Cruise Control Crisis

fryup

Did you see this on the news?? (its a ford BTW):cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odijgjryFRk

VanhireBoys

Why not switch it off at the key and coast FFS. I take it that yoke is auto... There would be enough vacuum in the servo to brake up as well even with the engine off ..

I had the throttle on a GSi Cavalier jam wide open.. I just went for the key and coasted safely to a stop no drama, no you tube, no forum slabbering, no foning cops and no ambulance.

Something about that story just dosent add up.. What a drama queen.. If that jeep was a manual he needs a wet kipper up the mouth....!

oisin_t

lol apparently he rang the ford dealership and they put him on hold! so he hung up and rang the police!

Boom_Bap

i read another report on this, he couldn't turn the key in the ignition so that ruled out that option.

Slamming on the brake and the the handbrake at the same time stopped the car.

ikillcopiers

A lot of the modern cars won't let you take the key out whilst driving,
and if it's a electronic auto it won't let you change gear either.

Same thing happened in France a few years ago to a guy in a Vel Satis
on the Autoroute.

Article here!

Too many electronics in todays cars, wheras older cars you told the car
what to do, now you only ask the car if it will do something for you,
there's a big difference!

Henry Ford III

What a load of rubbish.

Cruise control can not stop the brakes working as normal. He could also have put the car into neutral.

BlackWizard

Depends on the cruise control. Down under they do things different.

Australian cruise control:

MarkR

Supposedly he did try to remove the key, did try the foot brake, and did try to put it into neutral. Anyone remember the lorry driver a while back who faked something like this?

I can't see this being a stunt, unless there is something very wrong with the driver mentally. He did wind up in oncoming traffic and wound up inches from other cars when he eventually came to a stop when both brakes were applied. I still kind of wonder is he mad or the car seriously faulty...

Alanstrainor

So let me get this straight, the one thing that stopped him in the end was applying the brakes/handbrake as hard as he could?, i would never have thought of that...

unkel

What a big girls blouse. Was that him being stretchered off with a neck brace as well? That sissy should be in serious trouble for wasting police (and my) time.

Theta

Seems to be making a big deal out of nothing to me!

high horse

I'm sure I'm missing something with this story. He stopped his car with the brakes, hit nothing and was stretchered away by ambulance? Is this guy an out of work actor looking for his 15 minutes or what?

Guy:Incognito

ikillcopiers wrote: »

A lot of the modern cars won't let you take the key out whilst driving,
and if it's a electronic auto it won't let you change gear either.

Same thing happened in France a few years ago to a guy in a Vel Satis
on the Autoroute.

Article here!

Too many electronics in todays cars, wheras older cars you told the car
what to do, now you only ask the car if it will do something for you,
there's a big difference!

Whats with all these stupid people? It took the French guy an hour to realise all he had to do was whip out the keycard? And the Aussie a half hour to try slammign on the breaks?

R.O.R

Stekelly wrote: »

Whats with all these stupid people? It took the French guy an hour to realise all he had to do was whip out the keycard?

Ever driven a Megane or Laguna and tried to whip out the Keycard at motorway speeds? I have, and the key slides out with no problem at all and makes not one jot of difference to the running of the engine :pac:

Guy:Incognito

R.O.R wrote: »

Ever driven a Megane or Laguna and tried to whip out the Keycard at motorway speeds? I have, and the key slides out with no problem at all and makes not one jot of difference to the running of the engine :pac:

Depends on whic ones, older ones lock the card in. In the article it says all he did was pull the card out after an hour and hey presto!

I regularly drive the missus 05 Scenic with the card out because she insistes on having a bunch of keys on it that bug the crap out of me. All you do to stop is push the stop/start button twice and the car stops without the card.

fryup

just on a side note - that policewoman is hot!!

milltown

ikillcopiers wrote: »

A lot of the modern cars won't let you take the key out whilst driving,
and if it's a electronic auto it won't let you change gear either.

Does your engine stop when you turn the key, or do you have to take it out?

There was another one of these geniuses in a BMW a few years back that claimed his cruise control stuck on and he couldn't change gear or turn the engine off so he burned out his brakes at 100+mph while on the phone to the police before ploughing through a roundabout (iirc). BMW looked into it and couldn't see any way that the sequence of catastrophes the guy described could have occurred.
To be sure, I tried shifting my auto to neutral while driving and it shifted no trouble at all.

Voodoomelon

Yeh all autos allow you to swap into neutral no problem. I find it bizarre that the brakes alone had no effect.

Pete4779

VanhireBoys wrote: »

Something about that story just dosent add up.. What a drama queen.. If that jeep was a manual he needs a wet kipper up the mouth....!

My thoughts exactly, but probably paranoia and industrial espionage

I don't believe a word that not turning off the ignition or hitting the brake would not stop it. The switch can malfunction of course, but for 12 years + cruise control is overridden if the brake is used - whether it's "switched" on or off.

Some sort of ploy to plant seeds of doubt for when drivers become passengers in the next few years e.g., GPS speed limits and lane control, automatically using radar to drive in convoy?

x in the city

Aussie uses brakes to stop speeding car shocker.!


next...

milltown

Pete4779 wrote: »

I don't believe a word that not turning off the ignition or hitting the brake would not stop it. The switch can malfunction of course, but for 12 years + cruise control is overridden if the brake is used - whether it's "switched" on or off.

In fairness, all it takes is a faulty brake switch to stop the brakes disengaging the cruise control but a chorus of "shenanigans" is in order if we're to believe that the cruise control stuck on and couldn't be disengaged by the brakes or the 'off' button AND the transmission stuck in gear AND the ignition wouldn't turn off.

Mr Benevolent

PR stunt lads. All prearranged. No-one is going to have time to phone the emergency services and says 'OMG I'm gonna die'. Probably viral marketing by Holden/Vauxhall/Opel/ GM or whatever you want to call them. The other possibility is this guy was just stupid. Calling
a press conference smacks of trying far too hard though.

MarkR

And the guys name is Chase?!