Ferrocene released as open source

Posted Oct 16, 2023 10:54 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727)
In reply to: Ferrocene released as open source by Cyberax
Parent article: Ferrocene released as open source

The reports are unclear, but it sounds like the EV did have a mechanical connection between the brakes and the brake pedal. If the unclear reports are accurate, then two things combined to make the situation bad:

Without electronically controlled assist, a lot of force is needed to apply the brakes.
If the brakes are not applied quickly enough, the electric motors can supply enough torque to damage the brakes to the point of ineffectiveness.

Combining the two gives you a really bad situation - the driver presses the brakes like normal, and nothing happens. So they press a bit harder, and the physical connection allows them to apply the brakes hard enough to damage the brakes, but not hard enough to slow the car. They then panic, and ram the brake pedal into the floor hoping to get a reaction from the car - but the mechanical brakes are no longer effective, and we get the situation where the car won't stop, because by braking "normally", the driver damaged the brakes via the physical connection, and then was unable to stop the car.