And the airbags wouldn't go off, either, without the key turned on.
But having your car suddenly go from having abs -- where jamming the pedal down is probably the right thing to do -- to a state where the driver must pump the pedal is probably more than virtually all drivers can handle.
Given my experiences i personally feel she has shown terrible lack of skill - why slam on the brakes?
The car was fully controllable.
I`ve had my engine stall once and i mistakenly turned my engine off (and the hydraulic power steering went off) midturn and it wasn't a light car. I was completely fine.
On the other hand i find american buisness practices despicable and sickening.
Consider the possibility that this person may never have driven a vehicle without ABS. There would likely be little or no emphasis for teaching a skill (pumping the brakes) for a person in driver education, after a generation had passed with reliable ABS equipped on every car. Also consider that even a person with the requisite knowledge, driving a car with ABS, may not realize their situation until after they are in a skid.
Losing power steering in a vehicle with hydraulic "power assist" steering may be completely unlike losing power in a vehicle with electric assist. Given that in the recall, GM is replacing the electric power steering assist motor, one might assume that it becomes much harder to steer after loss of power. In other words, it may be much easier to rotate an unpowered hydraulic motor by its output shaft than it is to rotate a gear-reduction electric motor by its output shaft.
Finally, the fact that someone (such as yourself), or even that many people may have been skilled enough to be able to avoid fatally crashing their Chevy Cobalts is not proof that the cars are safe (enough). Nor does it excuse GM from ensuring that their products meet mandated safety standards.
Maybe she wanted to stop the car she had lost control of?
The reason for ABS to exist is that slamming the brakes is a very natural thing for (most of) us to do in a dangerous situation. If you're designing a car for a human to drive, you should keep this in mind.
To amplify that observation: ABS was banned from Formula 1 because it made braking too easy. Modern ABS can outperform people who are paid in excess of $40 million/year to be the best drivers in the world, who have unreal reflexes, complete mastery of a vehicle, and the ability to make good decisions under high-pressure driving situations.
The idea the average driver is an adequate substitute for ABS is laughable.
I once had a sheet of plastic blow on to my windshield at 70 mph on the Houston Beltway effectively blinding me. It takes significant presence of mind not to do something dumb.
She had scant seconds, the Air France 447 pilots had over a minute[1]. People do not function correctly in situations for which they are not trained - eg automation failing.
That's a very good comparison. (The Wikipedia article on this isn't very good, though.) The Airbus flight control system (not the autopilot) in "Normal law" mode will prevent stalls, and it's normal procedure to pull the stick all the way back if you want the nose up. The control system will keep the control surfaces just below the stall point.
Flight 447 had clogged air speed sensors. The flight control system detected this and dropped to "Alternate law", which does not have stall protection. In "alternate law" mode, pulling the stick all the way back will, as in most aircraft, cause a stall. This drastic change in flight control confused the pilots. This despite them having been trained for a drop to alternate law.
Airbus has redundant air data sensors, but not, apparently, with enough redundancy.
I'm not sure why you've been downvoted. She obviously lacked driving skill. When a vehicle loses power you don't slam on the brakes. Losing power is not a panic situation, especially on a long straight road. You either coast to a stop or gently slow down.
You're both getting downvoted because you're coming off as both obtuse and heartless.
When things go wrong at 60mph, people panic. When you're panicking, it's hard to remember skills you were taught in calmer circumstances--and nobody practices high-speed power failures, so you don't even have muscle memory to fall back on.
It is an engineer's responsibility to prevent dangerous situations from occurring, as far as is practical. "Dangerous situations" include those which are likely to induce panic in an average driver, even if a particularly skilled driver could handle them. Often it isn't practical, which is why so many people die in traffic accidents every day, but in this case the problem with the ignition switch was known and deliberately ignored. There's no excuse.
But having your car suddenly go from having abs -- where jamming the pedal down is probably the right thing to do -- to a state where the driver must pump the pedal is probably more than virtually all drivers can handle.