Accidental Acceleration Solved by Reinvented Japanese Car Pedal

When you stop to think about it, it's crazy that the brake and accelerator pedals are so close together, with an accidental command being the difference between getting from A to Z, and wrapping your car around a tree.

This new pedal, invented by 74-year-old Japanese factory-owner Masuyuki Naruse, only accelerates when the side of the pedal is pushed with the side of a foot. If pushed down as we do currently, the car would brake instead.

After 100-odd years of pressing down on a pedal to go faster, it could be pretty confusing to suddenly have a new method of accelerating, but Naruse has already signed up 130 car-drivers to test his pedal out, which he's been working on for 20 or so years.

The price of exchanging the current system of a car for Naruse's contraption is the equivalent of $1,156, and he's hopeful, of course, that a manufacturer such as Toyota will take him up on his offer of testing it out. [NY Times]

Image credit: NewsObserver