Pedals For Dummies
Imagine yourself going down the road with your foot on the brake pedal all the time. This is a Japanese inventor’s idea to stop driver error and unintended acceleration. To accelerate, you move your foot sideways against an accelerator bar. To brake, you stomp on the brake. A horrible thought – if you are a personal injury lawyer.
“We have a natural tendency to stomp down when we panic,” says the inventor, Masuyuki Naruse. What’s more, in an accident, you are very likely to accelerate, because of the impact. In the split second it takes to change from gas to conventional brake pedal, with the new pedal, you are already braking.
There is little chance to hit the wrong pedal with the new setup.” When the pedal is pushed down, it always activates the brakes,” writes the New York Times.
Naruse developed the pedal 20 years ago, after he mistakenly stepped on the gas – as many others did, but often not admitted. Naruse did something about it. Natuse holds patents for the pedal in Japan, the United States and six other countries.
Naruse is not the only one who have designed a single pedal solution to prevent accidents caused by pedal misapplication. Regulators in Sweden are testing a single-pedal prototype by the inventor Sven Gustafsson.
Katsuya Matsunaga, an engineering and psychology specialist at Kyushu Sangyo University in Fukuoka City says: “Simply speaking, the conventional pedal setup, which forces drivers to switch back and forth between pedals, is dangerous. Mr. Naruse’s pedal works because it takes into account how our bodies work. It makes sure that when we make a mistake, the car stops.”
According to Naruse, Toyota engineers tested a prototype in 2000, but did not like the design. In May, Naruse invited Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, to try a Lexus sedan fitted with the latest version of his pedal. Mr. Naruse said he had received no response.
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Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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It would be an interesting transition period while people got used to this new pedal system. Some guy is coming down the freeway on-ramp, suddenly notices that freeway traffic is moving faster than he thought and that he needs to accelerate briskly to merge smoothly, so he stomps on the pedal, panic stopping his car and possibly causing a chain reaction accident on the ramp. The installed base of drivers who expect separate pedals with the accelerator to the right and the brake to the left is much too large to retrain, no matter how effective this system might be (not that I think that it is).
Just reading about Naruse-San's invention made the tendons in my right leg twitch. I would argue that the current set-up is sub optimal. But we probably can't make a change while the there are substantial numbers of three pedal cars around. However, in a few years, the dual clutch transmissions will make the third pedal completely obsolete. I like the idea of putting the brake on the right side. I also like the idea of putting the throttle control on the steering wheel. I would also think that putting the brake on the right and the gas pedal on the left might reduce errors particularly if they were further apart than is current practice.