2nd gen Toyota Prius pedal sticks even after servicing, guy survives

[Clev]

Questions Arise in Prius Case - WSJ.com

And his house of cards starts to fall.

[TheEnemy]

A couple of questions

1. Does the pedal on a Prius (or any drive by wire for that matter) move, even when you engage the cruise control?

2. If the throttle is supposed to cut off when you press the brake, how was the guy in California able to burn the brakes to fake the runaway condition?

[Clev]

The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes

Almost as if he accelerated, braked, accelerated, braked...

[Old Tele man]

Originally Posted by Clev

Almost as if he accelerated, braked, accelerated, braked...

...sounds consistent with Automatic Brake System (ABS), you push the pedal down and the computer "modulates/pulses" the actual braking pressure just short of wheel "lockup."

[NeilBlanchard]

Remember folks -- the Prius has a throttle override on the brake, so if he applied the brakes, then the throttle was cut off. Ditto for putting it in Neutral (or Park for that matter). And pushing the Power button for 3 or more seconds would have solved his "problem" as well.

[TheEnemy]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Remember folks -- the Prius has a throttle override on the brake, so if he applied the brakes, then the throttle was cut off. Ditto for putting it in Neutral (or Park for that matter). And pushing the Power button for 3 or more seconds would have solved his "problem" as well.

Heres the problem though, the police officer noted that the brake lights were on and that he was not decelerating. Which means either the driver found the point at which he could be on both the brakes and throttle. The throttle override had been deactivated, was not working properly, or the car didn't have it installed.

Still though, 30 miles of hard on braking, even if he had lost vaccum assist would have worn the pads to nothing and ground the metal base into the rotors with very extensive damage to the brake system.

Edit: after doing some research, I found out you have to get into the brakes pretty hard to get the engine override to engage. That would make it pretty easy to drag the brakes to make it look like he was trying to stop, while still heating them up so they smell.

[cfg83]

TheEnemy -

Originally Posted by TheEnemy

Heres the problem though, the police officer noted that the brake lights were on and that he was not decelerating. Which means either the driver found the point at which he could be on both the brakes and throttle. The throttle override had been deactivated, was not working properly, or the car didn't have it installed.

Still though, 30 miles of hard on braking, even if he had lost vaccum assist would have worn the pads to nothing and ground the metal base into the rotors with very extensive damage to the brake system.

Curioser and curiouser, I hadn't heard that. Maybe Mr. Sikes turned the parking lights on to emulate brakelights.

[EDIT] - Ok, so you could emulate brakes on by not pressing too hard ...

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

Could always rest foot very lightly on the brake pedal throughout these shenanigans too. (lightly- a pun!!! )

[NeilBlanchard]

Toyota and NHTSA have preliminarily tested the car that Mr Sikes was driving:

Toyota Casts Doubt On Claim Of Runaway Prius : NPR

Toyota's tests show that the accelerator was fully depressed and that James Sikes lightly hit the brakes more than 250 times during his 24-minute ride last Monday.

If this goes to court, I hope Mr Sikes is asked: "Where were you driving to/from when this happened?" If he can't answer this satisfactorily, it would show it is likely that he was driving with the purpose of faking this incident.