Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bellcore!porthos!nvuxr!ccw
From: ccw@nvuxr.UUCP (christopher wood)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Techno Terror
Message-ID: <16@nvuxr.UUCP>
Date: 1 May 91 14:12:29 GMT
References: <9517@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL> <1991Apr30.020847.12423@osh3.OSHA.GOV> <1991Apr30.225521.755@husc3.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: ccw@nvuxr.UUCP (22456-christopher wood)
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Lines: 36

In article <1991Apr30.225521.755@husc3.harvard.edu> mason3@husc9.harvard.edu (Richard Mason) writes:

>(And yes, a bug in that automatic system can be fatal: witness
>the Audis that unpredictably lunged into first gear and killed people due
>to a fault in the cruise control chip).

No faults were ever discovered in the Audis.  This is a popular
misconception spread mostly by the media.  The cars lunged forward
because drivers stomped on the gas, thinking it was the brake.  I saw
the woman on 60 minutes: "I pressed harder and harder on the brake, and
the car just kept going faster and faster".  After the accident, no
problems were found with either the cruise control or the brake system
on that car (or what was left, after it was stopped)

It is tragic that people were injured or killed by these incidents, and
it's easy to "blame the engineers" rather than admit that the driver
could have possibly made a mistake that had tragic consequences. 
Improved driver education is probably the only answer - If your car
surges forward, take your feet OFF the pedals.  then find the brake, and
stop your car.  (I have tried the following experiment, which convinced
me:  find an large, empty parking lot/road.  Large and empty are the key
words.  Press the accelerator down to the floor.  Car starts
accelerating.  Use your other foot to press the brake down hard.  Car
stops, while the throttle is wide open.  Therefore, anyone who claims
that they were pressing the brake as hard as they could, and the car was
not stopping is either: having a failure of the braking system, or
pressing the wrong pedal.  The second symptom, the engine revving all
the way up, makes it easy to figure out what was going on, especially
when the brakes are investigated afterwards.




-- 
Chris Wood     Bellcore     ...!bellcore!nvuxr!ccw
                         or ccw@nvuxr.cc.bellcore.com