Toyota may redesign push-button ignition

[steven johnson]

I drive a Toyota Camry. I could not find the engine shut-down procedure in the owner's manual. Only on the internet did I discover that I had to hold the button to the keyless ignition system down for three seconds to turn off the engine.

Looks like the Toytoa people are rethinking the wisdom of that shut-down process.

Amid its widening recall crisis, Toyota Motor Corp. said it had moved closer to adopting changes to its push-button ignition system to give drivers an added margin of safety if their vehicles accelerate out of control.

Executives at the company's headquarters in Japan are considering redesigning the keyless ignition system, known as Smart Key, to allow drivers to shut off the engine by tapping the button three times in a row, company spokesman Brian Lyons said.

Currently, Toyota and Lexus vehicles with a push-button starter can be shut off when in motion only by depressing and holding the button for 3 full seconds, a procedure that safety experts have suggested is counterintuitive and can prolong runaway acceleration incidents. A redesigned system would allow either method to kill the engine.

Keyless ignition systems are only one potential factor in sudden acceleration, but their widespread adoption worries some safety experts...Nearly every automaker that uses keyless ignition systems has implemented a slightly different procedure for emergency shutdown, with some requiring as little as a single tap and others requiring a lengthy hold-down. A vehicle traveling at 100 miles per hour covers roughly 500 feet -- nearly two football fields -- in 3 seconds.



Toyota may redesign push-button ignition

[SeattleGirl]

1. I hope they design with with some safety in mind.

I really don't want to see a bunch of people smashed up on the freeways.

[krispos42]

2. Here's a fucking idea...

PUT A KNOB ON THE DASHBOARD.


Make it look like AND WORK LIKE a keyed switch, only it's not keyed. Sort of like the knob for the HVAC controls!

OFF-ACC-ON-START on a keyless knob by the steering column... what is so fucking difficult about that???

:banghead:


The traditional system worked JUST FINE, and EVERYBODY IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD knows how it works. If you want to make it keyless, then simply DON'T PUT A FUCKING SLOT FOR A KEY IN THE SWITCH!!!!

:banghead: