PSA: What Happens When Start/Stop Button is Accidentally Pushed While Driving

[Electric Goat]

If I want the car off then the car SHOULD shift into neutral and turn off. Not having an off switch is more scary to me. I'm already freaked out a bit by the fact that the Mach-E doesn't have a physical keyhole in at least one door

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[devmach-e]

Very disconcerting event: I accidently touched, (brushed) the Start/Stop Button while adjusting the air vent above the start/stop button. The car turned off the motor and put a emergency message on the small screen in front of me stating pull over immediately, shift to neutral, hold the foot brake on and re-start using the start/stop button to start the car again. Needless to say, this was very disconcerting at 60 MPH and a scary situation in heavy traffic. Luckily I was able to do this safely and we continued our journey.
My question is how is this possible while actively driving a car? With the vent directly above the Start/Stop switch and needing only a very light touch on the switch, I feel this is a very unsafe situation! Admittedly I've put on ~5500 miles on the car and this is the only time I've had this happen. I would think you would need to push and hold the switch for a few seconds, if the car is moving to ensure you want to shut the motor(s) off. The steering and brakes continued to operate normally.

I don't doubt that this happened to you. But you didn't cause the car to shutoff by accidentally "brushing" the Start/Stop button. It takes an actual push that is longer than 2 seconds, or 2 pushes of the button within a couple of seconds to get the car to shutoff. How do I know this? I went out to my car and tested this. Just tapping the button without pushing it did nothing. I tried brushing it repeatedly without pressing it, and it wouldn't shutoff.

Both of my Prii (a 2005, and a 2012 Plug-in) behaved in a similar manner: a momentary push was ignored. A prolonged push caused the car to turn off. Steering was a bit more difficult as were applying the brakes. Notable about the MME, I appeared to have full steering power and braking.

 

[breeves002]

Odd. In my car I can push the button and nothing happens if I'm driving. I have to hold it for at least 2 seconds to get the car to actually turn off. This has been my experience with most push to start cars. You have to hold the button if you're driving to get it to turn off.

 

[newmme]

Guys, you are all sounding like old people. Watch the videos of how an EV operates (mostly the startups that don't have 100 years of "its always been that way running in their veins") with no start/stop. It is not scary, and all the safety you are worried about has been thought about. I know it is sometimes easy to have preconcieved ideas on "how would that work"...I do the same sometimes haha.

 

[devmach-e]

Guys, you are all sounding like old people. Watch the videos of how an EV operates (mostly the startups that don't have 100 years of "its always been that way running in their veins") with no start/stop. It is not scary, and all the safety you are worried about has been thought about. I know it is sometimes easy to have preconcieved ideas on "how would that work"...I do the same sometimes haha.

I think there's probably some obscure federal vehicle safety standard rule that dictates the use of a start/stop button or similar technology. And I'm a little surprised that the few EV manufacturers who don't have such a button have managed to get around such a regulation. But a search of the relevant sections of the FMVSS hasn't shown such a regulation.

 

[i8iridium]

I don't doubt that this happened to you. But you didn't cause the car to shutoff by accidentally "brushing" the Start/Stop button. It takes an actual push that is longer than 2 seconds, or 2 pushes of the button within a couple of seconds to get the car to shutoff. How do I know this? I went out to my car and tested this. Just tapping the button without pushing it did nothing. I tried brushing it repeatedly without pressing it, and it wouldn't shutoff.

Both of my Prii (a 2005, and a 2012 Plug-in) behaved in a similar manner: a momentary push was ignored. A prolonged push caused the car to turn off. Steering was a bit more difficult as were applying the brakes. Notable about the MME, I appeared to have full steering power and braking.

Odd. In my car I can push the button and nothing happens if I'm driving. I have to hold it for at least 2 seconds to get the car to actually turn off. This has been my experience with most push to start cars. You have to hold the button if you're driving to get it to turn off.

Same for mine and all the other Fords I have with the same Start/Stop button. You have to hold it for 2 seconds or push it twice.

 

[SnBGC]

The only thing "dangerous" about this would be driver inattention and over-reaction. I want the car to turn off if I press the start stop button, and there may indeed be situations where that needs to happen at speed.

Agree.
Like many here.....I have been driving for decades and in that time there have been a hand full of instances where my vehicle shut off completely while at speed. A variety of reasons of course but in all cases I just coasted to the side of the road and then dealt with the issue as appropriate.

The first gen Super Duty trucks with the 7.3 liter diesel engine were known for that very thing. Apparently the issue was a bad batch of cam shaft position sensors (CSP) and a bad signal would cause the engine to shut off like a light switch. It was so widespread that many of us purchased a spare sensor and kept it in the glove box with a 10mm wrench (so we could repair the vehicle on the roadside). I did the same and of course my trucks never experienced that issue in over 750k miles. I joke that if I hadn't carried a spare sensor, then I surely would have experienced the failure.

 

[breeves002]

I joke that if I hadn't carried a spare sensor, then I surely would have experienced the failure.

No joke this is exactly what would have happened. I blew a tire on my stacker trailer coming home from a drift event about 3 hours from home. I put the spare on but bought a ridiculously expensive $550 replacement tire for the spare at a truck stop. I figured if I didn't do this a second tire would have blown and I would have been screwed. You know it's true. I've had two tires blow out on a trip before too!

 

[khbkhb]

Consider the case of teaching one's child to drive. Being able to turn the car off quickly can be vital. As for "start" being able to precisely control whether you've just got 12v or the high voltage pack energized is also a positive good.

Nissan (LEAF) has this as well (although in the Gen1 LEAF it wasn't easily hit from the passenger seat).

 

[SnBGC]

No joke this is exactly what would have happened. I blew a tire on my stacker trailer coming home from a drift event about 3 hours from home. I put the spare on but bought a ridiculously expensive $550 replacement tire for the spare at a truck stop. I figured if I didn't do this a second tire would have blown and I would have been screwed. You know it's true. I've had two tires blow out on a trip before too!

I think we are onto something......
Perhaps we should purchase a spare HVBJB and keep it stowed under the floor in the cargo area.

 

[veronicablack]

After Toyota had unintended acceleration with some of their models in the past and the drivers not being able to shut the car off just by pressing the button, I don't see any manufacture disabling the off button at speed or making the off at speed multiple steps to do so in a panic situation. I do see some cars (like the Tesla and new Blazer EV) with no start/stop button anymore. The car turns on as you get in the car and turns off when you get out of the car.

When I was in middle school, we had some woman driving in the parking lot when something caused her accelerator to stick. Ended up basically flooring the car across the school's field and only stopped when she turned the whole car off. I'm sure there were other ways she could have stopped the car or avoided the situation, but I'm very glad cars let you turn them off while running.

 

[mkhuffman]

Guys, you are all sounding like old people. Watch the videos of how an EV operates (mostly the startups that don't have 100 years of "its always been that way running in their veins") with no start/stop. It is not scary, and all the safety you are worried about has been thought about. I know it is sometimes easy to have preconcieved ideas on "how would that work"...I do the same sometimes haha.

It is possible you don't know how a BEV operates. The HVB is not connected and "on" all the time. It is only needed when it is time to move the car or maintain the LVB. That is the reason for the button. It isn't because it has always been there.

What if I want to sit in the car with the HVB off? It wastes a lot of energy to keep it connected and "on" if I don't need to move the car. And as already mentioned, there are many times when I want the HVB to stay "on" even when I am not sitting in the driver seat. I don't need the car to try to figure out what I am doing in order to determine if the HVB should be connected or not. I will tell the car what I want to do by pressing the button.

An emergency stop by pressing the start button is not the only good reason to have a button.

I don't think I will buy a car that doesn't have one.

 

[RedStallion]

I'm concerned with my dog walking back and forth and sniffing stuff while driving. So far he regularly turns on the emergency flashers, which are located in really weird place and left some nose prints on the screen.

 

[MW1515]

If I want the car off then the car SHOULD shift into neutral and turn off. Not having an off switch is more scary to me. I'm already freaked out a bit by the fact that the Mach-E doesn't have a physical keyhole in at least one door

Good point I didn't think about that. How do we get in if the key fob battery dies? Maybe this is a good reason to set up PAAK. Is there another way?

 

[dtbaker61]

Some people like to control when their car is turned on or off.

emergency OFF button is a good thing
'stay on' when I get out for a minute, or in camp mode, is a good thing.

so button is fine. A/c vent location maybe not great.

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