I'm not sure driver mistaking the pedals is a fair starting point with the amount of software involved now a days. Telsas push updates over the air that affect these sorts of things. In this article[0] for example, it's suggested a once optional feature that is now mandatory can be used for one pedal driving.
Of the cases where 'pedal mistake' doesn't explain it, self-interested, logical game theory suggests that a large portion are people who KNOW they accelerated manually and are seeking to avoid liability. Of those even not deliberately seeking innocence, there is a portion still whose human memory has post-rationalized that the car was in fact responsible, because they would never..
One pedal driving is for braking by recharging your battery, I've never heard of it actually using the physical breaks. It wouldn't make sense since when there's no emergency, you want to minimize the use of physical breaks since the turn the mechanical energy into thermal energy, essentially wasting it.
Remember the issue of Toyota’s with unintended acceleration? That was 100% due to fat feet so this is indeed a very fair starting point. This has happened so so so many times without any technology involved. The tech may have changed but the human behind the wheel hasn’t.
The first major cause of unintended acceleration was found in March 2007, when an engineering analysis showed that unsecured all-weather mats had led to pedal entrapment and drivers accelerating up to 90 mph with decreased braking power...
...Early on, Toyota suggested that driver error was to blame, saying that some people may have hit the gas when they meant to hit the brake...
...This led to Toyota sending a letter to the owners of the affected car, a 2007 Lexus ES350, asking that they bring their cars in to switch out the all-weather mats...
...After this recall, Toyota decided to revise the internal design of their cars to ensure that there was "10 millimetres (0.39 in) between a fully depressed gas pedal and the floor," but decided to only implement the new designs upon the next "full model redesign", which wouldn't take place until 2010...
...In an attempt to hide these defects from investigators, Toyota switched to verbal communication on the defect rather than traceable forms of communication. As a result, many new cars were knowingly produced with the same floor mat issues that had been identified as being having the potential to cause SUA problems in association with the defective pedal design..."
> Toyota Motor Corporation Admits to Misleading Consumers and U.S. Regulator About Safety Issues Related to Unintended Acceleration in Its Cars ... TOYOTA to pay a $1.2 billion financial penalty – the largest penalty of its kind ever imposed on an automotive company
Probably not with the Toyota given the model, but this can often be both a human error and bad design.
In some cases, "human error" is at least partly attributable to poor human factors engineering. It sometimes happens with SUVs and large trucks with large transmission wells that effectively move the pedals towards the driver side door. When in a panic situation, people will sometimes mistake the location of accelerator for the brake out of sheer muscle memory.
The problem with that is that I wouldn't put it past Tesla to update that software and/or the data even after a crash if the car can be reached to avoid liability.
elif|3 years ago
maximus-decimus|3 years ago
panick21_|3 years ago
I would require really strong evidence to believe it is anything else.
aardvarkr|3 years ago
belter|3 years ago
The first major cause of unintended acceleration was found in March 2007, when an engineering analysis showed that unsecured all-weather mats had led to pedal entrapment and drivers accelerating up to 90 mph with decreased braking power...
...Early on, Toyota suggested that driver error was to blame, saying that some people may have hit the gas when they meant to hit the brake...
...This led to Toyota sending a letter to the owners of the affected car, a 2007 Lexus ES350, asking that they bring their cars in to switch out the all-weather mats...
...After this recall, Toyota decided to revise the internal design of their cars to ensure that there was "10 millimetres (0.39 in) between a fully depressed gas pedal and the floor," but decided to only implement the new designs upon the next "full model redesign", which wouldn't take place until 2010...
...In an attempt to hide these defects from investigators, Toyota switched to verbal communication on the defect rather than traceable forms of communication. As a result, many new cars were knowingly produced with the same floor mat issues that had been identified as being having the potential to cause SUA problems in association with the defective pedal design..."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration...
nullc|3 years ago
Wait. What???
https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/pubs/koopman14_toyota_ua_...
and
> Toyota Motor Corporation Admits to Misleading Consumers and U.S. Regulator About Safety Issues Related to Unintended Acceleration in Its Cars ... TOYOTA to pay a $1.2 billion financial penalty – the largest penalty of its kind ever imposed on an automotive company
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-...
bumby|3 years ago
In some cases, "human error" is at least partly attributable to poor human factors engineering. It sometimes happens with SUVs and large trucks with large transmission wells that effectively move the pedals towards the driver side door. When in a panic situation, people will sometimes mistake the location of accelerator for the brake out of sheer muscle memory.
jacquesm|3 years ago