"Runaway acceleration" / "Sudden Unintended Acceleration": plausibly deniable methods of vehicular assasination
[Note: I originally wrote a detailed post on this, then lost it all testing links in the preview when I clicked on a broken link. Now you get the short version]
'Runaway acceleration' (which usually results in a fiery crash and death) has been documented in a number of vehicles across automakers, but the infrequency of these issues allowed these instances to be summarily dismissed as flukes or driver error. This plays on a number of fallacious assumptions we have about car safety. More specifically, we 'expect' cars to have a number of failsafes:
- Turning the car off, which typically cuts ignition and fuel
- Shifting to neutral, which disconnects the engine from the wheels at the transmission
- Disengaging the clutch, which mechanically disconnects the engine from the transmission in a manual vehicle
- Overpowering the engine with the brakes (long story short - no car an average man can afford has an engine large enough to overpower the brakes)
- Door locks that mechanically unlock the door when opened from the inside (this may seem unrelated, but it matters here)
Long story short, automakers have been handwaving 'runaway' cars as isolated flukes (typically, by blaming driver error, etc) for a long time (documented cases since the mid 1980s), but Toyota managed to accident so many normies that they broke through the 'weaponized isolation', found each other, and pointed and shrieked. This forced Toyota to respond, and their defense consisted of blaming the (frequently dead) drivers, releasing propoganda based on the above theoretical failsafes (e.g. "if you ever find yourself experiencing 'unintended acceleration', shift into neutral/turn the car off").
The problem was that there was just no evidence to refute Toyota's excuses. Some initial NHTSA investigation petitions actually confirmed Toyota's excuses, where the car's event data recorder showed that people weren't pressing the brake when they swore they did, etc.
Then, Mark Saylor, a California Highway Patrol officer, 'experienced a car accident', but managed to call 911 and confirm that the brakes do not work and that he couldn't turn the car off, shortly before dying. He then crashed, his car burst into flame, and he, his wife, their daughter (e.g. his entire family) all perished.
The 911 call, Aftermath pic 1, pic 2, pic 3
His background as CHP makes his testimony credible, and also implies that other theoretical failsafes were inoperable (e.g. that he couldn't shift into neutral either, etc). Then, (short story version) this started a new myth and damage control based on floor mats covering the accelerator pedals. This disregards the inability to turn the car off, shift to neutral, or overpower the engine with the brakes.
Super short version: NASA decides to investigate (major red flag, just like Secret Service being involved in Aaron Swartz' death, etc), they filter the data, then conclude the software is fine. A bunch of other gov't propagandists get involved. Some Jewish people make off with large settlements from related lawsuits. Then (((they))) spiral down a series of limited hangouts while trying to get the cat back in the bag:
- It's the floormats goyim, we'll recall our cars (2007)
- (Mark Saylor dies -> confirms brakes/turning car off/shifter doesn't work) It's the floormats again goyim (seriously, they decided [upon no evidence, car burned up remember] that his floormat slid over his accelerator), don't cause an accident by improperly fastening your floormats
- (People keep getting accidented) Sometimes the accelerator pedal is sticky, we'll just recall it (note that this is the first time blame isn't entirely deflected onto drivers) (2010)
- (Big Theater begins: congressional investigation, NASA gets involved, etc) (2011) Okay it might be a software defect, but it's just an accident that nobody fixed for years (in a similar vein to Intel/AMD/M$ backdoors being bugs, using 'muh poo-in-loo shoddy programming' excuse as cover)
Analysis and comments:
- The source code for just the toyota throttle control module is over 256,600 lines of non-comment code. This type of impenetrable monolith is typically used to create cover for backdoors, with plausible deniability ('it's just a bug goyim', 'it is too complex to debug goyim', etc) if caught, as Microsoft, has done, and, more recently, as spook Lennart Poettering has successfully introduced to Linux systems via systemd.
- Modern vehicles have no functional failsafes: most cars prohibit turning the vehicle completely off while it is rolling, the ABS module can inhibit the brakes (this is it's functional purpose) even when not relying on vacuum for brake boosting, and no modern auto transmission vehicle has a mechanical shift linkage (unlike older <2000 my vehicles), using electronic management instead. Many modern vehicles also have electronic parking brakes (which could be electronically inhibited), and have electronic door locks, and some cars even tout the inability to open a door while the vehicle is moving as a feature (in cars older than 2000s, but younger than mid 2010s, jumping out of the car is usually the safest/only option if being accidented).
- In one study, they tried to excuse brakes not working as a 'result of the loss of brake boost', since cars produce no vacuum at wide open throttle. This is expected to increase the required force on the pedal from 15-45 pounds to 175 pounds. The human legs are incredibly powerful, and the general rule of thumb among workout circles is that you can generally leg press 1.8-2.2 times your body weight for a single rep with correct form, which puts even the smallest women well able to produce the required force to stop the car if the brakes worked even the slightest bit. This discounts the massive increase in strength documented in humans in fight-or-flight mode.
- Accidenting via runaway car go back to the 1980s, with the Audi 5000. This is where the 'floormats' + 'confused pedals' excuses were first tested, and successfully used to defuse the situation. Then, in the Mid 1990s, Ford began accidenting their drivers. Ford blamed it on a faulty cruise control system, then later admitted in a court case that these 'accidents' could be caused by electromagnetic interference, then later blamed it on EMI and the rise of electronics in cars. This, in so many words, is Ford acknowledging that vehicles can be attacked remotely to cause them to kill their passengers.
- Also of note, especially in the Toyota cases, were when embedded systems engineers were reviewing Toyota's source code, and found that the Vehicle Event Data Recorder (or, 'black box') can record false information that conceals the root cause of the crash.
Sources:
Moral of the story: only ever buy a manual, especially if you do anything even remotely important with your life.
@NeoGoat @Tallest_Skil
Edits:
- (10/30) Edited for clarity.
- Will future edit again include info on the psychology of their defense, and the technology/systems that play a role in this
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[–] Thereunto 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The scary thought that your best chance in that case is to somehow flip your vehicle.