[s-cars] NAC - Another Toyota story - Followup

[John Cody Forbes]

First off, the OEM's will have it termed a "parking brake", cars do not have 
an "emergency brake" any longer. Mercedes has used electric parking brakes 
for years. Mechanics have to be weary because they can/will automatically 
set after a given time so one must disconnect the battery for a brake pad 
replacement. Scary stuff. The new Porsche 991 (2011 model year 911, 997 
successor) will have an electric parking brake too.

-Cody Forbes

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From: "Calvin Craig" <calvinlc at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 6:15 PM
To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] NAC - Another Toyota story - Followup

> Sorry, had to do a followup, as I got "lucky enough" to get a Toyota Camry
> on my latest business trip as arental - time for some testing :)
>
> First thing I noticed was that all seats had floor mats except for the
> driver's :)  Kind of funny.  Anyway, the first thing I wanted to test was 
> do
> the brakes win?  The answer was a resounding YES.  I could floor the car 
> at
> any speed or in any gear and apply the brakes with my left foot, and every
> time the brakes would bring the car to a halt.  So if people are actually
> pressing the brake pedal it simply cannot be a stuck accelerator for any
> reason, floor mat, sticky linkage or otherwise.  This leads me to two
> conclusions, asssuming not all 300+ complaintants are complete idiots.
>
> 1. There has to be some sort of electronics/software that is not allowing
> the brakes to override the accelerator.
> 2. What the hell is any car manufacturer doing with a braking system that
> could ever, given any failure, electronically override the pedal input?  I
> though antilocks were supposed to not do this.  There are some things that
> should be simple and bullet proof - brakes being one of them.  Of course
> recently I got a Cadillac rental that had an electronic emergency brake!
> Well I hope you don't need that if the car's electrical system has failed!
> Geez, what are these people thinking!
>
> --Calvin
>
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