This Guy's Car Got Stuck at 125mph—for an Hour

[Bru]

Surprisingly not a Toyota.

This Guy's Car Got Stuck at 125mph—for an Hour - Megan Garber - The Atlantic

It started with a trip to a supermarket. It ended with a high-speed chase, a frantic call to police, a highway-bound ballet, a border crossing, a ditch, and a guy who is very, very lucky to be alive.

Frank Lecerf, from his home in Pont-de-Metz, near the French city of Amiens, was making his weekly trip to the grocery store in his Renault Laguna. He was going 60 miles an hour when the car's speed dial jammed. Lecerf tried to brake. Instead of slowing, though, the car sped up -- with each tap on the brake leading to more acceleration. Eventually, the car reached a speed of 125 mph -- and then remained stuck there. For an hour.

Lecerf, frantic, called the police from his car -- and they sent an escort that The Guardian describes as "a platoon of police cars" to help him navigate a busy highway. (Lecerf stayed, appropriately, in the fast lane.) What resulted was a small miracle of technological coordination: Responding to emergency services' advance warnings, three different toll booths raised their barriers as Lecerf approached. A police convoy ensured that roads were kept clear for the speeding car. Fellow drivers, obligingly, got out of the way. Emergency services patched Lecerf through to a Renault engineer who tried -- though failed -- to help Lecerf get the speeding car to slow down.

"My life flashed before me," Lecerf later told Le Courrier Picard. "I just wanted it to stop."

Finally, it did. The goal everyone had been working for, coordinating for -- the speeding car running out of gas before its Newtonian nightmare ended in violence -- was achieved. Lecerf's car, finally out of fuel, came to rest in a ditch. He had driven from northern France and along the French coast up through Calais and Dunkirk, eventually crossing the border into Belgium. The little Renault had stopped, finally, in the town of Alveringem.

Before it did, though, Lecerf was stuck in his speeding car for an hour. (It's unclear what, exactly, went wrong with the machine -- though Lecerf's upcoming lawsuit against Renault should help to figure that out.) The man and his vehicle and his communal, ad hoc escort ended up traveling more than 100 miles together before they got their Hollywood ending -- an ending made possible not by individual heroics, but by collective effort.

Apparently this is a Renault Laguna:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8aEv-DyDs80/UGBrr-EGJ9I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/srVliFT0ZqY/s640/renault_laguna_gt.jpg

Click to read more...

 

[Flyn]

Guy couldn't put it in neutral (automatic) or disengage the clutch (manual)?

 

[K0R3AN]

I don't understand why they can't just shift into neutral and shut the car down?

Edit- Dammit! Beat me to it! Haha

 

[Spivitz]

smash the brakes? turn off the ignition? put in neutral ?

am just wondering

 

[02BlueGT]

I ASSume that the car is fully drive by wire. Some hybrids have gone away from even manual brakes. So computer issues can lead to this. If it got to the point of being on he phone with Renault engineers, I'm sure the easy solutions were tried.

 

[Euro]

I can see the initial shock of the acceleration delaying a quick decision or thought of a way to dissolve the issue....but for fucks sake this shit went on for an hour???

 

[clint282cc]

they had a renult engineer on the phone... im sure if it was capable of being shut down, it would have been. not like the idiots when the prius pedals were getting stuck.

this happens with jeeps i guess. happened while i was working a saturday a few blocks from a car wash .the car wash had it happen twice so they no longer wash ANY jeeps. even my 96 cherokee with cable throttle lol.

the stories normally go that the jeep is in park, keys off and it speeds away. this isnt the article posted at my local car wash but you get the gist

Chrysler Sudden Acceleration

i personally would have had a great time! police escort for a top speed run! WOOOHOOO!

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

So it doesn't have neutral?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

god i hope OEM's go back to mechanical throttle cables

all you who think im crazy for deriding all these fully computerized cars can get stuck in a speeding car for an hour and kiss a ditch

skynet will start with cars, your all doomed

 

[Shells_04]

Guy couldn't put it in neutral (automatic) or disengage the clutch (manual)?

This^^

 

[Yaj Yak]

brb. my gtp is gonna get stuck at 110mph for an hour... who do i have to call? what do i have to say?

 

[1quick]

brb. my gtp is gonna get stuck at 110mph for an hour... who do i have to call? what do i have to say?

you call the junk yard for a new motor, but you live to tell about it because of the safety fetures of the 3800, aka it will throw a rod after a few minutes of wot rather than string you along for an hour

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

Okay, coming at this from two difference perspectives. #1, its real. How could it happen?

A combination of failures and programming mistakes involving an Electronic shift selector, RFID based ignition (aka push button), and an electronic driveby wire throttle system.

If there is no mechanical shifter to move, you can't put it in neutral. If there is no physical key to take out of the "run" position, you can't shut it off. Lastly, electronic TB the blades could conceivably be stuck at the WOT position.

And if Car MFG's are designing a car that could have these failures now then they need to wake the fuck up and stop that. There needs to be a Kill switch, be it pressing the ignition button to stop it, removing the key etc...


Aka position #2, the article is fake (or the person was lying to the police)

Why do I think its fake? Because the article states that he presses the brake pedal and the car accelerates. EVERY Cruise control system I've ever seen has a kill switch as part of the brake pedal. You hit the brakes, cruise is disabled. Also, brakes are a mechanical linkage. So pressing the brakes would not cause the car to accelerate in a normal fashion. If the cruise system is malfunctioning and the car is stuck at WOT, then pressing the brakes WILL either slow the car down, or slow acceleration (at least until the pads burn up and the fluid boils)

I still say its fake, or the driver was lying the whole time about his car being stuck at WOT.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i have a radio in my garage that will change to AM every now and then when you try to lower the volume

 

[sickmint79]

heard it was modified for handicap drivers

 

[Ear Rak]

Renault is the problem. No explanation needed.

 

[nytebyte]

Renault is the problem. No explanation needed.

+1

Knew someone who had a Renault. Biggest pile of shit car ever.
They're a small step above a Yugo.

 

[02BlueGT]

Okay, coming at this from two difference perspectives. #1, its real. How could it happen?

A combination of failures and programming mistakes involving an Electronic shift selector, RFID based ignition (aka push button), and an electronic driveby wire throttle system.

If there is no mechanical shifter to move, you can't put it in neutral. If there is no physical key to take out of the "run" position, you can't shut it off. Lastly, electronic TB the blades could conceivably be stuck at the WOT position.

And if Car MFG's are designing a car that could have these failures now then they need to wake the fuck up and stop that. There needs to be a Kill switch, be it pressing the ignition button to stop it, removing the key etc...


Aka position #2, the article is fake (or the person was lying to the police)

Why do I think its fake? Because the article states that he presses the brake pedal and the car accelerates. EVERY Cruise control system I've ever seen has a kill switch as part of the brake pedal. You hit the brakes, cruise is disabled. Also, brakes are a mechanical linkage. So pressing the brakes would not cause the car to accelerate in a normal fashion. If the cruise system is malfunctioning and the car is stuck at WOT, then pressing the brakes WILL either slow the car down, or slow acceleration (at least until the pads burn up and the fluid boils)

I still say its fake, or the driver was lying the whole time about his car being stuck at WOT.

Like I said earlier, many hybrids have gone to a nearly "brake by wire" setup to enable regenerative braking. So it is conceivable that a catastrophic system failure could cause the issues the driver had. This is in no way impossible. Unlikely yes, but not impossible.

P.S. most button start systems can be disabled by holding the button, but this locks the steering wheel, which would be a bad idea at 100+ mph

 

[SRT41320]

Drive by wire FAIL!

 

[4DoorBlackTop]

Scary.......

 

[turtleman]

Holy shit if this is legit real! It seems pretty irresponsible to build a vehicle that has all these computer-managed critical systems without having a way to really kill it in a situation like this. Hold down the power button/put it in neutral/etc doesn't work if they are all digital and controlled by the malfunctioning computer - No different than a cell phone except it's pretty much impossible for the phone to kill you and lots of other people. In a car you can't only make provisions for a normal failure. Somebody like the director of engineering probably needs to get fired!

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

Yet another one of these reports. This time on a car we woudl actually be familiar with. A G6.

I know for a fact that if I take the key one notch back out of Run and into Accessory the engine WILL shut down. At which point I'd hit the brakes and slow down.

Runaway Car Crashes After Driving 25 Miles On I-70 « CBS Denver