I wonder which bit went wrong - after all a lot of similar control systems can be found in ICE vehicles (from cruise control to hands off driving).

I suppose it makes a change from classic of the shopping bag falling over and a can of beans rolling behind the brake pedal....

   - Andy.

AJJewsbury said:

I suppose it makes a change from classic of the shopping bag falling over and a can of beans rolling behind the brake pedal....

When I was newly married, I once had to take Mrs P's cat to the vet. If you put him in a cage in the car, he had a very unpleasant habit so I thought that I would try leaving him out. Problem was that he decided to lie by my feet. Under the brake pedal!

I saw the BBC article. I strongly suspect that the bit that went wrong was between the ears.

This is like our recent discussion about household appliances, ICE cars no longer have an ignition switch which opens the circuit to the coil (or grounds the magneto, or both).

If fly by wire worries you, don't get in a commercial aircraft.

This may be a far more significant issue than it may appear, when a EV crashes it will still be in drive and being an automatic as the engine will not stall as the vehicle is freed from any obstructions it may start to move under power. 

www.emergency-plug.com/.../

Too complex if you're actually inside the car, it needs something simpler

"I strongly suspect that the bit that went wrong was between the ears"

Having suffered brake failure in a conventional car - a long time ago now, before dual circuit hydraulics,  (and coming down a hill into Great Malvern of all places) the loss of control is truly scary, even with  gears to slow down on and a handbrake to bounce and slither to a halt in neutral half on the kerb.. *

I can well imagine that when neither of those options is there, it is very difficult to stay calm - he may not have done the ideal thing, but the fact there is no standardised  shut off method is not helpful.

* I've also had the cat under the pedals thing as well... it may be more common than you think.

Mike.

I have encountered a number of people who drive EVs (or hybrids perhaps) who claim that there is only one pedal.

It may be that in this case, the regenerative braking system failed and it did not occur to the driver that there is also a foot brake. Failure of two major systems at the same time seems unlikely.

It is also possible that the driver believed that he had operated the brake, but when it did not work as expected, he did not change his train of thought. I am sure that there is a name for such behaviour, but it eludes me right now.

The car was described as, "brand new", so the driver may not have been as accustomed to its controls as he should have been.

For me, it is brain fade rather than brake fade.

(I have never had complete brake failure, but I was once towing 1½ tons of Rover 110 on a (hired) trailer when somebody pulled out in front of me and I had to apply the brakes sharpish. The trailer's brake cable snapped and thereafter I had to tow 2 tons or so of unbraked load. Very carefully!)

Chris Pearson said:

It is also possible that the driver believed that he had operated the brake, but when it did not work as expected, he did not change his train of thought. I am sure that there is a name for such behaviour, but it eludes me right now.

In the 1980’s our family car was a Daff 44.  For those not familiar this had an 850cc air cooled flat twin engine and had the continuously variable transmission based on rubber belts in a cone system.  And a centrifugal clutch that slipped at low speeds (I tended to go for unusual cars), very simple control lever, forward to go forward, neutral when stopped and back for reverse.  My scary experience came with the family on board, going up Porlock Hill (a very steep hill in Somerset, 1 in 4 in places) and encountering a heavy goods vehicle going very slowly on one of the steepest parts.  To avoid the “slipping clutch” I pulled into a refuge at the side and waited for the lorry to clear.

On restarting, I kept going back as soon as I released the brake.  I assumed that the clutch was unable to “bite” enough with such a load.  I was running out of refuge, the children started to panic when I realised that I had selected reverse!  It is not difficult to get into the wrong mind-set under stress.  It made enough of an impression on the children (now in their 50’s) to be raised from time to time as one of their childhood incidents.

David

An inertia safety switch is fitted on cars with a petrol engine, in case of vehicle impact. 

But when I was the only person trying to deal with an overturned articulated lorry it was on its side with the wheels still turning and the only way to stop the engine was to get to the key on the steering column.

Maybe this is part of the problem 

Fox news: Why the cunning beasts are causing chaos for car owners | Life and style | The Guardian

We do have problems with Marmots eating plastic insulation in Switzerland, but I have not come across Soya insulated cables  

This is an interesting scenario and it would be good to find out what happened.  Several possibilities I can think of

Electromechanical error

User error

External interference like a computer virus.  EVs have now become connected to the internet and thus it's security needs to be robust.  

Physical obstruction of pedal/s

Human nature to be in the limelight.  I remember a case about 25 years ago for a lorry driver on the M1 claimed his brakes had failed.  Police scrambled a lot of resources and the media made helicopters available.

www.theguardian.com/.../sarahhall