I've never understood why cars and the like don't have fuel cut-off mechanisms available to the driver.

The few boats I've been on had - they was a tag/cord you could yank, and when done it would physically block the fuel line.

I could see this as being one of the first things that could be done after a major accident. Yank the handle, chances of a fire shoot right down.

My driving class instructor explicitly called it the parking brake, and explained exactly why. You experience agrees :)

My car has the same wording in it's documentation.

Once I'm past 40mph, simply letting go of the gas causes more deceleration than the handbrake could. "stopping distance will increase greatly" is... an understatement.

Wow, that was a hurrr moment. My link is exactly what you describe.

Don't mind me...

Oh really?

You mean only engines equipped with such a shutoff do. Not all of them do, though anything meant for road use built within 15 years damn well should!

You don't always have a discrete pump, it could function from sucking pressure from the mechanical injectors (which could be driven by the gearbox... driven by the engine). Only the real modern (and expensive) engines are driven by electrical control.

This is one of those reasons they have governors. Without it, the engine would runaway and destroy itself, as more engine output means more fuel draw which means more engine output etc...

Yep, because locking your steering column is the best option at such speeds.

No, you want to drop the key to ACC but do -NOT- remove it or go all the way down to OFF.

So the automatic ones have no facility for reversing direction, idling the engine, or parking?

That's a phenomena specific to diesel engines. Diesel's don't use a spark to ignite the fuel mixture like gasoline engines do, they use the heat from piston compression. Thus, so long as vacuum pressure and fuel supply is maintained, a diesel can continue running without electrical power.

Which is why you drop it from ON to ACC, killing the engine but leaving (almost) everything powered up.

What emergency brake? You mean the parking brake?

Yea, that's not an emergency brake and should never be used in such a manner.

My car has:
OFF, ACC, ON, START

The engine starts on START, obviously. The key sits at ON while driving. If I drop it down to ACC, the engine dies but most things stay powered. The wheel does not lock.

The wheel only locks when I move the key to the OFF position, and to do that I have to be in park or neutral (or use some kind of poking implement to depress the shift-lock override, which also lets me do Bad Things like drop it straight into park from drive.

Every car with a key that I've ever seen has the same configuration.

It's not so easy.

If you want something specific to puzzle over, try reading about QAM.

I think you misunderstood me. What I meant to say, is if they insist on devices being unrepairable and unserviceable, then they need to enforce recycling - else we just waste that much more of the valuable resources that go into them. It's irresponsible not to do so.

If they insist on killing the culture of repair, as you put it - they really need to stop throwing shit in the ocean and landfills. It's only sustainable if you actually recycle.