No Atta' boy from me.

The other obvious option would be to switch into neutral. The engine could become scary sounding but shouldn't self destruct. Steering will become more difficult as the car slows but the brakes should just feel more like brakes of old. Why not take this on as an assignment. Get out there on the road, shut down the engine and see what happens. If you're here tomorrow, we'll know it's safe. If not.....well.....

He'd put his old '57 into neutral and coast down the hills. Claimed it saved gas.

We had a pickup with a camper in the truck bed. It would normally get about 8-10 mpg. We went through Colorado and I was driving. I coasted down the mountains. That tank of gas we got 14 mpg. Of course these were big hills.

Diana

It would seem you'd burn more going uphill. What did you do...get out and push?

but at that speed it probably wouldn't matter. Sounds like power brakes already gone, but I'm not sure you'd lose that anyway.

I really feel like trying this out one day, maybe not at high speed.

He said the car accelerated to 94 MPH. That would mean that if his power steering cut off and he went to manual steering, he would have been going 138 feet per second. If it took him 2 seconds to get both hands on the wheel and manually regain control, he would have traveled 276 feet during that time. That's almost the distance between the goal lines on a football field, and this while traveling on a San Diego freeway.

he could dial 911 and talk on the cell phone and follow directions from CHP Officer (for 20 minutes?) all this while traveling on a San Diego freeway.

A car doesn't go faster if the power steering isn't working

You don't have to take both hands off the wheel to shut the engine down?

A person steer a car with one hand with manual steering if they are just trying to go straight (no sharp turns).

How come the reporter didn't ask him...

"Why didn't you put the car in neutral"?

...he felt he should be gabbing on the phone while driving 94 mph? It's difficult enough maintaining the speed limit and talking on a cellphone.

in which everyone in the car was killed. People do strange things in panic situations.

If you have some appliance at home start to act up, most would either hit the off switch, or if scared to be near the appliance would pull the plug. It seems turning the car off would be the first natural reaction. If not, then something is interfering with that, and most likely is everyone's fear of not having power steering assist, as enumerated in this thread. Perhaps a fear of losing power brakes too, but regular brakes with no racing engine has to be far better. None of these people have ever run out of gas while going down the road? It happened to me more often than I cared years ago on a car with bad gas gauge. I ended up carrying a "bomb" (gas can) in the trunk for those times. Same situation as turning the engine off. Even power steering gone at higher speeds works better than it would at lower.

correctly....and it's been awhile, manual steering at a higher speed is not difficult at all. You can do it for two seconds with one hand on the wheel. It's only at a low speed that power steering made much of a difference.

One reason is a wheels "caster" angle which is a variation from vertical in how front suspensions are made. Most don't know it but turning the steering wheel requires the front end to raise just a bit because of this caster. Caster is one component that helps you keep a car in a straight line and what causes your steering wheel to try to automatically return to center when the turn is complete. You're lifting the car while trying to overcome the tire's rubber to ground friction. Power steering assists with overcoming both of those forces. Older bias ply tires were a bit easier to turn as their footprint was smaller. Add the additional ground contact of radial ply tires and the importance of power steering at slow speed increases.

get rid of power steering.

...you will lose all power assist; this will be most immediately noticeable with the loss of power assist to the steering. After that, it won't take long for the power assist to the brakes to fail as the vacuum in the brake booster is lost. However, you can steer and brake, albeit with difficulty and with very heavy, nonresponsive brakes and steering.

Putting the car in neutral is a mnuch better solution, as you continue to have power assist to the brakes and steering. With most late model cars, this should not create a risk of engine damage, as they are equipped with a rev limiter - an electronic circuit that prevents the engine from revving past a safe level, either by cutting off fuel flow to the engine or spark to the ignition.

that the operator asked him twice if he had tried putting the car in neutral, with no clear answer.

"PUT CAR IN NEUTRAL"

When unexpected acceleration occurs?

If so, I'm hoping the car's computer system and physical evidence exonerates the vehicle from being at fault. Whether or not this claim is phony, I'd think the lure of potential big legal settlements is, for some, irresistible given the current frenzy over Toyota media reports. Cash in now before it's too late.

I've seen the car (on TV) and heard the 911 tape. I suppose it could be a fake, but it sounded authentic to me. Troopers on the scene seem to buy it. Pretty ballsy if he did fake it.

rather than the ignition key or shift lever doesn't sound right...or maybe people who buy hybrids are missing some elements of common sense.