Unintended acceleration collision

[alohart]

In mid November, an i3 driver drove over a curb and through a fence in front of his parking space at the Laguna Beach, California, Historical Society. Read a short description and view a couple of photos on the Stu News Laguna Website.

The driver claimed that he pressed the accelerator rather than the brake, but the car was also in D rather than R, so I don't understand how this happened. In his 30's, he wasn't a confused senior citizen with slow reflexes. Might the driver have selected D rather than R because of the unorthodox gear selector?

I wonder why the collision avoidance system didn't apply the brakes to prevent this collision. Might the front-facing camera and collision avoidance software not have interpreted the low fence as a collision target? Maybe the radar-based collision systems used by other manufacturers are superior to our camera-based system.

Even if his i3 were equipped with the Parking Assist package, its loud warning probably wouldn't have occurred soon enough to have alerted the driver, especially if he thought he was braking anyway.

I guess automatic safety systems can't overcome all human mistakes.

I would like to have seen the damage and to know the repair cost. I can't see any obvious damage on the driver's side, but there must be some scrapes. If an exterior panel is scraped and the panel's color is in the panel and not painted on, I suppose that the scrapes would be the same color as the panel. Can scrapes be repaired without replacing the scraped panel?

 

[Tomasz]

I wonder why the collision avoidance system didn't apply the brakes to prevent this collision. Might the front-facing camera and collision avoidance software not have interpreted the low fence as a collision target? Maybe the radar-based collision systems used by other manufacturers are superior to our camera-based system.

Maybe it was Mega and didn't have the system installed?

 

[mindmachine]

This looks like driver error to me, my park assist and collision avoidance will trigger for a cardboard box in my garage. I bet he thought it was in reverse when actually it was in drive. I wish you would not use that word in the heading as it will stick weather right or wrong. Unintended acceleration it clearly wasn't in my opinion.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The safety system does have a switch...it may not have been turned on, or purposely turned off. The owner's manual does specifically point out that it can't see certain things.

Also, keep in mind the ACC, under some circumstances, it can start the car, depending on how it was stopped and whether it was running at the time.

 

[PeterHarvey]

The accident reminds me of one I nearly had, when I'd had the car for a couple of weeks. When driving slowly out of a multi-storey car-park and about to turn a corner, I briefly pushed down on the accelerator when I needed to brake. Still getting used to the car, and being insufficiently mindful at that moment, I think this was because my brain had made a connection between the accelerator and braking - as easing off the accelerator leads to braking - and the wrong reflex action kicked in.

I didn't make this mistake again, but it is perhaps a warning worth flagging up.