Pulling the Plug

At the paper mill, back in the 1980s, I was on a committee that was exploring options to upgrade our process controls, since we were unable to get parts for them anymore.  The managers on the team wanted to get a computerized system because they said that was the wave of the future.  Most of us on the team were unfamiliar with computers at the time and were a little superstitious about them, fearing that they would take over our lives and enslave us all like we had seen in the movies.  We were assured that computers were safe to use as long as they were kept in their place.  If one of them ever got out of control, we were advised to just pull the plug, and that would teach it a lesson.  You might lose all your data, your machines might shut down, but at least you would still be alive and relatively free.

When I bought my new pickup last fall, I wasn't happy about all the electronics that had been added since I bought my last truck in 2004.  I thought that stuff is all fine as long as it works, but what do you do when it glitches on you?  I guess the answer is, you drive it or have it towed to the repair shop.  The good news is that it works most of the time, and it isn't so bad once you get used to it.  The only serious problem I've had so far was when I couldn't lower the tailgate one day.  There is no mechanical way to do this, you have to push a button to make it release electronically.  I thought it might be frozen and, when the weather warmed up later in the day, it did indeed work for me, but it didn't the next time.  I eventually figured out that the tailgate will not open unless the automatic transmission is in "park".

If that's the worst thing that happens with this truck, I'll be a happy trucker, but now Uncle Ken has given me something else to worry about, a machine runaway.  I had the gas pedal stick on another truck of mine decades ago, and all I did was turn off the key and steer to the shoulder of the road.  The power brakes didn't work with the engine off so, after I had almost coasted to a stop, I set the parking brake.  It just occurred to me that might not work with this truck because my parking brake is activated with the push of a button, and there is no mechanical way to set it by hand.  I should be able to shut the engine down with the key, since I don't have remote or push button start like some vehicles do.  But what if I can't?