> Around 10.35pm on Sunday 1 October, we received a report of a driver unable to stop his electric car on the A803 heading towards Kirkintilloch. The car was travelling at a low speed and officers carried out a controlled halt with the aid of a police vehicle. There was no damage to either vehicle. The driver arranged for the vehicle to be recovered
I don't think it has a 'power' switch that you can flip to cut power. In fact I'm not sure many ICE vehicles will do that these days. If I press the 'engine start / stop' button in my car while I'm not stopped, I don't think it will stop the engine.
According to a more extensive, and more lurid report [1] the driver "tried the park button, engine off button, everything"
It also says "Police worked with their engineers and tried everything" - even taking the car key out of range by passing it out the window to a police car driving alongside.
I now am an advocate that the driver should be able to reach the fireman's disconnect for the battery from inside the cabin seated in the driving position.
MG Motor UK Limited (MG Motor) is an automotive company owned by SAIC Motor UK, headquartered in London, owned by the Shanghai-based Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor. [0]
The handbrake is usually fully manual, but it's also not terribly strong especially against an electric motor in its optimal torque region. That leaves you with the regular brakes. Now, I don't know if they're vacuum-assist hydraulic or brake-by-wire on electric cars such as this ..
If you got a steel wire parking brake you won't even notice pulling it at speed on many models. (Don't try this at home ...). You can usually apply more torque on front wheel drive with the motor than the brake can hold since the front is heavier.
Newer cars usually have some electronic parking brake that might just refuse to do its thing. And the key is not connected to a relay over the batteries usually nowadays.
ABS vents can lock you out from using the main wheel brakes.
> Isn't it a requirement for cars to have emergency brakes for situations when the normal method of braking fails?
No. Cars usually have parking brakes, which can be more or less useful as emergency brakes, but that is not their primary function and they are not designed or usually very useful for that purpose for a vehicle stuck with more than minimal power being applied.
This article (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/motors/11320530/electric-ve...), which features a picture of the driver looking displeased, doesn't mention the emergency break but says that he tried everything, even turning off the engine. Police had engineers from the car company on the phone trying to come up with ways to stop the car. I have to assume the emergency brake came up as an option.
Maybe activating the emergency brake requires using a touch screen?
I think the MG4 has a brake by wire system, although those are supposed to have a failsafe built in but if it's not electro-hydraulic there might not be a mechanical link between the pedal and the callipers. Handbrake will be electric too, so activation depends on enough of the car brain functioning.
Keyless ignition usually has an override for a running car too, in a ford pushing the button three times within a few seconds turns the combustion engine off. Wonder if that's the same in electric cars, otherwise the only way I can think to kill it is isolate the batteries, same as emergency services would do in an accident.
There's the parking break, but depending on how fast you're going it might be a bad idea to use that instead of crashing in a straight line (you probably gonna swivel)
the "emergency" brake is actually the parking brake. it cannot hold up against engine power. if you have a car you can try this yourself.
apparently the car in question was stuck in a mode where there was a constant torque request (throttle setting) that was enough to overpower the brake. or, the car helpfully wouldn't allow engaging of the parking brake while the car was still in "D" mode.
i would also have tried opening the door. many cars will take the car out of gear when a door is opened. (frustratingly to me, as it can in rare occasion be helpful to crack open the door when in reverse, to look down for parking lines etc. a very loud warning chime would be better for me personally than this nanny feature.)
60 Minutes had a program where they looked at cars that did not stop when you press the break. And all of their tests, no matter what, even if they were holding down the gas pedal, pressing the break, brings the car to a stop.
Unless there is shown to be a physical defect or fault that prevented the brakes engaging, I am inclined to believe the driver is at fault.
[+] [-] diggan|2 years ago|reply
> Around 10.35pm on Sunday 1 October, we received a report of a driver unable to stop his electric car on the A803 heading towards Kirkintilloch. The car was travelling at a low speed and officers carried out a controlled halt with the aid of a police vehicle. There was no damage to either vehicle. The driver arranged for the vehicle to be recovered
[+] [-] slillibri|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hbrav|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelt|2 years ago|reply
It also says "Police worked with their engineers and tried everything" - even taking the car key out of range by passing it out the window to a police car driving alongside.
[1] https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/motors/11320530/electric-ve...
[+] [-] EricE|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yumraj|2 years ago|reply
MG Motor UK Limited (MG Motor) is an automotive company owned by SAIC Motor UK, headquartered in London, owned by the Shanghai-based Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor. [0]
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_Motor
[+] [-] yladiz|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjc50|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rightbyte|2 years ago|reply
Newer cars usually have some electronic parking brake that might just refuse to do its thing. And the key is not connected to a relay over the batteries usually nowadays.
ABS vents can lock you out from using the main wheel brakes.
Welcome to the future of drive by wire cars.
[+] [-] dragonwriter|2 years ago|reply
No. Cars usually have parking brakes, which can be more or less useful as emergency brakes, but that is not their primary function and they are not designed or usually very useful for that purpose for a vehicle stuck with more than minimal power being applied.
[+] [-] autoexec|2 years ago|reply
Maybe activating the emergency brake requires using a touch screen?
[+] [-] caiusdurling|2 years ago|reply
Keyless ignition usually has an override for a running car too, in a ford pushing the button three times within a few seconds turns the combustion engine off. Wonder if that's the same in electric cars, otherwise the only way I can think to kill it is isolate the batteries, same as emergency services would do in an accident.
[+] [-] tough|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiveturkey|2 years ago|reply
apparently the car in question was stuck in a mode where there was a constant torque request (throttle setting) that was enough to overpower the brake. or, the car helpfully wouldn't allow engaging of the parking brake while the car was still in "D" mode.
i would also have tried opening the door. many cars will take the car out of gear when a door is opened. (frustratingly to me, as it can in rare occasion be helpful to crack open the door when in reverse, to look down for parking lines etc. a very loud warning chime would be better for me personally than this nanny feature.)
[+] [-] Simulacra|2 years ago|reply
Unless there is shown to be a physical defect or fault that prevented the brakes engaging, I am inclined to believe the driver is at fault.
[+] [-] stuckkeys|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiveturkey|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EricE|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atlasunshrugged|2 years ago|reply