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Honda Makes Motorcycle Talk To Oncoming Cars
An anonymous reader writes "The system generates warnings to riders and drivers of other vehicles by continuous exchange of positioning data from satellite GPS sources. This is particularly relevant as road users approach intersections, alerting them to other vehicles that are potentially on a collision course, allowing avoidance manoeuvres."
It seems like a bad idea. If 95% of vehicles have it people will become lax in watching for those 5% that don't. Why not just pay attention with your vision orbs?
Man, you really need that seminar!
I've been riding motorcycles for 26 years (more miles riding than driving cars) and my body of experience tells me this: it doesn't matter how many fancy gadgets they come up with, the average automobile driver just plain isn't looking for and doesn't see motorcyclists. The only way I have been able to preserve my life and retain all my original body parts is by assuming they're all actively trying to kill me, and protect myself accordingly.
...cars will be uniquely identifiable and thus, trackable. :(
I'm curious to how one would track vehicles to avoid collisions without, um, tracking vehicles.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Exactly. As a rider myself I would be wary of such a system. I'd worry that it would split my concentration and that I wouldn't be as focused on every curb cut and side street as a potential threat.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind it if oncoming cars were alerted to my presence before they come flying out of a side street (or merge into my lane on the highway if possible).
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
...would just be to equip our motorcycles with RPG launchers for those idiot cagers who pull out in front of us. They'll only do it once.
I'll grant you three of five, but "lane splitting" (legal in California under a large range of circumstances) really IS the best method of getting around Southern California. It doesn't add to the danger, if done reasonably, and the time savings are enormous. I've cut some trip times in half that way (90 min by car to 45 min on the bike), without speeding.
As far as 80 MPH, there are times and places on the highways where riding less than that is more dangerous because you are exposed to a "rear-ender" by a driver who cannot see a motorcycle that is right in front of him. A better line might be to say that exceeding the pace of traffic so much that you have to constantly change lanes isn't very safe.
and it's useless. Loud pipes are for annoying people not for any other use.
it's simple physics... if the loud noise is exiting the BACK of the bike throgh a directed horn facing and traveling away from you, how the hell will the bimbo in the BMW that is 500 feet ahead of you going to hear it? she wont and she does not. even the big motorcycle safety organizations refuse the claims about lout pipes save lives.
Loud pipes are simply for being a public ass. No other reason, stop trying to justify it and just admit you like annoying people.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
>I wouldn't be as focused on every curb cut and side street as a potential threat.
That is exactly was airline pilot said when TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) was mandated. Today, most of them would feel naked flying without it.
It just another tool to be integrated into your scan and could prove to be a life saving feature when approaching a blind intersection on an unlit country road at night.
Something like this MAY have helped when I got collected by a 4WD (truck) with a bullbar last year while riding home from work. Here I was on a bright red sports bike, headlights on, stopped at an intersection behind a row of cars. BAM, right in to the back of me and pushed me into the back of the car in front like a pinball.
He swore he didn't see me. Granted, he was DUI, but a little alert telling him that he was approaching something at 60kph that was going to break when he hit it would have been useful. And less painful. For me, anyway.
I intend to live forever, or die trying. - Groucho Marx
If he was so drunk he didn't see stopped cars in front of him, what makes you think ANYTHING else would have gotten his attention?
Infuriate left and right
Lane Splitting is legal. Motorcycles should only do it when speed is lower though. Lane splitting at 85 mph is a little sketchy
pfft. 80 mph is the standard in Southern California. Welcome to the real world bub.
Or just do what I do when riding *or* driving - stop short (we call that Assured Clear Distance in the law enforcement business), watch your mirrors like a hawk and go to the right when you see the dumbass coming up on you like a freight train. I figure let him hit the guy in front of me, there's more metal between the guy in front of me and the crash than me, and if not there is at least less metal between my head and the guy trying to ass pack me.
Illiterate? Write for free help!
It may indeed be faster, but it sure as hell isn't safe. Riding on a motorcycle is hazardous enough. When you're "lane splitting", all it takes is one car changing lanes or pulling over to the side of his lane, or another driver opening his car door to put you in the ER.
How many times have you seen morning drivers open their car door in stopped traffic to dump out their coffee? Now how would you like to find out what happens when an object moving 40 mph (you) collides with a stationary object (car door)?
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
except that the pennies will also be subject to the wind resistance of whatever speed you're traveling, so it'll be backwards throw + air acceleration. even so you're not looking to break windscreens - that's when people start suing and getting really pissed off.
i would think that scratches in the clearcoat or maybe a chip will be enough to make most people back off.
This is why in the UK we have something called mirrors on the side of dooors, we also have things called windows. It means you can look before opening you fecking door, the same way you should look before pulling out of the intersection. I.e. checking your blind spots as well...
Just a thought, that's all...