AAAAGH! Kill it with Fire!

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/05/japanese-inventor-makes-gas-and-brake-one-pedal/

Yeah, and you think seeing cars with the brake lights on all the time now is a problem....

I agree. People can't even manage to remember to drive while texting, much less perform the puppet dance.

That scares the living E36 M3 out of me.

Another example of chindogu - japanese for making useless inventions or those that cause all new problems. Normally just embarrassing - this time dangerous and probably painful.

it is an interesting idea... but I agree, I do not see it working for anything more than making it easier to do a smokey burnout

This will not go well. Wild prediction: Audi and Toyota will not be the first companies to adopt this technology.

article said: In an emergency situation, when you can't even see the pedals, it's all too easy to hit the throttle when you meant to lay on the brake.

If you can't remember which pedal does what without looking down to check I don't believe you should be operating such a complex machine that would require you to do such a thing.

Maybe a bicycle would be a better option for those people. They can just look at their hands and remember what they are supposed to do to stop.

I'm surprised people are this negative about this. Anything that will make the "uniformed" drive better is fine by me.

Geez I can't imagine what you guys would say if they combined controls to go left and right into 1 input. I mean they go totally different directions, why would you want 1 control?

That's just it: the 'uninformed' would be least served by this 'technology'. A steering wheel (your 'single input') is intuitive; you turn left to go left, etc. An accelerator pedal is similar, the harder you push the faster you go, the same applies to a brake pedal.

This system would expect the average idiot to be able to accurately control the throttle with a side to side foot movement and I ain't seeing that.

Jensenman wrote: ... the harder you push the faster you go, the same applies to a brake pedal.

Well, in Toyota's case that is true

I'm all for some innovation. I have a clutch operated by a trigger on the gear shift lever of my mg. I could see a joystick controlled car - single input, four directions. That particular design seems like an ergonomic fail. Until about the 1920s there were all kinds of inputs being used with no real standards - There hasn't been a whole lot of changes in how the basics operate in the last 90 years.

I guess most of you guys would be terrified of motorcycles and parapalegic hand controls.

Gasp, BOTH have you operating the gas and the throttle....WITH ONE HAND!!!!! AUGGGG!!!!

over-thought, over-complicated, over-engineered and I'm over it.

I've driven paraplegic hand controls. They are intuitive as well. Up for fast, down for slow, push to brake. This guy's 'system' wants you to wave your foot side to side to control engine speed and push the same foot to brake. The side to side movement for the throttle is going to be very limited due to the design of the human foot (they even mention that in the article), meaning small movements make a big difference. For the average ijit, the movements need to be large so they can't do something dumb quickly. That's why waldos (such as used in surgery) convert big finger movements into, say, .010 of an inch at the point of whatever the waldo is doing.

I won't even mention that on my motorcycles, I have always run the throttle and the front brake with my right hand. Actually, the two outside fingers and the thumb run the throttle and the two inner fingers run the front brake. But that too is intuitive, compared to this guy's whatever the hell it is.

foxtrapper wrote: Gasp, BOTH have you operating the gas and the throttle....WITH ONE HAND!!!!! AUGGGG!!!!

Aren't those the same thing? Throttle controls the flow of petrol. You mean throttle and brake.

EDIT - dang I didn't read jensenman before I posted.

With the way regulations and manufacturers are going, there will be no clutch pedals, and a giant brake pedal on the left and a tiny gas pedal on the right, separated by the steering column. Then there will be a huge PANIC button somewhere so when the dumb driver doesn't know what to do in an emergency situation, they hit panic and the car just stops.

I think I'll be holding on to my Miata for a loooonnnngggg time and try to find a manual transmission 4x4 for the winters and hauling.

From the article:
"Japanese inventor Masuyuki Naruse has developed a single pedal solution that should eliminate the possibility of misapplication."

Oh, no he hasn't.

CGLockRacer wrote: With the way regulations and manufacturers are going, there will be no clutch pedals, and a giant brake pedal on the left and a tiny gas pedal on the right, separated by the steering column. Then there will be a huge PANIC button somewhere so when the dumb driver doesn't know what to do in an emergency situation, they hit panic and the car just stops.

Aside from the panic button.. that sounds like the pedals from an automatic equipped Box truck. Gas is on the right side of the steering column and brake is on the left..

this reminds me of the image macro of Xzibit.

And I thought the clutch/brake combo on a riding mower was maddening...

In reply to The_Jed:

My dad tells me that's how the milk trucks he used to drive were as well.

Joey

The_Jed wrote: And I thought the clutch/brake combo on a riding mower was maddening...

I still can't figure out how that works on my grandpa's. Never mind that I haven't driven it since I was 15, but I still don't know how it works.

pretty easy actually.. when you push the pedal down half way, it disengages the drive from the engine.. push it further it applies the brakes

mad_machine wrote: pretty easy actually.. when you push the pedal down half way, it disengages the drive from the engine.. push it further it applies the brakes

Ah. Don't know why nobody ever explained that to me, or I couldn't figure it out.