'My gas pedal is stuck' BMW driver tells 911 as he barrels down interstate

[Spa2k]

One who’s trying to beat a speeding ticket.

[OUGrad05]

Originally Posted by The Wind Breezes

Even if he can't think of shifting to neutral, brakes are required by law to stop the car in first gear at full throttle. A full panic stop will get the car down from speed. What kind of crazy fool gets in the situation where he is terrified for his life and has the free time and attention to fucking call the authorities but can't summon the adrenaline to press the brakes hard for a few seconds?

An idiot who wanted to drive quickly and have an excuse to do so? Pretty obvious that this guy knew what he was doing and planned it. There's too many ways to stop/slow down a speeding car, of which he tried NONE.

[roastbeef]

whats hard about shifting into neutral and braking to a stop like normal?

[EDWYER]

"Officer the gas pedal was stuck and then when I saw your flashing lights it all of a sudden released and I was able to slow down" -Me next speeding ticket

[DanG]

Originally Posted by ProjectBoost

"Officer the gas pedal was stuck and then when I saw your flashing lights it all of a sudden released and I was able to slow down" -Me next speeding ticket

I wish that would work.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Law

I call BS on the whole thing.
The car was an E53 X5.
Not only is there no such thing as a transmission that locks-out neutral at any speed but also the automatic transmissions of that generation were still "physical", meaning one could physically move the gear selector into neutral. So that throws out the "electronics glitching" theory.

And then there's the key. E53 X5s still used physical keys in the ignition,
where the user would insert the key and turn clockwise to start. The opposite, counter-clockwise motion would've shut the engine off.

The guy had 30+ minutes. Even in a "panic" situation, there were a number of solutions available and that's before we discuss the braking options.
There's simply no excuse. The guy is an idiot.

This is the correct answer. The ignition could have been turned off and the X5 would have drifted to a stop. The driver was either purposefully creating a false emergency, or he was an under-trained complete dumbass.

But as a 40-year Bimmerhead, all I can say is this is what happens to a unique, specialized car manufacturer when it caters to the masses of soccer moms and dads and builds SUVs. A legacy BMW driver (no, not the 1980s era Yuppies) would be absolutely embarrassed because he was such a driving wimp, he couldn't get his BMW to stop.

Pitiful.

[No1Cares]

100% stupidity. step on the brakes....end of discussion.

[ShakyDog]

I too think this was all fabricated for some other unknown reason.

However, with the 'Fly-by-wire' systems I would not rule it out 100%. I owned a 2008 E83 automatic that at times would surge forward for no reason (it was never out of control). I would not rule out an odd software glitch where it could stop receiving input from the pedals or any other host of oddities. How often do we need to reboot our computers and phones?

Possible? Not likely.
Steve

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by ShakyDog

I too think this was all fabricated for some other unknown reason.

However, with the 'Fly-by-wire' systems I would not rule it out 100%. I owned a 2008 E83 automatic that at times would surge forward for no reason (it was never out of control). I would not rule out an odd software glitch where it could stop receiving input from the pedals or any other host of oddities. How often do we need to reboot our computers and phones?

Possible? Not likely.
Steve

It is impossible to get a false reading from an electronic throttle.

There are two sensors in the pedal, and one operates at double the voltage of the other.

So, say you are at 10% throttle, one sensor will see something like 0.83V, the second will be exactly double the first, 1.66V. If those numbers are even 0.05 V off, the computer will trigger a light, ignore throttle input and put the engine at idle. So any combination of a bad sensor, wiring short, short to ground, short to power, short between the two sensors, will shut the system down immediately.

[GuidoK]

^thats totally true.
Both the gaspedal and the throttlebody have 2 potentiometers. If one differs from the other, the engine will go in emergency mode.

[Meeni]

All the ways for this malfunction I can think off require a list of independent things going wrong all at the same time. That being said, with the millions of miles that are racked up collectively on BMWs, one actually showing the perfect storm is not impossible.

But as said above, an independent malfunction of the TPS is not enough. Neither is a VANOS stuck open malfunction (the throttle valve would still choke the engine). I guess a stuck VANOS --AND-- a stuck throttle valve at the same time would keep the air flowing in, but you'd also need to get gas in, which means that the ECU would keep the injectors squirting with gas pedal at 0. That's a lot of things going wrong all at the same time.

[NickyC]

This guy is full of shit or on drugs. Most likely both.

Was the engine bouncing off the rev limiter for 30 minutes straight? Is that even possible?

Remember we're talking about a BMW here!! ;P