How unfamiliar technology might have doomed these two women,

took almost 20 years and how may deaths to add that safety feature?

 

Oooohhh, lots of nice knobs and wheels! Apparently German U-Boat commanders never gave the order to "FIRE!" the torpedos in case the command was mis-understood to mean that a fire had broken out on board¹ (A VeryBad Thing on any boat) - to launch the torpedoes, the command used was "LOS!" (away!)

¹ - it's amazing what I've learned on YouTube!

 

I thought after you got your car on board you were required to be out of the car (the cynic says so they could sell you overpriced drinks). Least that was the rule on the last ferries I was on.

 

That certainly is not a requirement on any Washington State Ferry.

 

Likely because you are use to Toyotas or GMs. Ford has the wiper controls on the turn signal stalk , like Mercedes.

 

Is that where they hid it? And all this time I thought they were built for sunny days.

Jokes aside I think you were responding to text quoted from the linked article.

And either way that's a terrible shifter design for that Mercedes.

The 2019 Camry I had last week was fantastic for me. Almost every control was the kind I liked and right where I wanted it.

Another week, another trip. I'm flying West and signing out another rental tonight. Maybe it'll have a new shifter, just a camera that watches my hand signals and figures it out?

 

The EV1 had buttons you would punch a code into to start it. No keys, no remote. I have an owner's manual.

 

I don't feel push button start is technology for it's own sake. I think push button start, keyless entry, is simply technology that is accepted, appreciated and becoming more and more the normal standard for more and more automobiles.

Truth is with this story, we don't have enough information to conclude what may or may of not happened to cause the tragedy.

Misuse of ANY technology can result in fatal consequences. But automobile manufacturers work hard to provide comprehensible, safe technology.
I don't see anything here but a tragedy, of which we don't really have conclusive information as to how/why it happened.

Even if the ultimate result is that the tragedy occurred because the push button/emergency brake, "technology" was not used properly, I don't think it's grounds to call either push button start or keyless entry, technology for technologies sake.

You might as well say Ferry Boats shouldn't be used because they represent "old technology" that is inherently dangerous.

I feel sorry for the victims here, and their friends and family.
But at this point extrapolation that it's anything but an accident, and tragedy, and blaming it on "technology" is I think unfair.

Push Button Start, Keyless entry is now applied automobile technology reality that isn't going away. Accidents happen, with physical existence in this world. There is inherent risk in existing.
I'm not blaming the technology, there is at this point NO EVIDENCE that it was a flaw with the system.

 

Ah, apologies to @Georgina Rudkus then.

Read the article. Parents have the RDX with that button switch shifter. It was mounted higher and closer to the dash than right between the seats, like the car in the article; I can see something getting pushed by accident there. Takes me a moment to figure it out, but I've driven the car a total of three times. My parents see to have no problem with it.

Placement sees to be the issue with bad button shifters. You want the shifter easy to reach, not somewhere where it can be accidentally pushed. Placement is a concern with all shifters now that there isn't a control cable connecting it to the transmission anymore.

They seem to be complaining about the Pacifica's rotorary shifter to just complain. They worry about confusing it with another knob because of size, but it is obviously bigger in the photo. You must have to palm Jaguar's.

Personally, my concern with these designs is whether I can go into neutral, and back into drive without issue while moving.

The Jeep's was discussed here when it was in the news. Technically, the Prius shifter is 'monostable', it returns to a central position after being released. It had important differences though. The big one was that Park was a separate button above, near the top of the dash, where many an Asian car put the hazard button. It was also about the same size as those buttons. Next, selecting the 'gears' on the shifter involved moving it in different directions than just up or down. My wife still managed to put the car in neutral on me while on the highway though.

IIRC, if you opened the door on the Prius with it in drive or reverse while stopped, the car shifted to park; never tested it myself. A big advantage of electronic shifters is that the software can intercede in the case an input would result in damage or an unsafe situation. I think FCA hadn't done that.

After watching the video, I think I might like the Mercedes one. It is close to how the Prius' works, with park a separate button, and it is in easy reach. I would have gone with pulling or pushing the stalk away for neutral. It would problematic for selecting different gears, but paddle shifters are likely standard on Mercedes. The car does auto engage the parking brake on shutdown or opening a door.

GM likely didn't want to pay for the RFID tech at the time, or Mercedes may have had exclusive access to it then.

 

Maybe automatic shut down just ups the ante? People won't bother to hit the start/stop button.

There was something inherently safer, with the old key on a key ring, in the days before you could even lock the car with a "fob". Safety interlocks prevented you from removing the key till the car was off, you needed the keys to lock the car, and there was a good chance the other keys on the ring were going to be needed very soon. All these fail safes.

 

Remember some posters here saying they skipped the park pushing, and went right to power off.

 

At least with the car system. There is evidence of a flaw in the ferry operations though, to wit, a thin net instead of a stronger barrier over the open end.

 

These are completely natural motions for people accustomed to manual transmissions, which I believe are the predominant choice where this car was designed (Japan), and even around the whole world except North America.

That is news to me. In fact, I think I've inadvertently tested it myself, and it didn't work.

So that means it is time for an intentional test of it.

I do personally know that this is the case when trying to shift into R or P at speed in my Prii. So it has been ingrained into my muscle memory as a faster way of getting to N, just in case it is ever needed to stop a Sudden Unintended Acceleration. BTDT on a previous car, fortunately on a manual transmission where the clutch instantly reaches the same result.

 

That is likely changing with the growth in hybrid sales.

May have been this I was thinking of.

 

I had a Jeep with a start button, and it was decades older then our Prius.

.

 

did it work?

 

Until I fixed it, I had a '65 Beetle that was a push start. The guys would get out and push it and I would pop the clutch to turn the engine over.

 

I would have thought that being a little '65 Beetle, surely 4 (or even 3 or 2) strong persons could lift the back wheels off the ground, and spin the wheel!