This is a terrible idea and I hope it never makes it into production. I think Karl's problem number 1 is the most important. If you want to save gas, drive a little calmer - don't sacrifice my safety / leg muscles to force me to save gas.

Driving to save gas is a choice. If some hillbilly wants to floor the pedal on his Hummer H1, then that's his prerogative. I'll stick with my MINI.

If they paid somebody to have this idea, they need to send me a free check. This is too much.

Karl, I typically don't share your opinions when it comes to global warming/environment/the fuel crisis, but you are right on the money with this one. Not only is this idea distracting to the driver (unsafe), but it's also, from a design standpoint, really lazy. Car designers need to be designing cars, not driving habits. Nissan, fire the guy that thought of this.

They say it can be turned off and on. I don't want to have to hit a button so the car will allow me to dip into the throttle when there's a tracter-trailer hurtling toward me as I merge onto the freeway.

This will make certain people even lazier than they already are. They won't have to learn to drive prudently. Just floor it, all the time, every time, and let the car decide how much to actually give.

"Do we have to keep designing cars as if humans are brainless tapeworms? Yes, I know some of us are, but designing cars for that minority is an affront to the rest of us. If you want to save gas, don't drive as aggressively. If you're not smart enough to know that, you're gas bill will be (deservedly) higher."

Couldn't agree more. Many people drive like they're racing everyone else on the road, don't do the regular maintenance on their vehicle (tune-up, tire pressure, etc) then wonder why their fuel economy is much worse than the EPA estimate. I'm sure that Nissan has noble intentions, but the reality is that this is just another way for cars to outthink the driver. In fact, a lot of crap that automotive designers put in vehicles are to compensate for a lack of common sense.
Speaking of useless technology in cars: the most ridiculuos gizmo that I've seen so far was the one from Volvo that detects a heartbeat from inside the vehicle; the purpose being that a person walking to their vehicle will know if someone is hiding in the backseat of the vehicle.....I guess the simple act of looking in the back seat before opening the car door would be way too complicated....:-/

If a person cannot operate a motor vehicle properly; they should themselves and other drivers a favor and take the bus or a hitch a ride.

Probably worth waiting to see how it works on a real car before commenting. From what I understand, it doesn't limit thottle input...just encourages you not to use the throttle so much. If you really need the gas, mash it. Frankly, I doubt this will make it onto the Mustang GTs or M3s of the world -- too many passionate car guys for that. But maybe it will cut down on normal folks in overpowered cars gassing and braking from 4-way stop to 4-way stop (which I notice has become worse in the past 20 years as cars have become more powerful).

Perhaps I spent too much time driving wimpy little cars in Europe, but I don't buy this argument that more power is safer. If you've got an 18 wheeler bearing down on you, let the guy pass before you merge into the lane! Otherwise, he's far enough away to use his brakes and shouldn't be going so fast in the right lane anyway. There's more than one pedal on the floor. I got around fine on French, Italian and German highways with just 60 hp and 0-60 times in the 15-16 second range. All it takes is planning and a willingness to accept that, yes, some of the time you will be passed.

Anyway...let it out in the marketplace and see what happens.

"...I'm not even going to guess at what will actually happen when people encounter this technology -- other than predict it won't save gas."

Well, when I feel my pedal "catch", I often floor it momentarily to try to work it out. It's entirely possible this would be the natural reaction for people when their gas pedal suddenly starts pushing back at their foot. Stomp it to teach it who's boss! Needless to say, this won't be good for gas mileage.

It'll also be interesting to see what happens to Nissan's sales when this tech comes out.

Give me a break. Its going to be optional and you can turn it off. If you don't like it, don't buy a Nissan. If you have to have a Nissan, don't get this option.

"What if that's all they have on the lot". Then make them order you one without the option, make them do a dealer trade. Go to another dealer.

"But I got the option, and now I hate it!" Have dealership disable it, I'm sure its not going to be that involved. Disable it yourself, or just turn it off everytime you get in the car.

This is not a big deal. This is not Big Brother and the Thought Police. Please.

Karl, you might want to fix this:

"If you're not smart enough to know that, you're gas bill will be (deservedly) higher."

When insulting others it's a good idea to proofread your insult. Several times. :)

Call me crazy, but maybe, just maybe one way to improve mileage is to remove some of the many electronic nannies built into car these days. This one included. How much weight has been tacked onto cars in order to make them safe for the lowest common denominator? I would dare to say that due to safety features and other general "fattening" of cars as part of competition over the years, there's been an average gain of 800-1200 pounds.

Yeah, yeah, Americans need a diet. But maybe their cars do too. That's one of the faster ways to fix this whole fuel economy/gasoline consumption thing.

I'm with you on the stupidity of this tech. Why anyone would want the car to determine when you need WOT is a mystery. I have my noggin to make that decision. The hunting/confusion aspect is another reason I dislike driving automatics - even the best 6-7 speed autos get confused by what I want and when I want it.

You are 1,000% right, Karl. Your headline said it all. But I thought you were gonig to blog about the smaller, lighter, more fuel efficient cars that may become our only choices down the road. How about gas pedals that smoothly and predictably always give the same power for the same foot pressure? And, yes, dharbin, when I drive a slower, lower powered car, I tend to let the oncoming traffic get AHEAD [oh, no, not that!] of me.

"When insulting others it's a good idea to proofread your insult. Several times. :)"

The words are proof read.

Karl, we are becoming lazy. A whole lot of people lack the common sense when driving. Plain and simple.

This might not be so bad. Having to absolutely mash the pedal to get maximum acceleration sounds pretty dramatic... could be fun. (Actually it sounds like driving any automatic transmission...)

Fixed blueguy. Thanks

Brett, actually, it's a compound word. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proofread

Proofreading isn't two separate words. Thanks for playing "Who Is The Most Anal Retentive Reader Online?" There's a home version coming out this October!

It would be cool if the car said "Im sorry, I can't do that Dave" whenever you gave it too much gas.

Wait a second guys- I think Nissan's motivation is to get you to be more conscious about throttle application. I don't think it'll PREVENT you from applying full throttle, you'll just have to use a bit more pressure. I could be wrong, but just playing the D's advocate.

Anyway, I think ALL cars should be equipped with instant and average economy displays. I find myself subconsciously trying to maximize my instant and average economy readings while driving now that my car has a trip computer. I went to D.C. a few weeks ago and averaged 34.2mpg over the almost 300 mile round trip. My car's EPA highway rating is 29mpg. Of course I was constantly overtaken by cars such as the Toyota Yaris and 115hp VW Jettas but still, I got great satisfaction from my all time mileage high. Granted, driving the speed limit is terribly frustrating but it is proven to be the best way to maximize mileage. PS- gas is dropping like a boat anchor. I paid $3.69 a gallon last night and couldn't believe it.

"Thanks for playing "Who Is The Most Anal Retentive Reader Online?" There's a home version coming out this October!"

Point taken.

I hope you got that I was being very sarcastic. :)

Sounds like a dumb idea and a waste of engineering resources. While I have no problem with financial incentives to encourage the purchase of economical cars, I don't like the idea of trying to control driver behavior to acheive better economy. In this case we are just talking about a possible option on Nissan cars. What is more disturbing is the idea that current technology might allow pervasive surveillance of driver behavior, particularly with regard to speed.

"It would be cool if the car said "Im sorry, I can't do that Dave" whenever you gave it too much gas."

It wouldn't be cool to me....IIRC HAL 9000 ended up killing the crew of the very ship it was supposed to look after and Dave had to plug its plug just to survive. I'd hate to think that our vehicles may one day have the same level of decision-making ability as HAL....(yeah; I know that was WAY overboard but still)....

"(Actually it sounds like driving any automatic transmission...)"

Ha! Couldn't agree more.

"If you've got an 18 wheeler bearing down on you, let the guy pass before you merge into the lane!"

That's obviously not always an option. There are plenty of occasions where you need WOT. Not every day, but often enough that this pedal resistance thing would annoy me. Now, perhaps a light on the dash, or Prius-esque recent fuel economy tracker display thingy, to educate people on how to improve their mileage on their own. But the pedal that pushes back is just plain stupid.

I think the thing that should really be in control of the car is the nut behind the wheel. A lot of things have been put into cars to make them safer. This in turn has made the driver feel more confident. Even if he's the worst driver in the world, his car will save him. Technology, although it's helpful, is not the answer to fuel economy and safety on the roads. Driver training and good driving habits are what makes roads safer.

Case in point -- I was just mailed my new driver's license from the state. Mailed! It even had the photo what was on my previous license. I didn't have to take any refresher exams, no eye test, no written test, nothing! I filled out a form in the mail and sent it back and got my license a few weeks later.

I'm sure if we weed out the unsafe drivers by making all drivers take driving tests at license renewal times, or even better every year, safety would increase more than just technology alone would do.

Makes you wonder why the license even expires. Basically so they can collect a fee, nothing more. Ridiculous.

Everyone always says to improve driver licensing and testing. How do you do that effectively? When you're riding shotgun with a tester from the DMV, I'm sure you're going to make sure you obey EVERY traffic rule and regulation, unless you're clueless or incompetent. Most people drive badly IMO because they want to or don't care -- they're in a hurry, too self-important, or too distracted.

As for lane departure warning and collision avoidance, I think you're too quick Karl to dismiss them. We need more time to see if they help in the real world. Stability control has been a real success; ABS, not so much (but ABS is the foundation for stability control).

I personally don't think this Nissan feedback accelerator pedal is such a good idea. I'd rather see an ANALOG instantaneous fuel economy gauge. Digital ones work for average economy, but not for instantaneous values, because the numbers change too wildly and too quickly to be useful, in my experience.

"It wouldn't be cool to me....IIRC HAL 9000 ended up killing the crew of the very ship it was supposed to look after and Dave had to plug its plug just to survive. I'd hate to think that our vehicles may one day have the same level of decision-making ability as HAL....(yeah; I know that was WAY overboard but still)...."

I see you caught the drift of my sarcastic comment. We're only a few steps away from our cars thinking completely for themselves - for better or for worse.

I think the first model Nissan adds this feature to should be called the "Chicayne"

Subaru had a similar dumb idea with their SI Drive, for which the "intelligent" setting effectively neutered the car by 10 % or more of its maximum horsepower, no matter what the driver did with the controls..

Happily, Subaru's redesigned SI Drive so that its "intelligent" setting, to now let the driver get full power from the engine by flooring the gas pedal (w/o any stupid resistance or other tricks like Nissan's). Otherwise the "Intelligent" setting remaps throttle and transmission response to maximize fuel economy.

"As for lane departure warning and collision avoidance . . . Stability control has been a real success; ABS, not so much (but ABS is the foundation for stability control)."

How can you say ABS hasn't been a success? It's like saying seat belts haven't improved safety. If ABS is unimportant, why do reviewers here at Edmunds blast auto manufacturers (Nissan in particular as of late) that don't offer ABS as standard in their cars cars? Just because the government doesn't mandate ABS in every car, like it is with stability control, doesn't mean it's a failure in safety systems.

Ye of so little faith in engineers with Ph.Ds.

What about a sleepy morning driver? Sometimes I like to just depress the gas pedal without thought.
I want the car to automatically know how much to depress the pedal, so I don't have to think when I'm half awake.
All I have to do is let my foot fall on the pedal. The car will figure out how much to depress the pedal.
Drowsy Man's technology.
A+.

Competent engineers would have thought of all your "what if" scenarios and gave an answer to them all. That's the basics of programming a non-learning system; the system already has been programmed with answers to all your "what if" questions.

This is Nissan, the inventor of the first non-moronic CVT. They should have the brains to program a force feedback accelerator pedal correctly.

altimax and billt, let the driver do the mapping and make sure the engineers design smooth, controllable, predictable throttles. [You're driving "half awake"!!?].

Of course I drive half awake all the time when it's time to get to work.
At that point you'd hit the autopilot button and have the car take you there.

billt9,
I think that's called mass transit.

Except mass transit in America is so crappy, it takes 3 times as long to reach your destination as it does to drive your own vehicle.

Now, if we have mass transit systems like Japan...

I made a mistake. It takes 20 minutes for me to commute. The Bus takes 2 hours.
That's... 6 times as long for American crap mass transit.

Just one of the reasons I am not a fan of mass (mess) transit.