Re: unintended acceleration sources

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

> alright everyone.  I need the list's collective resources once again to 
> fend off my stubborn friends...My friend seems to not believe the fact 
> that the drivers were responsible for the unintended acceleration as he 
> doesnt understand how they could mistake the gas pedal for the brake 
> pedal.  He also says that its funny that everyone went after Audi about 
> this and he feels that it is either true, or everyone is out to get audi. 

... so long ago ... I know that I read an article in one of the Auto rags
[AutoReek?] where they did some tests where they brought in some people 
who thought they were getting test drives to evaluate various cars.  They
had the cars rigged such that they could cause the car to surge suddenly,
and they tested the driver's responses.  They caught on film a situation 
where someone was backing up the car, and erroneously depressed the accel-
erator instead of the brake.  The driver stated that they were braking, 
but the film shows the brake lights were not on.  I may have the story 
slightly fuzzy but it should be close.  

The other interesting thing to note is that there were other marques that 
had UI claims against them as well ... my recollection was that there were
some that had even more claims against them than Audi!  Perhaps these marques
were paying advertising dollars to CBS ...
> 
> Also, i came across a  couple of other things with my friend.  On one of 
> the pages it stated that in 1995 the government called the A6 the safest 
> car in america based on their tests, well, since it was placed above 
> bimmer, my friend didnt believe them.  Also i came across a JD Power and 
> 
I believe that the A6 has also scored the highest safety scores in Sweeden!

Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)