Amazing Things Your Automobile Can't Do
dslmodem submitted this NYT story on nifty automobile technology that isn't coming to the United States. The report suggests that legal liability is a significant reason for not offering various driver-distracting options in the U.S.
If you're going to drive an urban assault vehicle, then get off the phone & keep your eyes on the road.
I haven't read the article, but I assume American cars won't have ejection seats, machine guns and rocket launchers hidden with a flip of a switch like those British Aston Martins have.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
I'm GLAD that those features aren't available in the US. I don't need the added worry that they guy in the car next to me is reading slashdot, or trying to keep up with the lyrics on some karaoke song!
I would like to be able to watch tv or other video when stuck in traffic. Having the video system turn off once the car starts moving over 3mph sounds like a great idea. But, here in the US, you can sue anybody for anything and stand a good chance of winning so I understand the car makers reticence.
http://www.busyweather.com/
One thing that is very cool that they have in Europe is 'TMC' -- radio stations will broadcast traffic alerts on where there is bad traffic. This will automagically update the route computers in most cars' naviation systems to find an alternate route around the traffic jam. No-one in the states has it, but it is standard with all VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat NAV+ units in the EU. Absolutely shameful.
The tort system does need revision, but the only proposal I've seen so far gives relief exclusively to corporations. For tort reform to work, it will have to include:
1) eliminating slap suits,
2) limiting damages that individuals must pay to corporations (what's good for the goose, etc), and
3) shifting the burden of proof from the defendant to the plaintiff (same as for criminal cases).
Then I can support tort reform.
Otherwise tort reform is yet another corporate bailout.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Here's something amazing my car doesn't do...it doesn't wrap itself around a tree while I try to check my email and read a fax at the same time.
My collision and comprehensive coverage are friggin high enough. Keep this distrating technology away or face higher premiums.
Darn it, look at all the cool toys we could have if we would just take some personal responsibility for our actions.
I ride a motorcycle and spend enough time watching out for idiots talking on their cell phone who wander over into my lane. The last thing I need is someone singing a Jessica Simpson song turning me into roadkill. You are driving an automobile and are putting other lives as risk. You should not be eating a big mac while talking on the phone while you are crusing down the highway at 75mph.
Lets start with those damn ultra-bright lights. Holy cow are those super annoying. I'm not even driving but walking down the streets with those suckers turned on is enough blind me.
Sunny Dubey
And another thing, I could have sworn that it was illegal in the UK to have a TV playing within view of the driver.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
What, you don't approve of autoeroticism?
I just want the damned navigation system for my car. It's available in Europe and even Canada, but GM has decided that they'd rather sell OnStar in the US because it has a recurring revenue model, and that navigation systems interfere with OnStar premium subscriptions, so they decided not to offer the feature in the US.
The one thing I *don't* want is anything that requires a monthly fee. I'm sure I could come up with some choice words about where they can stick their recurring revenue.
This strongest point I got from reading the article (Yes, I actually RTFA!) is that auto makers, and probably many other companies, are hesitant to introduce new stuff to the US market, whether we need it or not or if it's stupid or not, for fear of being sued.
Our country has turned into a lawsuit machine. It's become too easy for Bubba to sue S&W and Coors for shooting himself in the foot after downing a 12-er or Coors Light. Who knows - he'd probably win.
IIRC someone in the UK came up with the mathmatic
formula for parallel parking a car perfectly.
i'm pretty sure that everything in math is repeatable.
link here
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Also it can run over any annoying kids and soccer balls if they get in the way of your urban assault vehicle. Guess you don't get sued for that in Europe or Japan. Damn US legal system!
People in Europe or Japan spend most of their time crawling in traffic anyway, in their toaster size cars with 700 cc engines. I *like* that about Europe and Japan. Isn't there a nationwide 50 mph / 80 kph speed limit in Japan?
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Has the lawsuit taken on some of the roll of a lottery in the US? Winning a lawsuit becomes like winning the Jackpot.
In the old days, you worked hard, and you got ahead. IMHO, that's no longer true, for the most part. You usually can't get ahead without working hard, but 'merely' hard work is no longer sufficient. More and more, it also takes connections an luck - being in the right place at the right time with the right idea. Furthermore, simply knowing how to build the better mousetrap isn't enough either, you have to also know how to market that mousetrap, or at least license its IP.
All in all, I suspect the American Dream is getting farther and farther away, for most Americans. Is the increasing number of state-run lotteries because of legal relaxations, or is it because more people are giving up on earning their way up, and figure their odds are about as good gambling their way up? Consider lawsuits in that light...
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Who said the operator couldn't override it? I think the point the article was making was that in the US, people like to look for someone to blame other than themselves. So, if a three-year-old did get run over because of the driver's negligence when using the system, a US citizen would be likely to blame the car manufacturer for their own failings.
Note that I am not a US citizen, and therefore may display bias in this interpretation :-).
Perhaps the engineers at Toyota believe that all Nipponese 3-year-olds are smarter than to run into where a car is parking, or perhaps that there will be a parent watching over a kid that is playing near the street.
I, for one, would prefer an autodrive system that could safely and reliably take some of the decision making out of the hands of the driver.
It would be great if I could just sit back and relax while my car took the most optimal route to work, avoiding crazy drivers, potholes and anyother dangers allong the way.
Yeah, and my car should fly too.
Ah well.And be powered by "Mr. Fusion"
The vast majority of lamps which cause disability glare are doing so becuase they are:
a) Misaimed either intentionally to get better visibility or by accident because the driver or mechanic don't know what they are doing. You don't have to mis-aim a lamp by much to throw a lot of light at oncoming drivers...one degree too high is more than enough to do it.
b) Retrofitted with pumped-up aftermarket bulbs which the lamp was not designed to use. Even if you use a kit which claims that it's designed for the vehicle in question if you drill out a hole in your lamp to put in an aftermarket HID system you WILL screw it up. Get that sucker out of position by half a millimeter and you're going to blind everybody who looks at you.
Sueing the OEMs won't change the behaviour of the vehicle users.
In response to the article itself, the thing I most miss that the Euros have while we NAers tend not to is the mighty Rear Fog Lamp. Since certain states *cough*Virginia*cough* do not allow their use, most foreign OEMs disable the rear fog functionality on the cars the export to NA. I drive a Mini Cooper and it has a rear fog cavity in the tail-lights but the damn thing is turned off in the CAN-bus and there's a plug in my dash where the switch should be! Anybody who has ever driven behind a car that does have these in the rain knows how much we need to update the FMVSS code to explicitly allow them here.
-Pinkoir
I'm not living in the US you insensitive clod! My Automobile will be able to do those things!
Failing to learn from history dooms you to repeat it.
i dont want the people passing me watching TV while they're driving.
The European system shuts off if the car is going more than 3 MPH. If you're getting passed by someone going 3 MPH, perhaps you should just pedal your Big Wheel a bit faster?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
uhm - not exactly.
... :-(
In Germany, the actual written test is a simple 4-pages multiple choice test with some numbers to fill in (amount of meters you need for breaking at 100 km/h and so on), and the question are chosen from a...100 pages? catalogue of all possible questions. With average intelligence, it is possible to read all questions one time and pass the test with 0 errors (9 errors are allowed, one questions counts between 2 and 4 error points).
The practical test depends heavily on the examiner - between 15 minutes and 60 minutes of driving, with parking, city, Autobahn, everything. Everyone can have bad luck and spoil that.
The biggest difference between the US (at least what I know of it) and Germany is the driving school: You are not allowed to drive with your parents, you have to drive with a teacher. And you need a minimum amount of driving experience to do the test (12 hours, 3 hours Autobahn, 3 hours overland, 3 hours in the night). Most people use between 18 to 25 hours. It's really expensive to get a drivers license, it is not easy to stay within 1.500 EUR.
But in the end, nearly noone who just passed the drivers test is actually able to drive. You just need at least half a year of experience to know what you are doing, and after that, the most dangerous time starts - the kids stop using their brain while driving...and the boys start using their
You read those comments by the Europeans in the article! Inflamitory! They are suggestiong that, we Americans, are irate little hot heads that would litigate for trifiling nusances. I won't stand for it, I'm going to sue them for slander!
...uh..never mind....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Are they kidding? Here in America people think they can drive responsibly with a cell phone in their ear. Now they want to take our eyes off the road, too?
Yep, this is just BEGGING for a lawsuit.
Fiat pulled out of the US market years ago. I miss them. Over the years I've had several Fiat 850 Spyders and a coupe, I've had a 124 too.
They were good basic cars that were fun to drive and easy to work on. What more can you really ask for?
Now to see what they offer in Europe, hell, I'd kill for one of them.
Sometimes people would tell me that FIAT stood for "Fix It Again, Tony." I'll admit that I have my share of problems with the cars, but then I was really driving 'em a little harder than I should have too. Besides, they were fun to fix. I could lift the engine out of an 850 all by myself and a complete engine swap only took an afternoon or so. Frankly, I'd bet that had I been driving American cars I would have had as many problems and would have had to spend a lot more to fix 'em.
A junk yard I knew spliced a 124 and a 128 together, it was just sort of a joke but they had a two engined car to show off!
I only regret that I never got around to owning a X/19 or 2000.
Does it play "The Blue Danube"?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Yeah, well you left out the hardest part -
The damned tests are written entirely in German!
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
and taking responsibility for your own actions is even more of a bitch.
Oh sorry, I guess that's un-American these days.
Cthulhu Barata Nikto
As posted below:
The system is simple... you apply moderate brake pressure, and the system parks. Your foot pushes down, it stops. Your foot goes off the pedal, it stops.