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Post by jeffthewalker on May 17, 2017 13:07:44 GMT 11
Any drive in my LEAF to anywhere (other than around the farm) requires me to stop and open/close five gates. When I stop at a gate, I apply the hand brake and leave it in drive. I check that the light on the dash is on (once it wasn't as I mistimed the brake on) and the LEAF started to move off as I took my foot off the brake. This made me wary. Not too long ago, as I was getting back into the LEAF, my left foot (goes in first) nudged the accelerator pedal. This is enough to initialise the "hill start" mode where the handbrake is automatically released. The LEAF has a nice "creep mode" which makes it feel a bit like an ICEV and holds nicely at the lights on a slight incline.
BUT....., if I (or anyone) accidentally 'nudge' the accelerator ON EXIT, with the hand brake on and [D]rive selected, "hill start mode", "creep" mode and a bit of unhelpful decline and the driver can be surprised by the unexpected motion and end up out of the car. If I was about to open a gate, the car would stop in contact with the gate with minor damage to the LEAF (and the gate).
However, if I had just closed a gate, I doubt if I could somehow walk/run alongside and recover enough position to stop the runaway (creepaway).
As a programmer of systems, I think it would be an essential safety feature to apply/re-apply the handbrake if the drivers seat is unoccupied.
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Post by Phoebe on May 17, 2017 15:11:01 GMT 11
Glad I don't have any gates only a garage door controlled from inside my LEAF. My daughter on a property near Gympie has lots - definitely won't drive my LEAF there
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Post by 4wardthinking on May 18, 2017 7:10:19 GMT 11
This sounds like another S/W change. My one is to have the car make a warning sound after 20 seconds of exceeding the speed limit it is aware of. I noted that it is very easy to glide past & beyond the limit without thinking on a road that demands a little more attention at times. This slight change wouldn't take too much work to achieve. I have a Gentex auto-dim/HD screen mirror in ours, which includes two sec2 gate opener remotes internally, which we use to open our garage doors, but are equally suitable for gate openers. Maybe fit one, and code the actuators to it. It would save the manual side of the task. Gentex have great tech in this arena. Used in ones 'helmet' in F116 flying... they work for cars on the rest of the tech, and one can fit a camera to another angle around the car.
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