[RCjr]

Please don't call me stupid, but sometimes stumped things happen. I was driving on the interstate the other day and heard an annoying little vibration rattle. I was trying to locate the source with little luck. In the course I started putting a little pressure on various places on the dashboard. I was driving about 70 mph next to a semi truck and trailer and accidentally hit the ignition button. Killed the engine deader than a door nail. First thought was "holy (rhymes with truck)", second thought, stay alive how, what do I do. No steering, brakes, 70 mph, semi, traffic behind me. Luckily road was straight. All this was running thru my mind in a fraction of a second. Put car (A6) in neutral, thought do I put foot on brakes and get rear ended, decided no, hit push button ignition switch and thank goodness car started without my foot on the brake, pulled in gear and drove on with out having to stop (or clean my underware).

Frightened yes. Freaked out and panicked, no. Thought wonder if this had happened to my wife, somebody less experienced, somebody that would have freaked out. Was it stupid to accidentally hit the switch, no doubt. My point and warning here: don't touch that button driving down the road. GM/BG, with all the electronics you have available, car shouldn't shut off in that circumstance. That is where stupid law suits come from.

Stay safe.

 

[jsvette]

Glad you are safe rc jr. A question: did you push and hold the start/stop button since you were trying to get rid of the rattle you heard? I honestly would rather have a car where you could kill everything by pressing the start/stop button in the event that you had a run away acceleration that down shifting didn't help, and shifting into neutral didn't help as with some other OEM vehicles in the past.

 

[Z06 Owned]

Scary experience? Yes.

Avoidable with simple programming? Yes.

Exact programming parameters? Not so simple.

When push button ignitions started hitting the market, Nissan did some extensive "human response" testing. They recognized that a quick push of the button should not shut down the engine while someone is driving down the highway, so they built in a delay. Not long enough to make one think the button is not responding in the event they driver really is trying to shut down the engine. Just enough to avoid the situation you encountered. Or, several pushes in a row would shut down the engine, but not too many.

Toyota, on the other hand, initially programmed too much delay or too many pushes. A person trying to shut down their car with a stuck accelerator (or driver pinning the throttle instead of the brake in a panic situation), would give up pushing before the button would respond. That resulted in a widely publicized fatality accident in one of their sedans.

Amazing what thought/engineering has to go into something as seemingly simple as an ignition button...

 

[RCjr]

Glad you are safe rc jr. A question: did you push and hold the start/stop button since you were trying to get rid of the rattle you heard? I honestly would rather have a car where you could kill everything by pressing the start/stop button in the event that you had a run away acceleration that down shifting didn't help, and shifting into neutral didn't help as with some other OEM vehicles in the past.

Didn't hold it down. Just pushed it momentarily.

 

[Chip]

Butch; Glad to hear you and your's were not injured. It must have scared the dickens out of you!

 

[smajicek]

New computers are programmed to stay running in case you push the power button, in the old days computer would shut down hard, now you have to hold the power button down for approximately 5 seconds before it turns off.

 

[RCjr]

Butch; Glad to hear you and your's were not injured. It must have scared the dickens out of you!

At first I was afraid for me THEN afraid I was about to kill my new StingRay!

 

[jsvette]

I guess if your recall is spot on "Didn't hold it down. Just pushed it momentarily" I would have it checked out at the dealer asap. I can understand (again in light of the other OEM issues of 'run away' acceleration) the design to shut down the car by pushing and holding the start/stop button for a few seconds, but would consider a shut down at a momentary push as potentially dangerous. Possibly your start/stop switch has a short. Worth looking into.

 

[georgied]

The manual says if you must shut the car down while moving you need to hold the start/stop button down for two seconds or push it twice within 5 seconds. If your car didn't operate this way I would take to the dealer immediately as something is wrong.

 

[Chip]

At first I was afraid for me THEN afraid I was about to kill my new StingRay!

Glad to see you got your priorities straight!

 

[RCjr]

The manual says if you must shut the car down while moving you need to hold the start/stop button down for two seconds or push it twice within 5 seconds. If your car didn't operate this way I would take to the dealer immediately as something is wrong.

Missed reading that. I'll check it. Maybe I was so scared I forgot how long I pushed it. Thanks for finding that.

 

[jsvette]

Missed reading that. I'll check it. Maybe I was so scared I forgot how long I pushed it. Thanks for finding that.

That is most understandable under the circumstances!

 

[mjw930]

Missed reading that. I'll check it. Maybe I was so scared I forgot how long I pushed it. Thanks for finding that.

Perhaps not from being scared but from not knowing whether the push that shut it down was the first or second push. Remember, you were pushing on the dash to see if you could isolate a rattle, those types of pushes are rarely momentary, you push and listen then move your finger and repeat.

 

[ChevroletCustomerCare]

Please don't call me stupid, but sometimes stumped things happen. I was driving on the interstate the other day and heard an annoying little vibration rattle. I was trying to locate the source with little luck. In the course I started putting a little pressure on various places on the dashboard. I was driving about 70 mph next to a semi truck and trailer and accidentally hit the ignition button. Killed the engine deader than a door nail. First thought was "holy (rhymes with truck)", second thought, stay alive how, what do I do. No steering, brakes, 70 mph, semi, traffic behind me. Luckily road was straight. All this was running thru my mind in a fraction of a second. Put car (A6) in neutral, thought do I put foot on brakes and get rear ended, decided no, hit push button ignition switch and thank goodness car started without my foot on the brake, pulled in gear and drove on with out having to stop (or clean my underware).

Frightened yes. Freaked out and panicked, no. Thought wonder if this had happened to my wife, somebody less experienced, somebody that would have freaked out. Was it stupid to accidentally hit the switch, no doubt. My point and warning here: don't touch that button driving down the road. GM/BG, with all the electronics you have available, car shouldn't shut off in that circumstance. That is where stupid law suits come from.

Stay safe.

,

Very sorry to hear about your interstate incident, but we're extremely happy that you're OK as a result. Unfortunately we're unable to provide the technical feedback regarding the reasoning for functionality of that button as it pertains to a situation like that, but we most certainty appreciate your feedback. I will be sure to officially document this where multiple departments can view and review this information within GM.

Kind regards,

William R.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[RCjr]

,

Very sorry to hear about your interstate incident, but we're extremely happy that you're OK as a result. Unfortunately we're unable to provide the technical feedback regarding the reasoning for functionality of that button as it pertains to a situation like that, but we most certainty appreciate your feedback. I will be sure to officially document this where multiple departments can view and review this information within GM.

Kind regards,

William R.
Chevrolet Customer Care

Thanks for your concern and action! May be a real problem and not just a dumb action on my part.

 

[ChevroletCustomerCare]

Thanks for your concern and action! May be a real problem and not just a dumb action on my part.

Sure thing!

If you would like us to look into this be let us know.

Marissa
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[digitalstingray]

hasn't been mentioned, but the location of the button is not in plain sight being hidden behind the steering wheel, which in a panic situation is clearly not a good thing.

 

[jsvette]

hasn't been mentioned, but the location of the button is not in plain sight being hidden behind the steering wheel, which in a panic situation is clearly not a good thing.

Not sure that is an issue, muscle memory should have no problem locating it since you do it every time you start and stop your Stingray. Location is pretty similar for most US driven cars with some notable exceptions like Porsches (left side steering column on dash) and Saabs (center consul).

 

[2ndvette]

Good news out of your experience is that it started once again without braking. With the ability to restart, I am in favor of the immediate shutdown if that is what it did.

The switch is in an out of the way place yet easily accessible by the driver who uses it at least twice each time taking the car to the street. I do not see a problem.

 

[Chip]

Stuff happens fast, I've found that my muscle memory has taken on the characteristics of my mental memory. Not fast enough...