h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Courtesy of the random button I found this
incredibly simple smart idea that apparently no
one ever looked at. |
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One time I witnessed a crash. A large sedan going
probably 40 - 50 mph ran straight into the back of a
stopped minivan, pushing that into a pickup truck
in front of it. I stopped and went to check on the
driver of the car that rear-ended the other. The
airbag had deployed and saved his life (no
seatbelt!), but he was unconscious and engine
was revving. Before I did anything else I reached
around rather awkwardly to turn off the ignition,
since having a revving engine seemed rather
dangerous in that situation. It would have been
nice (and safer for everyone) if it had turned off
automatically. |
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The driver woke up a few seconds later and
seemed to think he was uninjured. He was going
to climb out of the car to assess the damage, but
based on how hard he hit and his somewhat
advanced age I encouraged him to stay seated
until help arrived. I assured him that there wasn't
much point in looking a the car since it was a total
loss. |
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Interesting. [AO]'s user page has this data on it |
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[Mar 25 2004, last modified Jun 10 2005] |
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but this idea predates that. Is this an artifact of the crash, or is [AO] a time traveler? |
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[AO] was not a time traveler at nowwhen, but he will have been
eftsoons. |
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[norm], you clearly (will) (had) require(d) a
copy of <link> |
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Due to recent news regarding deaths caused by unintended ignition shutoff due to design crime, I am going to have to decline to have this option on any of my vehicles. There's too many unavoidable ways to lose power while under way without adding an avoidable one. |
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Shirley the way to decide upon this is to get a handle
on how many deaths are caused by the ignition being
off when it shouldn't and how many are caused by
the engine continuing to run after a collision. |
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I can certainly see how a running engine, possibly
with a destroyed radiator, could cause a fire. |
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Yeah, generally spilled gas and electricity are nervous making. My training was to shut the key off first thing. |
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Even while the accident is in process, if you're just waiting for the tumbling automobile to come to rest and have nothing else to do. |
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Stop using gasoline? diesel is tough to ignite. |
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Rally cars rarely crash and burn - that is, they often crash, but they
rarely burn. |
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That's because they're properly designed and equipped. |
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Flexible, puncture-resistant fuel cell within the tank. No airbags;
proper multi-point harnesss. Relay-controlled electrical circuits.
Automatic extinguishers in the engine bay. Battery master switches.
Reinforced bodyshell with roll cage. |
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Or you can just have the off the shelf junk touted by the big
manufacturers because it's got a nice stereo and is painted a pretty
colour and looks good. Your choice. |
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As I understand it, the GM deaths were blamed on
the failure of the airbag to deploy when the
ignition turned off during an accident, not
accidents caused by the engine turning off.
Obviously the shutoff should be designed robustly
to avoid nuisance shut-downs. I'd also like to see
this designed so that the engine can be restarted
after the event simply by twisting the key to the
start position. You could have a mechanical
breaker that is reset mechanically as the key
turns. Or computerize it, so it won't restart unless
the computer can pass basic diagnostics. |
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//Or you can just have the off the shelf junk touted
by the big manufacturers because it's got a nice
stereo and is painted a pretty colour and looks good.
Your choice.// |
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I'll take the one with the windows and cup-holders. |
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And what, may I enquire, does the borg drive at the
moment? |
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Amongst other things, something rather like <link> ... |
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Cosmetically, rather less garish. Mechanically, almost identical. (Full
rally spec, but road-legal - just). |
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//Mechanically, almost identical// |
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The front offside wheel's off the ground. I had a table
like that. When you get sick of wedging folded beer
mats under it, you should consider taking a mm or
two off the other legs with a belt sander. |
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We noticed that too ... when we stopped to check, tho, it was touching
the road again. Must be bigger on one side than the other. |
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I had a go in a Rally-spec Nissan Micra. Total hoot.
Cars are much more fun when the results of a crash
are a new donor shell for a couple of hundred quid
and some component swapping. |
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The only situation I can see where a power loss
after airbag deployment is a bad thing is the
incident happens in such a way that the vehicle is
still moving at speed (which should be relatively
rare anyway), as the loss of power brakes
becomes a problem. The loss of power steering is
less of a concern, because someone who has just
had an airbag to the face probably won't be able to
see well enough to steer. |
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Therefore it's simply enough to add functionality
to the cutoff such that it doesn't engage unless
the vehicle is stopped. It wouldn't be much more
complex to add the functionality that brings the
vehicle to a halt and then kills the engine, but,
while a good idea, it does involve an extra positive
acting system and the resultant added complexity. |
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