And it is just now installing the “smart gas pedal.” What is the “smart gas pedal” and what’s “smart” about it, you ask? Watch…

Smart Gas Pedals May Solve Floor-Mat Problem

By Christopher Jensen

Some automakers – primarily European — are using an unusual method to reduce the chances of unintended acceleration from something like a floor mat getting tangled up with the accelerator: smart gas pedals.

If the vehicle is moving and both the gas and brake pedal are being pushed at the same time the computer tells the engine to ignore the gas pedal.

“It is an additional safety feature,” said Thomas Plucinsky, a BMW spokesman. “The brake takes precedence.”

Oh, really, the brake takes precedence. Wow.

I thought it was obvious and necessary that the design of any system with safety concerns should produce a safe outcome in the “failure” state rather than an unspecified outcome. Guess I was wrong.