having had the issue myself, I stand by my statement.
If anyone died from the key popping out, chances are they were due a darwin award anyway.
Realistically i doubt that a single death is attributed to this "problem" but when the lawyers come out, all of a sudden that tree you hit at 100 miles of hour would not have happened if only the key stayed put
HUH? The problem is with the the ignition switch flipping to accessory because of a weak spring and pin in the design of the position set cylinder and mechanism. This causes the essential systems like power steering and brakes to shut off while driving down the road. Now lets suppose this happens at over 70 mph because the driver has a huge key chain that is heavy and some how it gets bumped or the car goes over a rough road that jostles the key chain. In my estimation that could cause some serious problems even for experienced drivers especially if you go to turn the wheel and have never driven without power steering which most people today have never done!
The worst thing that the driver could do in response is to shift the transmission into neutral or what we old school truckers call "Mexican overdrive" And this might very well be a response to sudden engine failure for an inexperience driver with either and automatic transmission or manual. So they would lose engine breaking at that point as well as power breaks and steering. If the driver is quick enough and the traffic is clear and they are on a straight stretch of road just maybe they will have time to restart the engine but modern cars will not start in gear so they will have to switch to neutral to restart the engine. Switching an automatic to park moving at 70 is also not a viable option for restarting the engine of a run away car or truck.
Yes cars are still designed by law to steer correctly if there is a sudden loss of power assist to the steering assembly. It is the law. It is also the law that cars have a working emergency brake and that is why it is called an emergency brake but again with today's drivers, who are given a license to drive without ever having had to use one in an emergency or practice slowing a vehicle with one, how many unfortunate people who died from this simple little fault in GM's ignition switches actually tried to apply the emergency brake?
Please get your facts straight and read and listen for the truth about what goes on in the real world!
If APPLE actually has decided to take a crack at redesigning the automobile GREAT it is about frigging time someone other than Tesla got down to brass tacks and kicked the industry into the 21st century!
Here is a big slice of reality to think about if you even understand or comprehend what F=V squared means. A car with a mass of over 3000 lbs traveling at 70 mph has how much kinetic energy to be expended before it stops? You do the math. That is not even considering if the vehicle is on a down slope and is being accelerated by gravity so a paltry hand brake that only works on the rear breaks for a good reason will a take huge amount of force from either the arm or foot to apply for a long period before the car actually slows down to a safe speed, if the inexperience driver is on a road with tight bends an lots of traffic chances are disaster is waiting at the next corner.
The issues with the ignition switch were a good example of stagnation in design and it is about time someone with vision and bucks to burn started to seriously think about how to wean us away from our love of gas guzzling rolling death traps that is essentially what the auto industry and today's frantic transportation methods have become.
Our passion for the auto is breaking us financially, socially and worst of all it is a huge waist of resources. It creates untold damage to the environment we live in because it requires the use of huge quantities of raw tar from oil to pave vast amounts of the land that supports us. We make road at the expense of fish rearing habitat, we kill off huge numbers of deer, elk, moose, cats, dogs. horses, cows and birds of all kinds. We pave roads and push dirt tracks through marsh lands that filter the water we drink.
Al Gore may not have created the internet and Republicans in the states have had a field day making fun of his attempt to wake up and start people thinking about the cost of what we are doing to our children's future and the dirt that sustains us. But there is a very real price to pay and it will be so costly that no one will be able to afford it not even Apple!