So some guy has a Prius that speeds up to over 90mph no matter what the driver does. The gentleman then takes his cellphone, calls 911 and asks for help during an extended conversation while driving the possessed Prius on a busy highway, claiming he kept hitting the brakes and it wasn't slowing down at all. Did he put the car in neutral or turn the motor off? No, he claimed, that was too dangerous (presumably more so than having a conversation with 911 at 90 mph).
Hairy situation for sure, but... car magazines have done brake tests on several model cars from various speeds. In each case, with the accelerator to the floor, the brakes quickly stopped the car, usually within a few feet of normal stopping distance. I.e., brakes overpower the engine every time. ABC is accused of having run a fake possessed Prius story with data submitted by a professor who was paid by laywers. And CNN ran a video of some guy showing that you can very easily get a Prius to stop in any number of ways.
What gives? Are GM and Ford paying those folks to suddenly come up with Toyota stories? Are people vying for attention? Is there a general case of the stupids going around? Or are weakly Priuses all of a sudden able to defy the laws of physics?
In the meantime lawyers all over the nation are already salivating. Toyota is already sued to the tune of three billion dollars, with lawyers standing to collect a cool billion of that for themselves. And it'll likely become much more.
Greed? Idiocy? Incompetence? Unsafe at any speed hysteria? Lacking driver's ed? Too many electronic in cars? Poltergeist programming?
What do you all think?
Hairy situation for sure, but... car magazines have done brake tests on several model cars from various speeds. In each case, with the accelerator to the floor, the brakes quickly stopped the car, usually within a few feet of normal stopping distance. I.e., brakes overpower the engine every time. ABC is accused of having run a fake possessed Prius story with data submitted by a professor who was paid by laywers. And CNN ran a video of some guy showing that you can very easily get a Prius to stop in any number of ways.
What gives? Are GM and Ford paying those folks to suddenly come up with Toyota stories? Are people vying for attention? Is there a general case of the stupids going around? Or are weakly Priuses all of a sudden able to defy the laws of physics?
In the meantime lawyers all over the nation are already salivating. Toyota is already sued to the tune of three billion dollars, with lawyers standing to collect a cool billion of that for themselves. And it'll likely become much more.
Greed? Idiocy? Incompetence? Unsafe at any speed hysteria? Lacking driver's ed? Too many electronic in cars? Poltergeist programming?
What do you all think?
