This bothers me more than it should.
It should be called the decoupler pedal because that’s what it actually does.
Accelerator isn’t accurate because it still works, but won’t accelerate in neutral.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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The brakes cause acceleration, too.
Relevant:
Take your pick lol
or
lol
Love it, thanks.
It still accelerates the engine.
No, that's the throttle. The accelerator is just an input control linked to the many things that make the engine go BRRR.
If anything, the flywheel is the most acceleratey bit since it can make things increase in speed even if the engine is at sustained rpm because the driver died of boredom reading this.
Respect. You’re right. It should be called gas/fuel/energy pedal because you always get more of it when you press it while actual acceleration has more dependencies.
It feels weird because it’s a pedal, but I guess it counts as a throttle.
The throttle is the actual valve, a piece of metal sitting inside the air intake that rotates to allow various amounts of air to pass into the engine.
That thing, the valve, is still properly called a throttle on all IC engines. And even the very modern computerized gas engines have one.
In older direct fuel injection, the accelerator pedal was still directly connected to the throttle valve. A separate fuel injection control system increased and decreased the amount of fuel going in to maintain a steady fuel-air ratio.
On modern automobiles, the pedal is usually fully "fly-by-wire". The computer reads the pedal position like a joystick and decides how to move the throttle and fuel injection to achieve the commander input.
Electric cars are built around brushless DC motors. The "DC" there is a bit of a misnomer. These motors rely on a microprocessor to generate the variable-frequency AC waveforms to drive the stators in real time. This allows higher efficiency than older motor control technology, but it means that there's basically no way to operate the motor without the motor control software. So in these cars the pedal is always just a joystick input.
Not all IC engines, but all gasoline ones.
Diesel engines are really more like colloquial term gas pedal, the more you push, the more the injector pumps dispense. That’s what m makes diesels more efficient (no pumping losses like a gasoline engine.
Unfortunately they are dirty as hell.
Unfortunately they are dirty as hell.
But not when the isTest flag is set. Then they're clean as a whistle.
Classics are neat but nowadays we have the human interface power setting sensor.
In most gasoline vehicles it's the throttle pedal. Pressing it reduces how much you're throttling the engines air supply
I think its logical, thats why it isnt called the clutcher. It just controls the clutch mechanism so clutch pedal is a completely valid name.
Ok, now I'm gonna start using "clutcher"...
"unclutcher", to be accurate
Unclencher
Declutcher, but ya.
What if we compromise and name it the clutch decoupler pedal, and then everybody calls it the clutch for short?
Well it would be pretty uncomfortable to always press it to drive.
The brake pedal also accelerates
If we're talking physics here, technically the steering wheel accelerates, too.
It's gas, breaks, clutch. They control the gas, the brakes and the clutch.
"Breaks"
I like how autoincorrect fucked you the first time, but got it right the second time. Haja
Haha yes autocomplete, that's what did it 😅
Hahaha, ok, I'll give ya this one because of the community in which you posted it
Clutch deez nuts.
(Please)
Decouple deez nuts!
Wait, noooooooo!
Snip
Wait until you hear people say "depress the clutch to engage the clutch pedal"
"Foot feat, break, clutch" - My mother in law
Now this cancer lives in you. 😈
I don't get it.
She doesn't call it an accelerator or gas pedal. She calls it a foot feet. No typo.
And I understand, I hear it come out of her mouth in person and I still don't get it.
Now look up when an electronic circuit is "open" and when it is "closed"; conventional current flow vs actual electron flow; negative voltage.
(These are not that confusing, just unexpected for someone new)
i never got the hang of a clutch. clutchless manual was fine.
Americans cannot comprehend.