I HATE EVs because...

CraigB said:
Older cars with an actual ignition switch and key? For sure. Newer vehicles with push button start? You got me.
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One time, within the first month of owning my 2015 Mazda 3, the "start" button wouldn't kill the engine when I got home. It took...what felt like 10 minutes, so it was probably more like 5, before it finally cut.

FWIW, the dealer couldn't get it to repeat, couldn't find an issue, and it's never happened again...but it did happen once.
 
In my MX-5 a normal push of the button only stops the engine if the car is at a standstill. To kill it while rolling, you need to do a long press (according to the manual). Of course, a stuck throttle pedal can be mitigated by pressing the clutch and/or putting the gearbox into neutral... which might perhaps not be possible with a modern, fully electronically controlled automatic gearbox.

By the way, the manual for the MX-5 has 15 pages (!) on starting and stopping the engine, not counting the chapter on the stop/start system. The whole manual has 603 pages. No, I haven't read it.

Anyway, I'm sceptical about the story. Most "unintended accelerations" turn out to be the fault of the driver after all...
 
NooDle said:
Also, this could have been an ICE car but then again that wouldn't be such a good headline
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According to the second link, the situation ended when the car ran out of juice. Good thing it wasn't a freshly filled up diesel...
 
Also a manual car can be easily put in to neutral, obviously. A shift-by-cable automatic can too, just bump the selector from D up to N. The selector is even designed to allow being knocked to N in a panic without pushing the button, but it won't go further so you won't accidentally put it into reverse and cause damage. A shift-by-wire? You're at the mercy of the programmers.

I had a Volvo where the throttle body (mechanical) liked to jam up on occasion. It wasn't the position sensor or the cable, I fired up the Parts Cannon and put a new throttle cable and position sensor on because those two were the easy and cheap parts, but it didn't help. I never fixed it so I have no idea what actually was wrong. What I do know is that the next owner broke down in it, only a couple of months after my 4-5 years of (mostly) uneventful motoring. It was at the shop for weeks and she wasn't too happy with her Volvo purchase. The problem? The position sensor I put on. :censored2:
 
DanRoM said:
In my MX-5 a normal push of the button only stops the engine if the car is at a standstill.
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Heh, never thought of that. Dunno if it works in an EV, but I still can't quite get my head around the "I can't stop" thing.
Most EVs have regenerative braking, so even if your brakes don't work, just put the car in its heaviest mode and let it slow itself?
Even if it didn't have that, just rolling to a halt is still an option, right? And you're not telling me there aren't other ways to disengage the cruise control?
Most "unintended accelerations" turn out to be the fault of the driver after all...
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Also very much this
 
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