Did the same thing. Thought the engine had just died. Kept pushing on the accelerator and not going. Steered off the road and had already called my wife to come pick me when I realized I was in neutral.
No amount of engineering can prevent people from doing intensely stupid things.
Thank you for testing that for us, Now please test the Park position and let us know how that works out. Please, LOL
It only needs to be smarter than us because it was designed that way. For instance, on a manual transmission, there is usually a physical lockout device you must activate in order to shift to reverse. But since the computer can stop you from doing that, there is no need for a physical safety mechanism. If the computer couldn't stop it, I promise there would be a button you had to hold down to physically turn the dial to reverse from drive.
I've done that once by turning it off as I was coming into my parking spot. It went into park and locked up the wheels on the ice. I've been driving manual vehicles forever and have been parking in the same spot for over 30 years. Everything is different. Everything. If the "check engine" light ever goes on I'm gonna open the hood and go "Yep, still there"
You can only switch it into park at a very slow speed. Above that would be similar to the OP's experience. I have to say though, I am more than a little baffled at how many in here post about switching gears accidentally. Someone said they have done it stretching. Wut? Is he Andre the giant? Are you doing yoga in the truck? WTF
Sometimes it is as unbelievable to the driver as it is to you. I was leaving a drive-thru and managed to put mine into Neutral. I swear I did not even have my hand near the shifter. I guess somehow the action of putting a drink into the cup holder managed to shift it. Which makes no sense. But it is the only explanation.
I can attest, fortunately in a rental. Some sodas sold at various locations come in flimsy cups and I grabbed one that was rather full......squeezed to hard, it basically cracked from the top to about a third of the way down......needless to say, my pants, the console and part of the passenger seat were soaked in Diet Coke.
Shit happens for sure. I have definitely spilled stuff in my own cars. I was mostly just giving you some grief for the 70mph cleanup, though I can also understand the immediate sense of panic when you spill stuff like that.
good to know. thanks for spilling your coffee and testing it out for us.
