense is that if a car is at WOT, power assisted brakes, which draws vacuum from engine, will be rendered useless. This probably would be an issue with any car…It’s a little surprising that some car manufacturers have not implemented a throttle cutoff for a DBW car when the brakes are applied (mine does because it had the previous stigma of unintended acceleration that 60 minutes fabricated :))
The other solution would be just to buy a car with a stick 🙂
