Plug Bug: The Inertia Switch works
The electric bug has an inertia switch in the case of an accident. It looks like this:
It is designed to cut the 12v system to the rear of my car, which turns off the controller and high power contactors, thus cutting power to the motor controller in the event of an accident.
It turns out I discovered it works. They are doing a lot of work on “highway 17” to Santa Cruz and I hit a really big pothole a few weeks ago. It jerked the car enough to make it stop, which was bad, as highway 17 is a crazy twisty fast road. I had stopped going uphill, and luckily it wasn’t a blind corner, and cars just went around me. I was poking around the car trying to figure out what was wrong, and finally called AAA to get a tow. While on the phone with the lady I remembered about the inertia switch, and sure enough, it was tripped.
So, a lesson learned: If my car stops and the “key on” doesn’t turn on the car, then it might be the inertia switch. I guess it was a good test to verify it works…but not a fun location to have it happen on. Oh well!
