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Run-away I-PACE, really?

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#2
I read this and did find it a bit baffling. I drove past this yesterday along with the obligatory queue for people looking at nothing!!

He claims it sped up to 90mph but then no reason as to how it slowed down below that, you struggle to get to 70 going along that bit of the 62. Wouldn't rolling resistance get you to stop if your not touching the accelerator, or is his claim both the accelerator jammed on and the brakes failed together. Just not enough information really
 
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#3
Who knows with some drivers... I'd wager there's a lot of drivers out there that when faced with any abnormal condition on the road just loses all critical thinking or problem solving capability.

Even if you assume the article is true the car has I believe an actual physical button on the gear selector to put it in neutral. Does it let you do that while in motion? I presume it does. So, this person could have done that and just freewheeled to a stop (or better yet peeled off the motorway and come to a stop on the hard shoulder).

Quite puzzling though - as said above surely the regenerative braking or absence of accelerator input would make it slow down, unless it was "stuck" in cruise or something.

Because I'm an eternal cynic I'm inclined to believe they got zapped by a camera van and in a genius move decided to report their car as having failed, thus having a potentially viable defence to the upcoming speeding charge. Probably didn't bank on the Police banging into their car though.
 
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#5
Brakes will always overcome the powertrain in any car and enough redundancy is built in that this just won't happen, unless something very obvious physically intervenes i.e. a brick on the accelerator pedal and a brick under the brake pedal.

Otherwise, the driver pushing a wrong button or pressing a wrong pedal is often enough to confuse them, because it's not what they expected, so they think the car must be to blame. Difficult to hide behind incompetence when everyone drove manual ICE cars with no driver aids.
These days, there's plenty of opportunity to pass the blame.
 
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#6
Durzel said:
Who knows with some drivers... I'd wager there's a lot of drivers out there that when faced with any abnormal condition on the road just loses all critical thinking or problem solving capability.

Even if you assume the article is true the car has I believe an actual physical button on the gear selector to put it in neutral. Does it let you do that while in motion? I presume it does. So, this person could have done that and just freewheeled to a stop (or better yet peeled off the motorway and come to a stop on the hard shoulder).

Quite puzzling though - as said above surely the regenerative braking or absence of accelerator input would make it slow down, unless it was "stuck" in cruise or something.

Because I'm an eternal cynic I'm inclined to believe they got zapped by a camera van and in a genius move decided to report their car as having failed, thus having a potentially viable defence to the upcoming speeding charge. Probably didn't bank on the Police banging into their car though.
Click to expand...
There's the possibility of panic. Sometimes people get stuck in a particular mindset and stop thinking rationally.

There's also a fear of putting cars into neutral that's a carry-over from ICEVs.
 
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#8
Putting an EV in N usually feels like it's not slowing down at all because there's so little drivetrain friction. That would confuse people even more I reckon and that's if they even had the presence of mind to try it in the first place, which I doubt most would.
 
#9
Durzel said:
Probably as good a time as any to give a reminder that you can put Teslas (with stalks anyway) in neutral by holding up on the right stalk for a few seconds. You can also force an emergency brake by holding down the P button for a few seconds.
Click to expand...
Park on my Prius would put it into neutral as well. My wife accidentally dropped something onto the park button once. Just had to shift back to D (with the fantastic self-centering shifter).
My Gen 1 Volt had the drive mode button just above the power button. This positioning has caused some drivers accidentally to shut the car off. To do a still-rolling restart you had to remember to shift to Neutral, then power it back on, then shift to D.
Not sure about my Kona EV, I presume it's the same. Allowing shift to neutral is a safety feature.

Shift to neutral at speed is only something that should be done in emergencies because the motor can over-rev.
 
#10
Dangerous Fish said:
Putting an EV in N usually feels like it's not slowing down at all because there's so little drivetrain friction. That would confuse people even more I reckon and that's if they even had the presence of mind to try it in the first place, which I doubt most would.
Click to expand...
Neutral will feel smoother. It would cut the power so, should allow any friction braking to have a bigger effect, even through there's no assist.
 
#12
haha - yes sure. car "ran away".

giphy.gif


1. *speeds 90 mph*
2. *sees the cops*
3. *looks at speedo - oops, probably will lose licence*
3. *pretends "car ran away"*
4. ...
5. Profit


I almost can promise that you either will never ever hear about this again because JLR with investigation will find that driver was actually speeding and did not press brakes, and driver will admit his fault silently.

Or

it will be later in the news that it was driver's fault.

like with that tesla in china, a year ago which was super duper speeding because of "autopilot" fault..
 
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#13
I saw that report and thought its more likely to be driver error. I did wonder if the foot mat moved so that it covered or restricted access to the brake pedal, or was over the throttle and keeping it pressed down. Other thought was cruise control being accidentally engaged or set speed increased. I suspect that iPace allows selection of N while driving and that if you pull up on the electronic handbrake it will apply emergency brakes. My LR used to do this and I'm sure the system is carried across all their range.
 
#14
Dangerous Fish said:
Brakes will always overcome the powertrain in any car and enough redundancy is built in that this just won't happen, unless something very obvious physically intervenes i.e. a brick on the accelerator pedal and a brick under the brake pedal.
Click to expand...
That's what I believed until it happened to me! In my case, classic car, everything manual, front discs, rear drums and a V8 to an automatic transmission. The accelerator got stuck under the carpet and was on the floor, I took my foot off and the car was wide open throttle.

This was in a car park and fortunately was at low speed but the result was front wheels locked up screetching across the car park, V8 on full torque pushing the car forwards toward a parked coach. I turned the ignition off and resolved but it was a "moment" and I was surprised that at a low speed, the brakes couldn't overcome the torque.
 
#15
Saw this pop up on another forum, usual anti-EV rhetoric behind it, but it's not unique to EVs (even if you do believe this was a genuine mechanical/electrical issue).

www.theguardian.com

French driver trapped for an hour in speeding 125mph car with no brakes

Frank Lecerf finally came to a stop in a ditch in Belgium when his Renault Laguna ran out of petrol after 200km trip
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

There was also another one in Glasgow recently where a chap was running red lights complaining that his MG EV wouldn't stop. Seems despite them reaching out, he's not been forthcoming about letting MG have a closer look either. 🤨
 
#16
I don't think I'd totally dismiss the drivers version although there may be other factors.
I've never been in the I-Pace but had to abandon a test drive of the e-pace my wife fancied because my size 14 feet got wedged under the pedal area making it very difficult to go from accelerator to brake.
I've also been in an ICE car with accelerator cable snagging fully open.. while calm minds can deal with that it's quite hairy coming up to a roundabout.
In my S the options are there to kick it into neutral with the stick and press the end parking brake - it's in the manual. BUT how much of that depends on electronic communication as opposed to good ol' fashioned cables and hydraulics?
 
#19
Have you ever braked on ice, and had the wheels lock up? That feeling of time slowing and the car getting away from you?

For whatever reason I expect that's what they initially suffered. And as for pressing the wrong pedal, there was an in car youtube vid of a track/experience day, and as they come up to a corner the instructor telling the drive to brake. Which he doesn't do, so the instructor then starts yelling brake, louder. Eventually when it comes to a stop, the drive sheepishly says he thought he was pressing the brake... but it was the clutch.

As above, people do odd things when panicking.
 
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