Earlier this month the federal government found that in the majority of cases involving unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, driver error was the root cause. The drivers were literally hitting the wrong pedal.

According to the Department of Transportation, “NASA engineers evaluated the electronic circuitry in Toyota vehicles and analyzed more than 280,000 lines of software code for any potential flaws that could initiate an unintended acceleration incident.” Michael Kirsch, principal engineer at the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, goes on to state, “NASA found no evidence that a malfunction in electronics caused large unintended acceleration.”

There were incidents of sticking accelerator pedals and poorly designed floor mats, but in most instances of unintended acceleration, it was simply an issue of the driver not realizing what pedal he or she was applying pressure to.

This is not a column about Toyota, NASA, or even poorly designed floor mats. This is a column about, as the automotive blog site Jalopnik puts it, “the beige-ification” of the modern automobile.

Once upon a time, driving a car was an engaging process. There were no electronics, no computers, and mechanically they tended to break down. The owner of an automobile needed to be familiar with his machine simply out of necessity.

Today, though, everything is done electronically. One doesn’t need to know when to shift, because the transmission does it for him; one doesn’t need to know how fast to take a turn, because the stability control nannies will compensate for excess speed. When should one change lanes? When the lane departure system says it’s ok, of course.

The question nobody seems to be considering is what would happen if any of these electronics failed. We are talking about software, after all, and as anyone with a computer can attest, it doesn’t always work as intended.

Those of you paying attention are probably pointing out that I just said Toyota’s problems were not software related, and you’re right. The point I’m getting at, though, is that those affected wanted to blame the software and not their own inability to drive. For instance, if a car is suddenly accelerating – whether the pedal is stuck or not – how many new drivers out there were taught to put the car into neutral?

Imagine yourself driving down a wet road when all of a sudden your car loses traction; whereas before the stability control would have compensated for any wheel spin, you find yourself in a skid and your electronic saviors aren’t working. Do you know what to do if you’re car is over-steering? What about under-steering? Do you even know what those two words mean?

The issue today is the mindset that the car is an appliance – a method of getting from one place to another. The vast majority of the population wants as little to do with that process as possible, and that’s a problem.

Being in the South, many of you are familiar with firearms by way of hunting, and I imagine those of you who do have an immense amount of respect for them, because you were taught at an early age the power and implicit danger of a gun.

Now imagine if you were taught that an automobile had that same power and potential danger – would you drive in the same manner? Would you accept a passive role while electronics controlled everything? (In most new cars the steering wheel is drive-by-wire, meaning the steering wheel emits an electronic signal as opposed to physically moving the wheels through mechanics and pneumatics. The same goes for pedals under the name “drive by wire.”)

So what’s the solution for problems like unintended acceleration? David Champion, head of auto testing for Consumer Reporters, had this suggestion: “The one thing we could do would be to ban automatic transmissions altogether and sell only manuals.” (One can only dream.)

Of course this is wishful thinking, but it’s a step in the right direction: as anyone who drives with three pedals can attest, having to shift yourself does wonders for driver concentration.

The real answer is better driver education. Today, a test consists of parallel parking, emergency braking, and other mundane tasks. There is nothing on car control, nothing on automobile maintenance, nothing on driver attentiveness beyond remembering to stop at a stop sign. I’m sorry, but you can drive as defensively as you want; if your engine explodes because you didn’t know to change your oil, you’re endangering yourself and everyone driving around you.

Sadly, the responsibility to educate a young driver beyond the standard driver’s education rests on the shoulders of parents. I encourage – nay, plead with – each of you to take a car control class. Teach your children what you learn. Don’t be the driver who doesn’t know what to do.

John Davis is a junior majoring in Ikea furniture construction. His column runs on Thursdays.