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Government Recommends Cars With Smarter Brakes
mrspoonsi writes The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is adding crash imminent braking and dynamic braking support to its list of recommended advanced safety features for new cars. The former uses sensors to activate the brakes if a crash is imminent and the driver already hasn't. Dynamic braking support, on the other hand, increases stopping power if you haven't put enough pressure on the brake pedal. Like lane-departure and front collision warning systems, these features are available on some models already — this move gives them high-profile attention, though. And for good reason: As the NHSTA tells it, a third of 2013's police-reported car accidents were the rear-end crashes and a "large number" of the drivers either didn't apply the brakes at all (what?!) or fully before impact.
During icy conditions, when I'd rather kill that deer instead of my family, or when a piece of black plastic blows across the roadway, are three that come to mind.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Let's just enforce existing laws and get dangerous drivers off the road. THERE IS NO RIGHT TO DRIVE. If you are a dangerous driver you can and should be taken off the road.
I was a safe driver for 11 years; no tickets, no accidents, no "close calls", no complaints. Then one day I was driving to the airport early in the morning, got distracted by my radio, didn't notice that the traffic light was red, and ran right into a car that was (legally) crossing the intersection.
My question: should I have been driving for those previous 11 years? If not, why not? What kind of test would you have had me take to show that I was a dangerous driver? Or, if I was a safe driver except on that one morning, how would your plan have prevented my accident?
The fact is, most people are safe drivers most of the time. Except for when they're not.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Mandate dash/rear cams and simple radar. When I'm in my car and see someone tailgating, speeding, swerving all over, cutting people off, hanging in the passing lane, driving on the shoulder, texting/reading a paper, completely turned around in their seat, looking for the joint they dropped...I just push a button and the last 30 seconds of video, data, is saved for reporting. Since the cops can't be bothered or are simply unable to catch it all. We should.
As soon as people realized that they are actual consequences to driving like shit it will stop.
If I had bought my car new and was looking at features to add or avoid, I would have put the collision avoidance system on my "meh" list and would not have paid extra for it.
As it turns out, I really like it. I have the control setup for maximum distance, which means more false alerts. But although most alerts seem "false" they're only false because I'm really paying attention and have anticipated the traffic in front of me. About 25% of the time I think it's actually valuable and there was some risk of either a really quick stop or maybe even a fender bender.
The feature that goes along with it (they share the same radar system), distance sensing cruise control, I REALLY like. I wish it would beep or something when you get behind a vehicle driving 3+ MPH slower than your set point. On the Interstate its kind of easy to get in traffic going slower than I want to by small amounts and not noticing it because the car just matches pace with the vehicle in front.
An easy, partial solution - scooters and motorbikes. I've met several people who adopted them after losing their license. They can be far cheaper to both own and operate than a car, and when you reduce the total mass by an order of magnitude you reduce the potential damage to others in a collision by the same factor. Of course that proportionally *increases* the risk to the driver as well, but why shouldn't reckless drivers be faced with bearing the bulk of the damage from future collisions? With luck it will even improve their situational awareness when they are once again allowed to operate a car.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
"a third of 2013's police-reported car accidents were the rear-end crashes and a "large number" of the drivers either didn't apply the brakes at all (what?!) "
It's frickin tailgaters. Even if you're being very attentive, there's a delay between the time you see brake lights on the car in front of you, and the time you hit the brakes. Throw in texting and other distractions, and if you're traveling too close you're eating bumper before you can hit the brake pedal. And half the drivers on the road are following too close. I say bring on the auto-braking systems to protect me from these idiots.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.