A genuine risk is posed by the default set up of a brake and gas pedal right next to each other. Unfortunately, no one has come up with anything that’s good enough yet. Jamming the gas when you should slam on the brakes is a way lots of people get hurt or killed. Masuyuki Naruse knows this. That’s why he found something else.
The Naruse Pedal puts brakes and gas in very same foot space
Masuyuki Naruse had two incidents where he accidentally hit the gas rather than the brakes. As outlined by the New York Times, Naruse (Nah-roo-say) knew there had to be a better way. He got to work designing a pedal that could c mix acceleration and braking, and fix the fatal flaw within the dual pedal design. He went into his workshop for making it happen. He came up with a prototype by 1991.
You just cannot make Toyota happy
The pedal combines both brake and accelerator, but it is a little different. The foot pedal is the brake, and also the accelerator is a lever that has to be operated with the foot. Just move your foot to the right to speed up. Brake normally. Toyota’s engineers tested the pedal about 10 years ago, but didn’t do much with it afterward. It isn’t the first time someone has thought of it. Currently, a similar prototype is being tested in Sweden, invented by one Sven Gustafsson.
This is not a constructed problem
Studies have indicated the danger of dual pedals. In Japan, the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis observed 6,700 accidents, 9,500 injuries and 37 deaths from stomping on the wrong pedal in emergencies. In the 1980s, a psychological study by Richard A. Schmidt found the foot can slip to the wrong pedal if neruomuscular processes are disrupted, which can be caused by an emergency situation. There are 130 vehicles that can legally have the Naruse pedal installed. Naruse personally invited Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota to try his pedal, but was refused.
Further reading
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/08/04/business/global/04pedal.html?pagewanted=2 and _r=1
