Auto vs. Manual Transmission......

Well, think about it. The key switch does nothing more then send a signal to a chip in today's newest electronic controlled trucks to power up and prepare for "run mode". If a critical chip is fried somewhere, perhaps it would not process the signal to go to "off mode". Nothing in a truck today is mechanical, especially if it has an auto transmission. Everything is controlled via tiny control signals processed through various chips. In my case, there is a battery disconnect switch near the driver's seat on the floor. That's where I'd begin if turning the key off did nothing.

Hell, one day this past winter, I rolled my electric window down on my '18 Cascadia to throw out my gum. It went all the way down, then would not roll up. I tried everything including getting very aggressive with beating the panel and nearly breaking the window control switch. Nothing worked. It was near zero, so I stopped as soon as I could left it running, lifted out the control panel in the door, and it's just 3 tiny wires that pass signals to control no fewer than 8 different functions. Nothing helped there because there was nothing disconnected. Finally shut it off to try and find dealers that might be open on a weekend in the Idaho area and later restarted. It worked fine then.

 

All of those laws have provisions for calling emergency numbers.

Fuel pump as well.

 

Another story about Electronics killing people.

So we have autonomous cars... killing people

We had the whole Fiasco with the Toyotas suddenly accelerating... and killing people.

And yes I have seen stories where anti-lock brakes have killed people, especially when they first came out. It probably still happens but you don't hear much about it. Computers can malfunction in all kinds of ways. It's why I T guys have jobs.

All of this stuff is much more common than most people would ever think because you only hear about it under certain circumstances.

It's okay if you like an automatic transmission or if you like a manual transmission...

But it seems silly to take an 80000 pan vehicle and allow the electronics to do so much that they actually can kill people. And the same goes for any vehicle. That's pretty silly.

 

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure all of the truck's control power do not run through the key switch, there are relays involved and for a relay to be flipped it must get a secondary signal from somewhere and perhaps the key switch is not the "master" of anything in reality. It merely "talks to a chip"? I don't know, but I have to think the dude tried that first thing.

 

And therein lies the whole problem.

The key sends a signal to a chip that sends a signal to something else that sends a signal to something else that control something else, blah blah blah

And everything interfaces with everything else within this complex network of monitoring and controlling all things.

Without even the brains to design the ignition switch itself to just shut everything down.

Like a very wise man once said...

Stupidity prevails

 

I don't know but it seems there may be something to this. If so, there should probably be some training to inform drivers what to do in the event things become unresponsive. But I do find it hard to believe engineers have not effectively made the key switch an "eStop" button, but who wants to try and steer a power-steering truck in difficult curves with the engine off? I'm not even sure that can be done, but if you do shut the engine off at speed, what will the automatic transmission do?

That said, Freightliner has made their power steering work and feel the same, even while at 500 rpm idle while in eCoast operation. But I suppose engine off and engine idling are two completely different things as far as steering goes.