No, it probably didn't have 'drive by wire', but the cruise control takes over, doesn't it?
So check out the quotes:
"They told him to turn the ignition off, which he could not do because the car was moving. Then he was put on hold."
"The 22-year-old, recently arrived from Queensland, called a Ford service centre and asked why he could not turn the key off. He was told not to drive the car as it would be dangerous."
"The Explorer will now be examined by police and Ford. Mr Weir claims six Australians have contacted him on Facebook to claim similar issues with their cars."
"The driver of the Ford tried a number of options to stop his vehicle, including braking, attempting to knock it out of gear and also trying to remove the keys, all to no avail,” Sen-Constable West said."
"FOOTAGE has emerged from a UK documentary which details stories of runaway Ford Explorers eerily similar to Chase Weir's freeway horror this week.
The Dispatches episode, entitled 'Runaway Cars', was broadcast in the late 1990s on British television and investigated numerous complaints that were made by Ford customers about being unable to slow their Explorer down.
One man, Chris Merrick, died when he crashed in a Bristol park in April 1998.
A couple's story of being unable to slow down on the motorway when returning home from London in early 1997 bore strong resemblances to Mr Weir's account of his panicked 30-minute trip down the EastLink freeway on Tuesday."
Or listen to the first part of the phone call to 000:
http://media.theage....t-1-976035.htmlOr the second part:
http://media.theage....cue-976138.htmlAnd a comment from among the plethora of anti-Weir statements given to the media:
"I hope you don't mind me posting this link:
http://suddenacceleration.com/?p=490...as it confirms power brakes will fail to work when the vehicle is trying to accelerate.
Isn't it kind of strange that when there is a mismatch in vehicle input - that is acceleration and braking similtaneously - that vehicles are designed so that the accelerating will over-ride the braking.
You'd have thought it would be the opposite."