Post: #1

Quote:Anton Yelchin, the Russian-born actor who played Chekov in the new Star Trek films, has been killed by his own car at his home in Los Angeles, police say.
The vehicle struck him after rolling backwards down the drive at his Studio City home, pinning him against a brick postbox pillar and a security fence.
Police did not say why he was behind the car at the time.
Yelchin, 27, also appeared in the crime thriller Alpha Dog and teen comedy Charlie Bartlett.
Yelchin played Pavel Chekov, the role originally made famous by Walter Koenig (now 79), in the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
A third film with him in the role, Star Trek Beyond, is due for release next month.
News of his death led Twitter trends in Los Angles and beyond on Sunday.
Fellow Star Trek actor John Cho, who plays Sulu in the series, tweeted, "I loved Anton Yelchin so much. He was a true artist - curious, beautiful, courageous. He was a great pal and a great son. I'm in ruins."

BBC News Article

Personally I really liked him as an Actor, I first came across him in the movie Alpha Dog that I really enjoyed (A very sad true story) I feel sorry for his Father on Father's day. I can't think of a worse tragedy than having to see your son die before you.

Post: #2

When I was a kid the guy next door died by getting pinned between his car and garage door after forgetting to pull the brake. Painful way to go.

Post: #3

Wow young guy, what a shame. Be careful out there gents. Safety first is no joke.

Post: #4

That's what we call a pinch point in the business. They are to be avoided, obviously.

Post: #5

Damn. That's too young. Doesn't sound like a pleasant way out at all.

Post: #6

Terrible way to go. And at the age of 27, the age when tons of celebrities and musicians die.

Post: #7

I can't help myself:

In Soviet Russia, car drive you.

Post: #8

I wonder what the toxicology report will show.

Post: #9

Apparently the Jeep Grand Cherokee had a recall issue with engaging park.

Post: #10

(06-19-2016 10:44 PM)porscheguy Wrote:  Apparently the Jeep Grand Cherokee had a recall issue with engaging park.

Found this:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/22/autos/ch...ft-recall/

Quote:The problem: The gear shift's design makes it hard to tell what gear the vehicle is in. Unlike most gear selectors, which are in forward or back positions depending on whether the car is in Park, Reverse, Neutral or Drive, the gear selector in these vehicles always remains upright. The driver moves it forward or back to select a gear but it then returns to its original upright position.
Indicator lights tell the driver what gear the vehicle is in. If the driver opens the door when the vehicle is not in Park a warning chime sounds and an alert message is displayed in the gauge cluster. Even so, some drivers still got out of the vehicle without putting it in Park.

To remedy the problem, Chrysler will enhance those warnings and also change how the gear selector operates. The changes will automatically prevent the vehicle from moving under certain circumstances even if the driver doesn't select Park. Fiat Chrysler will notify owners of vehicles involved in the recall and will do the repairs at no cost to owners.

Well, that's shitty human interface right there.

For the longest time I only drove manual cars. It damn near always got me when I rented an auto or drove a friend's auto and sometimes I'd turn the car off and try to get the keys out without putting it in park. I've since gotten used to autos, but I can see how something so simple, when done wrong, can get people screwed up.

Post: #11

The car in question - Jeep Grand Cherokee - has a 'Monostable' shifter design for the automatic transmission, that is the shifter has no mechanical linkage to the transaxle and instead sends a signal to engage a gear position (Park, Neutral, Reverse, Drive, etc) and returns to the same physical position after being engaged.



The 'fly-by-wire' aspect of it is nothing new, neither really is the monostatic nature of the shifter, but the way in which its engaged makes it incumbant on you the driver to really activate it in the correct manner.

If you've driven a Prius or late model automatic BMW, Audi, or Mercedes, these cars have similar shifter arrangements. In the Prius, there remains a rudimentary shiftgate as well as multiple indicator lights and warnings to alert you when the vehicle is not in park and the driver's door is open. I know Mercedes shifters are column-mounted and will even shift automatically into park when a door is opened at low speed if you are in any other gear except neutral.

The difference in the BMW interface and FCA's is that the former require you to push a PARK button to engage park and REVERSE requires engaging a side button as well as pushing the stick forward; its enough of a difference from normal to require you to learn it and familiarize yourself with the operation. FCA instead keeps a normal PRNDL layout, meaning that the difference between going from DRIVE to PARK versus NEUTRAL is a matter of how hard and how long you push the shifter forward.

Now, the intial reaction may be, "Well, you should learn to drive your car right, stupid," but what is the purpose of making what should be a relatively easy and constantly-used control interface overly complicated? Also, this isn't a low-volume supercar; its used in volume mass-market vehicles - the Grand Cherokee, 300, and Charger.

Is it driver error? Yes. But its driver error that is created by poor user interface and overcomplicating a rote procedure that has been committed to memory by years of driving.

Not only were complaints about this shifter noted in '12 when the shifter debuted in fullsize LX cars (Charger, 300) with 8-speed gearboxes - mainly that its operation wasn't intuitive or natural and that the detants amongst the gears were hard to feel - but Chrysler has since abandoned this style of shifter in '15 for the sedans and '16 for the JGC and replaced them with a newer 'Polystable' interface that is still fly-by-wire, but has a traditional shifter with detants and positions relative to your gear selection. Plus, NHTSA has since issued a recall for FCA to remedy this 'unintentional rollaway' issue with a software update that presumably has more built-in safety features.

Post: #12

Post: #13

God I hate fly-by wire controls. How many people died or were seriously injured not so long ago when their Ford ignition systems had a shit-fit while they were doing 60, shut down the power assisted brakes and locked the steering column?

Give me an older model car in good condition any day.

Post: #14

The number of high-profile celebrities to die unexpectedly in 2016 has been astounding. It seems to be part of a larger trend, seemingly kicked off (no pun intended) by Heath Ledger's death in 2008. They've really been dropping like flies since then.

Post: #15

(06-20-2016 02:25 AM)LeoneVolpe Wrote:  The number of high-profile celebrities to die unexpectedly in 2016 has been astounding. It seems to be part of a larger trend, seemingly kicked off (no pun intended) by Heath Ledger's death in 2008. They've really been dropping like flies since then.

This could in part be attributed the the sheer amount of entertainment material there is out there in the world now.

Go back far enough and there used to a few free to air television channels and a smattering of movie releases each year.

Now it seems like content is being released so quickly that it would take a team of a thousand people working 12 hour shifts seven days a week just to keep up with it all, and that adds up to a lot of so called celebrities.

Post: #16

(06-20-2016 03:09 AM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

(06-20-2016 02:25 AM)LeoneVolpe Wrote:  The number of high-profile celebrities to die unexpectedly in 2016 has been astounding. It seems to be part of a larger trend, seemingly kicked off (no pun intended) by Heath Ledger's death in 2008. They've really been dropping like flies since then.

This could in part be attributed the the sheer amount of entertainment material there is out there in the world now.

Go back far enough and there used to a few free to air television channels and a smattering of movie releases each year.

Now it seems like content is being released so quickly that it would take a team of a thousand people working 12 hour shifts seven days a week just to keep up with it all, and that adds up to a lot of so called celebrities.

I agree that as the entertainment industry continues to grow, it will need more artists to support it. Since these individuals are in the public eye, it's big news when they die. In death, just as in life, the spotlight shines brighter on these folks than everyday people. I'm not trying to don a tin-foil hat here and suggest all these deaths are the work of some elaborate conspiracy or anything like that. All I'm saying, and I'm willing to admit it could be my own confirmation bias at work here, is that a lot of celebrities have died unexpectedly and often in shocking ways during the past eight years, but especially in 2016.

A far from exhaustive list:

Heath Ledger (January 22, 2008, age 28)
Michael Jackson (June 25, 2009, age 50)
Brittany Murphy (December 20, 2009, age 32)
Whitney Houston (February 11, 2012, age 48)
Paul Walker (November 30, 2013, age 40)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (February 2, 2014, age 46)
Robin Williams (August 11, 2014, age 63)
David Bowie (January 10, 2016, age 69)
Alan Rickman (January 14, 2016, age 69)
Prince (April 21, 2016, age 57)

The list goes on...

Again, not trying to deny the possibility of my own confirmation bias, but in years past when I'd catch the Academy Awards, the "In Memoriam" segment would feature mostly very elderly entertainers. This has certainly become less of the case in recent years. Though some of the people mentioned above weren't "young" necessarily, their deaths were still considered untimely.

Post: #17

(06-19-2016 03:41 PM)RIslander Wrote:  When I was a kid the guy next door died by getting pinned between his car and garage door after forgetting to pull the brake. Painful way to go.

Pulling the parking break is part of my getting out of the car routine. Foot on brakes to stop, put in park, pull brake, turn off ignition, lift foot from brakes.

I've been questioned before for pulling the park brake every time I park. It would be interesting to get a mechanic's opinion here on whether you should always pull the park brake when parking. According to my Google searches the answer is yes.

Post: #18

damn, thats crazy! Odd thomas was one of the better movies i ever saw....

Post: #19

(06-19-2016 11:20 PM)dicknixon72 Wrote:  The car in question - Jeep Grand Cherokee - has a 'Monostable' shifter design for the automatic transmission, that is the shifter has no mechanical linkage to the transaxle and instead sends a signal to engage a gear position (Park, Neutral, Reverse, Drive, etc) and returns to the same physical position after being engaged.



The 'fly-by-wire' aspect of it is nothing new, neither really is the monostatic nature of the shifter, but the way in which its engaged makes it incumbant on you the driver to really activate it in the correct manner.

If you've driven a Prius or late model automatic BMW, Audi, or Mercedes, these cars have similar shifter arrangements. In the Prius, there remains a rudimentary shiftgate as well as multiple indicator lights and warnings to alert you when the vehicle is not in park and the driver's door is open. I know Mercedes shifters are column-mounted and will even shift automatically into park when a door is opened at low speed if you are in any other gear except neutral.

The difference in the BMW interface and FCA's is that the former require you to push a PARK button to engage park and REVERSE requires engaging a side button as well as pushing the stick forward; its enough of a difference from normal to require you to learn it and familiarize yourself with the operation. FCA instead keeps a normal PRNDL layout, meaning that the difference between going from DRIVE to PARK versus NEUTRAL is a matter of how hard and how long you push the shifter forward.

Now, the intial reaction may be, "Well, you should learn to drive your car right, stupid," but what is the purpose of making what should be a relatively easy and constantly-used control interface overly complicated? Also, this isn't a low-volume supercar; its used in volume mass-market vehicles - the Grand Cherokee, 300, and Charger.

Is it driver error? Yes. But its driver error that is created by poor user interface and overcomplicating a rote procedure that has been committed to memory by years of driving.

Not only were complaints about this shifter noted in '12 when the shifter debuted in fullsize LX cars (Charger, 300) with 8-speed gearboxes - mainly that its operation wasn't intuitive or natural and that the detants amongst the gears were hard to feel - but Chrysler has since abandoned this style of shifter in '15 for the sedans and '16 for the JGC and replaced them with a newer 'Polystable' interface that is still fly-by-wire, but has a traditional shifter with detants and positions relative to your gear selection. Plus, NHTSA has since issued a recall for FCA to remedy this 'unintentional rollaway' issue with a software update that presumably has more built-in safety features.

Here the BMW shifter in the current model:


I currently drive my family BMW when i need to go out. BMW interface lets me know when the car is park with simple indicator on the shifter. Compare to the picture of the knob in your post, I would not have a clue unless I am looking for the indicator on the dashboard. As you said crappy human machine interface will get a person killed.

Post: #20

Is this normal that people dont pull the parking break in the US? I always put the manual transmission in speed one when parking we dont even leave it in neutral.

Must be my paranoid EE genes

Sad way to go. This is a good reminder that one small mistake and you can be gone...

Post: #21

You don't need to put the parking brake on in an automatic, but it's good practice on steep hills. Keeps pressure off the parking pin in the transmission. In a standard I always put the parking brake on, and if I'm on more than a very mild slope I put it in gear too.

The UI here sounds retarded. Good old form over function, the #1 trend in modern design. Who cares if it's a pain in the ass or dangerous to use as long as it looks good, amirite?

Post: #22

#BanAllCars

Post: #23

(06-20-2016 08:59 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  #BanAllCars

Just assault cars

Post: #24

I know it's morbid, but I can't help thinking what that must have felt like, suddenly realizing that the car has pinned you to the wall, and then slowly losing consciousness as you can't draw a breath no matter how hard you fight to do so.

Post: #25

This is why it's savvy to drive careful, take cab rides (tip), and avoid hospitals. All kinds of shit out there will kill your ass dead through no fault of your own. Various infections, medical malpractice, hot/powerful cars, drugs and alcohol, etc;