Safety concern - unexpected acceleration

[babybell86]

Hi all,
Just after some advice. I think there was a fault with my MG ZS EV.
Basically I was parked on the side of the road and have pulled out to drive off. The car has then flew forward and mounted the kerb on the opposite side of the road and went through someone’s garden and the only reason it stopped was because it hit a hot tub in the garden.
I'm convinced it was a mechanical fault with the car as it went so fast from parked.
Would the computer in the car be able to verify this or is it just going to say it was accelerating? I’ve seen that a faulty 12V battery could cause issues? My entertainment screen has been going on and off for a few weeks and MG did disconnect the battery a few months ago because the radio stopped working.

 

[Coulomb]

If it was a faulty reading from the accelerator pedal, these always have two potentiometers (the active electrical parts), and the motor controller is supposed to compare the results and ignore the pedal command if the two disagree more than a small amount.

So it might have logged a fault for this, which would be retrievable now, but I would have expected it to assume a fault and either go to turtle mode or bring up that message where it says pull over when safe to do so.

 

[Deepbluexl]

Hi all,
Just after some advice. I think there was a fault with my MG ZS EV.
Basically I was parked on the side of the road and have pulled out to drive off. The car has then flew forward and mounted the kerb on the opposite side of the road and went through someone’s garden and the only reason it stopped was because it hit a hot tub in the garden.
I'm convinced it was a mechanical fault with the car as it went so fast from parked.
Would the computer in the car be able to verify this or is it just going to say it was accelerating? I’ve seen that a faulty 12V battery could cause issues? My entertainment screen has been going on and off for a few weeks and MG did disconnect the battery a few months ago because the radio stopped working.

Could It be that you activated ACC by accident?

 

[Tuareg]

Floor mat stuck/jammed on accelerator happens to all types of cars.

 

[babybell86]

Floor mat stuck/jammed on accelerator happens to all types of cars.

Honestly, I’m starting to hope it was me being an idiot as my insurance may not pay out if it was a mechanical fault. Thank you all for replying

Hi.
Wrong Subforum.. and could It be that you activated ACC by accident?

Is that cruise control? Maybe, it just seemed to pick up speed so quickly. Hoping it was me so that the insurance pays out!

 

[gary333]

Are you sure you didn't just confuse the accelerator for the brake? Did the brake not work when you tried to slow the car down as you could feel it accelerate?

 

[Tim Green]

How long from just pulling out to hitting the hot tub? 3-5 seconds?
Surely insurance should pay whatever the cause, or was it "third party only" cover?

Coulomb: My Jag XK8 had an issue when the engine would just cut out for no apparent reason. There was a software recall due to "incorrect signals from the throttle body" which sorted it.

 

[Lovemyev]

I did post an observation I made with regards to my own personal observation on the pedal box set up on the ZS EV a long time ago.
When you are applying pressure to footbrake, if you foot is heavenly basis towards the right hand side of the foot brake pedal, when you start depressing the brake ( rather than applying pressure in the centre of the pedal ) then as the pedal takes up the free travel, the right side of your footwear actually contacts the “Go Pedal” before the foot brake travel has been reached.
Therefore as you increase the pressure on footbrake, you can’t understand why the car is accelerating ?.
In order to reverse this, you have first to lift up your foot and then move it to the centre of the brake pedal and the reapply pressure.
Unfortunately if this situation does manifest itself, then getting enough time to reposition your right foot may not be possible .
We all know that EV’s are much quicker from the “Get Go” than their ICE counterparts.
Even a very small amount of “Go Pedal” travel, is enough to accelerate the car very quickly.
Personally, I think that brake pedal free play travel should be exhausted, before your foot has any chance of touching the “Go Pedal” myself.
If you have larger feet, or are wearing shoes or boots etc with a wider sole section, then the chance of this happening is increased.
If you want to test out my theory on this subject, then just ensure you do this when it is safe to do so.
I first experienced this for the first time myself on car park .
I pulled into a bay and then pressed the footbrake ( as I thought ) to bring the car to a stop .
But the car then shot forward and over shot the parking bay by about 6 feet.
Nobody in the space in front luckily enough .

 

[hmadsen]

Could It be that you activated ACC by accident?

ACC wont engage under a certain speed as far as i remember