Apple would have a lot of sway if they wanted to see them installed. They were installed immediately after this incident, but I'm not sure if it was Apple or the property taking the initiative. The speed this vehicle was traveling at would have exceeded what most bollards are rated for. It may have helped, but the car would probably have flipped over it and gone in to the store either way.
I accidentally misquoted that. It was visually estimated at 60-70 MPH. Still fast and this is still a vehicle with a brake override system. If the accelerator was stuck for any reason the brake would still work. The brake would override the accelerator and the vehicle would fully stop. The story is definitely fishy unless they managed to get both the brake stuck up and the accelerator stuck down. I'm trying to imagine them with a sideways foot on the accelerator and under the brake pedal, but not sure if that is even possible. It doesn't sound like the brake also stuck was the case based on the testimony released.
Right. To get to 70-80 mph in a RAV4 you have to be very deliberate about that. It also takes 8 secs to get up to 60 mph while mashing the accelerator. Who goes full throttle through a parking lot??? And the chance that the accelerator got “stuck” is minuscule after the $1.8B lawsuit that Toyota settled for this exact problem and implemented safety features like the aforementioned brake override. It doesn’t make sense.
It doesn't seem likely in this situation. They said their foot was stuck and were trying to stop with their left foot. Maybe they could have had their foot stuck mostly to the right of the accelerator and were mashing down on the rest of the accelerator with their other foot to stop. We're not accustomed to hitting the brake with our left foot. Would need a RAV4 owner to chime in if that were possible in this vehicle. Generally the accelerator has a wall to the right of it to make it easier to find and prevent this sort of thing.
I would venture to say you may hear something to this affect " driver was seen making several turns accelerating prior to the long parking aisle where it is estimated by the investigation team reaching a speed of 64 mph just prior to crashing into the apple store. There was no sign of breaking.
It was a 4 runner not a rav4. And no, the 4 runner had not been updated since 2008 and yes, it was obvi deliberate.
It was definitely deliberate. If the driver had pressed the brake at any point after the curb he wouldn’t have pinned multiple people against the wall on the other side of the store.
The initial news reports said it was a 2019 Toyota RAV4. Looks like it has since been edited to say it is a 2019 Toyota 4Runner. Either way, this vehicle also has the same braking system that cuts the throttle. All models back to 2011 have this and I think some before that through recalls. That includes models that didn't receive a substantial refresh since 2008. Checking some Toyota 4Runner forums, it looks like this vehicle transitioned part way in the 2010 model year. Toyota was burned by stuck accelerators and they incorporated this everywhere pretty quickly. Toyota vehicles have been drive-by-wire for a long time, so this was mainly a software change.
Good catch. I was basing it on the initial reporting that said RAV4. Either way, this vehicle has the same braking feature that disables the throttle.
I didn't know either. just found the photo through the linked news article.
Good question. I don't know enough about that feature, but it feels it should have auto-braked. I don't know if the window would have confused it. Maybe it did brake once inside the store.
A fire marshal estimated the speed at 60-70 MPH based on video footage he saw. It was the same one that said it looked deliberate. It is true this is just a visual estimate and likely inaccurate. It still indicates a pretty high speed collision. I can't remember which news story had that quote. I was only able to find partial quotes doing a quick search for it. Witnesses also said they estimated the vehicle was traveling 60 MPH. It was driving along the front of the stores then turned left in to the Apple Store.
I simply speculation
"I would venture to say you may hear something to this affect"I simply speculation
Estimated? It doesn't take a few days to review video and calculate a speed.
