Preach On!

Cars Won't Be Fully Safe Until All Drivers Understand Them 

In case you’ve forgotten, starting in the late 2000s Toyota was deluged with reports of “runaway” vehicles. This led to lawsuits, federal investigations, recalls, frenzied and outright fraudulent news stories, and a black eye it took the automaker years to recover from.

Ultimately, the cause of these unintended acceleration incidents was deemed to be “pedal misapplication”—drivers hitting the gas instead of the brake—or in some cases, sticky floor mats. But reports of flaws in the cars’ electronic control modules were never substantiated. (Toyota ended up spending billions to settle those lawsuits, on a criminal investigation, and on recalls anyway.)
Gladwell deems it a “media circus” pushed by embarrassed drivers, regulators, lawyers and other opportunists who didn’t really understand how cars work. If you’re the kind of person who does, it’s a nice bit of vindication:

I’ve used the phrase “car guys” in this episode a few times... what’s interesting about the car guys is none of them doubted ever this is a problem caused by drivers. Because they understand what a car is—it’s a complicated mechanical object that requires attention and skill to be operated safely. And non-car people have lost sight of that fact.

“The average driver just expects a car to be completely flawless and to save their lives under any circumstances,” C&D’s Alterman adds.

So where are we at now, in 2016? Things aren’t better. Semi-autonomous cars are already on our roads and fully self-driving cars are on the horizon, but we as drivers haven’t shown any progress in becoming safer or smarter.

(Jalopnik.com)