Safety of Throttle/accelerator pedal controllers?

[m_and_m]

There's a lot of hype at the moment around the products that remap you're pedal position to give your car the feeling of better responsiveness. I'm not saying they don't work, in fact I was looking into one.

But, how safe are these things if they malfunction and something goes wrong?
The last thing I'd want is for the car to unexpectedly apply 100% throttle on the edge of a cliff or at an intersection.

What is the backup? Naturally you'd try to hit the brake..but is this enough if they car is also commanded to 100% acceleration?

The reason this comes to mind is the situation with the Toyotas where a sticking accelerator pedal cause many people to lose there lives. Toyota tried to hide it, and was duly punished to the tune of 1.2 Billion.
Why didn't they just hit the brake? I boggles me, but the reality is people still died

Toyota reaches 12 billion settlement to end criminal probe

Being an professional engineer, I know we design safety into the product. If I look at the drive by wire design of the pajero, the engine ECU has many other parameters & measurements available to it, including the brake information, which I'm confident would feed into their design.
These throttle controllers don't seem to have the same. Is this right?

There are plug n play devices on the market now for around $300, and as low as $99.
I, for one, do not think I'd put a $99 unit in charge of any accelerator and potentially my and my family's life.

Can anyone who's bought one of these tell me if they considered my concerns above somehow?
Has anyone heard of one of these malfunctioning, and what then happened?

[pjchris]

Safety of Throttle/accelerator pedal controllers?

Hi,

I have a pro-drive I think and last week it did cause some issues. I don't think the unit was actually faulty but I was trying to provoke the car to determine whether the 4WD system was engaging.
This involved really nailing the throttle part way through a roundabout in the wet.
The upshot was that although the device was working the car knew that you could not apply the accelerator that quickly and the car threw a p2138, throttle pedal sensor switch error and went in to limp mode. 1400 rpm, gearbox locked in gear, no throttle input at all.

So it would seem that even if the throttle controller develops a fault, application outside a 'normal' range will throw a CEL fault in the car.

As an aside if the unit were to throw a 100% throttle fault in any reasonably new Paj the 'Smart Brake' feature being discussed elsewhere on here means that the car will automatically cut power shortly after the brake is applied.

Peter


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dicko1]

Read a recent article about these wonder gadgets. It basically said that you can do exactly the same as the unit by putting your foot down harder!!

Here is an interesting article...

https://outbackjoe.com/macho-divertissement/macho-articles/sprint-booster-is-it-worth-it/

[Pickle]

[QUOTE=m_and_m;552446
Can anyone who's bought one of these tell me if they considered my concerns above somehow?
Has anyone heard of one of these malfunctioning, and what then happened?[/QUOTE]

I did do some research before purchasing and as we all know there are an abundant amount of these throttle controllers on the market now. Delving deeper I felt the Idrive was the one that had the better feedback and customer service. It's good enough for Ron Moon to have two of these on his vehicles who as we know does plenty of off road work and gives them a good wrap. And honestly have not heard of one malfunctioning. I just did the High Country this weekend and the combination of paddles and Idrive just made the Paj that much easier to cruise around on the tracks.
Actually did that track just out of Dargo (the one we took you up Aus Day wknd) to see if there was a noticeable difference in driveability on the rougher track with the Idrive. Didn't really notice any difference in Traction Control going off and tested if this Safebrake worked ok with it.
If your unsure on purchasing one, maybe wait until next year and have a drive of mine.
Dave

[m_and_m]

Read a recent article about these wonder gadgets. It basically said that you can do exactly the same as the unit by putting your foot down harder!!

Here is an interesting article...

https://outbackjoe.com/macho-diverti...s-it-worth-it/

Thanks dicko. That confirms all of what I thought about how they worked and what they did.
Also interesting the author picked up on the safety aspect too.

[m_and_m]

Hi,

I have a pro-drive I think and last week it did cause some issues. I don't think the unit was actually faulty but I was trying to provoke the car to determine whether the 4WD system was engaging.
This involved really nailing the throttle part way through a roundabout in the wet.
The upshot was that although the device was working the car knew that you could not apply the accelerator that quickly and the car threw a p2138, throttle pedal sensor switch error and went in to limp mode. 1400 rpm, gearbox locked in gear, no throttle input at all.

So it would seem that even if the throttle controller develops a fault, application outside a 'normal' range will throw a CEL fault in the car.

As an aside if the unit were to throw a 100% throttle fault in any reasonably new Paj the 'Smart Brake' feature being discussed elsewhere on here means that the car will automatically cut power shortly after the brake is applied.

Peter


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

very interesting. Firstly that the unit can cause the p2148 code, which means it's too aggressive on the application of the pedal, and secondly that the ECU must be doing quite clever real-time monitoring of the signal - which to be honest, this is what I'd expect from the mitsubishi design on a safety critical item.

[m_and_m]

I did do some research before purchasing and as we all know there are an abundant amount of these throttle controllers on the market now. Delving deeper I felt the Idrive was the one that had the better feedback and customer service. It's good enough for Ron Moon to have two of these on his vehicles who as we know does plenty of off road work and gives them a good wrap. And honestly have not heard of one malfunctioning. I just did the High Country this weekend and the combination of paddles and Idrive just made the Paj that much easier to cruise around on the tracks.
Actually did that track just out of Dargo (the one we took you up Aus Day wknd) to see if there was a noticeable difference in driveability on the rougher track with the Idrive. Didn't really notice any difference in Traction Control going off and tested if this Safebrake worked ok with it.
If your unsure on purchasing one, maybe wait until next year and have a drive of mine.
Dave

Thanks Dave,
yeah, love the paddles - particularly when off road. We did the flinders last weekend and did some more testing of my Paddle-mate. When you're in 4LLC and changing gears frequently the paddles are fantastic. I can't imagine driving without them now. One of the single best improvements I've made to the drivability of the car. btw, the Paddle-mate is good to go and I'm just waiting on some parts before shipping it to you. The Paddle-mate is great around town and on the highway.

No, not intending to purchase one, instead I'm intending to make my own but the main purpose is crawl control and idle-up control (like the old hand throttle) rather than the iDrive type re-mapping. It will do the iDrive thing as well though, but my concern was the safety aspect. I just wouldn't design it they way they do. I would include a brake input for safety, and peace of mind. This would positively disconnect the device when the brake is pressed, so if ever there was a problem, the touch of the brake immediately shut it off instead of relying on the ECU to detect a problem - kinda like putting the human in control instead of the automation.
This is the reason for my question in this thread, because the accelerator is a safety critical item, and messing with it may not be smart. They may not fail often at all, but if it does, murphy can be a bastard.
So, you said above you tested the smart brake...and it worked ok? If so, it seems the Pajero has a robust design and my safety concerns are easing.

You mentioned in another thread your iDrive turns the car into a 'weapon' when off-road due to the touchy pedal control. I take it you mean this as a bad thing? Did you dial it down in these conditions?

[Pickle]

You mentioned in another thread your iDrive turns the car into a 'weapon' when off-road due to the touchy pedal control. I take it you mean this as a bad thing? Did you dial it down in these conditions?

Well not so much a bad thing but did make 1st/2nd low range hard to get consistent acceleration on the rough tracks. Put into Normal mode (standard input) on other tracks gave better results.
Basically for low range work it probably doesn't need to be dialled up . Was just testing all settings on the tracks to find an happy medium in low range.
Dave