Report: Toyota May Replace Gas Pedals in Floormat Recall

I stand corrected....well sitting at my desk, not doing Jack!....
Thank You...

American States


Alabama:
Barefoot Driving: Operation of a motor vehicle by a driver with bare feet is permitted. Exception: motorcycle rider.
Ohio:
Barefoot Driving: Operation of a motor vehicle by a driver with bare feet is permitted but not recommended.
California:
Barefoot Driving: Operation of a motor vehicle by a driver with bare feet is not prohibited.
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming:
Barefoot Driving: Operation of a motor vehicle by a driver with bare feet is permitted


Live and learn!!

 

And virtually all other activities. :madgrin:

 

LOL - Carolyn's funny. They also have 2 other videos showing what happens when you shift into neutral and power off with the pedal floored.

 

If I read the displays correctly from the video:

• 73 -> 78 mph - using Power button hold for 3 seconds
• 73 -> 74 mph - using shift to neutral

Off hand, I like having no more than one extra MPH to deal with ... neutral wins.

Bob Wilson

 

Would you rather have someone driving barefoot? Or in flip flops? If I've got flip flops on (e.g. at the beach) I'll take them off to drive because the wide flat edges tend to hang on things, the foot moves around too much in the footwear, and the pedal feel is poor.

Driving with barefeet is arguably less dangerous than many common types of footwear. I don't drive barefoot much as I usually am wearing shoes to/from the vehicle anyway. If anything there is somewhat better pedal feel when barefoot. (Contrast with heavy work boots. I wonder about high heels as well, but have never tried that.)

 

Yeah, I always drive barefoot if I'm wearing flip-flops - barefoot is much better than driving in them!

 

I see a WONDERFUL You Tube opportunity here......

 

Not from me, Brother. Perhaps one of the ladies will comment about driving in heels?

 

I'm having trouble understanding how shoes help a driver to control the vehicle. If anything, wide chunky shoes (which some men seem to like) will make it harder.

Yes.

Having grown up in Honolulu where casual dress is prevalent, I agree. Further, even now in my advanced age, living in the western US and (reluctantly) wearing shoes, I remove them before driving.

 

Well, I suppose is does depend so much on habits obtained in your youth. Having grown up in England, where only the dirt poor go around barefoot, I still look askance at people, particularly younger ones here in Southern California, who walk around and presumably drive, either barefoot or in flip flops. I would agree however, that a greater sense of pedal control exists while driving barefoot. But I wouldn't want to do it either by choice, or go for a very long drive, unshod!

When you think about it, the whole act of car control via the feet is kind of a "group grope" routine anyway, since you're doing it all by feel! Far less precise than visible hand control.

Maybe it's time for a side-stick accelerator control (a la A320 et al) with the feet reserved for brakes only! Or a visual display of where your feet actually are. I believe some older vehicles did have hand operated accelerators at one time.

 

In wet weather, a wet shoe would cause the foot to slip off the brake pedal.
It had happened to me several times, bare foot could prevent this.

 

Hobbit can tell us a thing or two about barefoot driving. AFAIK, he wears shoes only when necessary -- and that doesn't include driving.

 

Ah, that bit of advice must have come from a tenderfoot who has never really discovered the joy of running about barefoot. Trust me, your feet toughen up rapidly. You wouldn't even notice those little stones if you've gone barefoot much.

I was accustomed to wearing shoes and boots as a boy until I was about 8 when I started going barefoot on the Plains. This worked well until sticker season...then the shoes went back on for awhile. Still, I got to where I could sprint down the sharp gravel covered asphalt. When I first went barefoot I couldn't even walk on that diamond shaped gravel.

 

Listen to the engine note - hear how it drops as soon as she presses the brake. In the Prius the brake absolutely does override the accelerator. The HV ECU gets messages from the Skid Control ECU to perform or cancel regen braking as appropriate, after all (the HV ECU normally applies a little regen if you lift off the accelerator, the Skid Control ECU asks for as much regen as it can get when you brake normally, but in emergency braking and ABS it asks for zero regen so it can control the speed of each wheel through friction braking without regen interfering).

I suppose that if the Skid Control ECU failed as well, leaving you with only manual (no assist) brakes on the front wheels, then you'd have trouble. Carolyn's 'power off' video shows that the Skid Control ECU's backup power supply does work in this situation (she mentions still having power brakes).

Of course, if the throttle actually did stick open - rather than the ECU thinking that the accelerator is down when it's not, or in fact it being stuck down - it would likely react differently. It depends whether the fuel-injection and spark software is independent of the throttle control. Still, for the Prius engine to actually do very much, MG1 must be providing resistance for it to push against. Otherwise MG1 just spins. If the HV ECU retains control over the motors I can't see how the car could accelerate in this situation.