Today we're gonna explain what can
happen if you actually touch the on/off
start/stop button on your modern car,
because most cars today have the on/off
button feature to start it. You don't
typically need your key in the ignition
usually all you need is a key fob, like
this in this case I'm driving my 5
Series or my m5 BMW today, but most cars
just have a key fob like this, something
similar to this, where you don't
necessarily need it. You can basically
just put it to the side, throw it on
the dash or in your purse or your wallet
or whatever in your pocket, and then you
can set off and be on your way. But
have you ever wondered what happens if
you hit the stop button while you're
driving your car? Now another gentleman a
channel called Auto vlog has recently
done a video like this, was very popular
but he did this particular video in his
Ford, and I know every manufacturer
has different ways of dealing with this
scenario, so I know this is going to be a
little bit different in my BMW. Either
way it's very important to understand
what can happen when you do actually try
to turn off your car while driving, so
we're gonna run that test today, and I'm
gonna show you exactly what happens in
my BMW. So the first thing we're going to
do is hit the start button, car is now
running, so we're gonna set off, we're in
first gear, this is an automated manual
gearbox, so it may be slightly different
in automatic cars or DCTs, or manual
transmissions, but for the most part I would
say the interlocks are going to be
primarily the same. So we're driving
along
and we're not going very fast, I would
say right now we're doing about 30 km/h,
and we're gonna try to touch the stop
button just as if you might accidentally
bump it. Say you're in the car and you're
kind of fiddling around, and you hit it
by accident, maybe you've got tall knees
and you bump it or you hit it with
something, you're reaching for one of the
controls or possibly something, some
other reason you might bump into it, you
touch it by accident maybe you have a
kid that's sitting next to you in the
passenger seat, and he wants to
accidentally try some of this stuff, you
know kids, they always try things, so it
might touch that. Nothing you notice,I
touch the button, there is nothing and so
I'm doing about 50 kilometers per hour
right now, still nothing, however with the
BMW. So we're gonna try this right now
we're going to press the button. Woo!
Whoa, so we lost our steering.
Power steering's gone, and the
brakes, so we basically lost everything,
the car turned off, and we're still
coasting, so the car jumped into neutral,
and we're just coasting along, and
basically the car died. So what I have to
do now, is pull over. I'm gonna pull over
to the side here, and it's gonna expect
me to do a restart, so let's try that so
it shows me in first. So now I have to do
a restart.
I'll go back toggle out back and forth,
restart the car in neutral, and it's
running again, so let's try this a little
bit faster we'll do this at 60
kilometers per hour. So I'm gonna put it
back in gear, as you can tell the car's
running, so we're gonna drive off.
Okay so we're doing about 60 kilometers
an hour, let's try this again, do a little
bit faster, now again notice, never try
this at home kids,
this is strictly, we're I'm doing this on
a private road as a private stretch of
road, so it's it's safe enough for me to
do that, and there's nobody around really
to get in the way. So let's try this at
60 kilometers an hour. I will now press
and hold it for one second, and again so
when the BMW, as opposed to the auto vlog
gentleman who you have to hold it for
three seconds in the Ford, this car here
you literally only hold it for one full
second and then the car goes off. Now the
question is why would you even want this
as an option? Why would this feature even
be desirable to have? So I'm coasting
right now, let's pull over and restart
the car. Okay, it's in neutral. I'm gonna
hit the start now. We're good again, so
it's running, so off we go, we're in first
gear again, so the question is why would
you want this feature? Well there's only
two things that in my mind you would
only ever want this for. Number one, never
do this in my opinion, have you ever
heard of hypermiling? I made a video
about that a while back, you can really
rely on the car just coasting down, you
know downhill, and getting obviously
maximising fuel economy, that way very
dangerous condition, but that is one
reason why somebody may consider turning
the car off while in motion. The other
reason of course being maybe there's a
malfunction with the throttle, now a lot
of these modern cars now have flight or
you know drive-by-wire throttle by wires.
So you don't actually have a throttle
cable, so rarely do you have a sticking
throttle condition where this would even
be a concern, however that would be a
possibility if the throttle's stuck
closed and the car started accelerating
out of control, that would be a condition
where you'd want to know that this
feature was available. Otherwise you
would never want to actually do this and
know that this is another reason why you
don't necessarily want people touching
controls while you drive, and more
importantly if you have children in
front, maybe it's better to put small
children in the back of the car where
they belong, and that's a great reason in
my mind why you would not want to either
put children in the front and be
even able to touch that button to begin with,
because it really yields the car, puts
the car in a very dangerous situation,
because you no longer have control of
the steering completely, or the brakes.
Everything goes up, so everybody I hope
you enjoyed that video, make sure it's
something you take note, do not do this
at home. Again I have to emphasize this
is something I did in a controlled
roadway, so that you know I'm not putting
myself in harm's way, and I definitely
don't want you guys trying it either,
but you should know cuz a lot of people
probably never knew what happens if you
press that stop button while in motion.
Thanks again everybody. Subscribe to the
channel, love to see it you on the next one. See
you soon. Bye bye.