when your brakes fail, can you shift to Reverse in order to stop the vehicle? why or why not?

Question

I’m mostly thinking about a scenario where you are going down a highway (say, at 120kmh for the sake of the example) and suddenly your brakes fail

could shifting to Reverse function as a brake in that situation?

edit: thank you all for the answers, I want to note that I myself don’t drive and did not consider doing this, I was just wondering if this was possible

have a lovely day o/

In: 11

Answer 1

Automatic transmissions usually don’t allow to shift in reverse while the vehicle is moving forward. Manual transmissions would take damage when you shift the gears in the opposite direction, breaking gears without stopping the car.

However with manual transmission, just releasing the clutch and gas pedal, and maybe shifting down one gear before that, will engage engine breaking which is the regular friction of the engine. This has noteworthy effect.