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Most Drivers Don't Understand Limitations of Car Safety Systems, AAA Finds (usatoday.com)

A new study by AAA found that most drivers don't understand the limitations of advanced safety technology installed on their new vehicles. "The study indicates that drivers overestimate the capabilities of features such as blind-spot monitoring systems, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control," reports USA Today. "The findings raise questions about whether Americans are ready to adapt to partially self-driving vehicles, which typically require drivers to remain alert and ready to take over the steering wheel if the car can't handle the conditions it encounters." Here are the problem spots flagged by AAA: - Blind-spot monitoring: Nearly 80 percent of drivers don't understand the limitations or thought that the system had greater capability to detect fast-approaching vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Relying too much on blind-spot monitoring, about 25 percent don't look for oncoming vehicles when they change lanes.

- Forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking: Many drivers confuse the two. One is a warning system, while the other takes action. More than 40 percent of drivers don't know these limitations.

- Adaptive cruise control: About 29 percent of drivers who use this system, which accelerates and brakes on its own, are sometimes comfortable "engaging in other activities" while the system is activated, according to the study.
The researchers did note that these safety features can prevent about 40 percent of crashes and 30 percent of crash deaths.

262 comments

  1. And this is why I am for public transportation. by PopeRatzzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

    Hire a well-paid, attentive train driver, hold him to the flame, and be done with it.

    1. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert. show me a viable public transport alternative.

      Until a train or bus can immediately pick me up right from home on my schedule not theirs, and drop me right at the door of wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

    2. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > having a human in the loop is a setup for failure.

      No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.
      The problem at least in the USA is that the driving test is pretty much only focussed on your ability to follow road signs and laws. it does almost nothing to test your actual ability to properly control the vehicle itself, especially in loss of traction type situations.

    3. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

      Traffic jam vs subway.

    4. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      If you're driving offroad you're probably not going to be confused about blind spot monitoring features.

    5. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You might as well have said, fuck everything I want to burn the planet, America fuck yeah, like it actually means something.

      More constructive to the discussion, with those car safety systems, with the level of reliance people are attempting, those system when they fail for what ever reason, the car should stop moving. What are the fault detection methods for those vehicles, how reliable are they, will they detect failures in the system, will they detect inaccurate readings, how reliable and durable are they, how long do they last and how much do they cost to repair.

      More effective public transport certainly solves many problems but many people do not like to travel in close company with many other people of unknown quality and nature and in highly destructively competitive societies, rabid dog eat rabid dog, that is a real problem. Things like dumping the mentally ill on the streets, until they commit a violent crime (creating an unnecessary victim) and then throwing them in prison where their illness exacerbates and they get dumped on the street and act out ever worse than before. This makes public areas like public transport unnecessarily high risk and undesirable. Public transport systems are often poorly maintained, poorly run and not as reliable as they should be (outside of Japan of course) and the people, well, many are not well trained to use public transport because destructively competitive societies see no value in manners or polite behaviour.

      So public transport is awkward, especially in a gun nut society, who just want to see the planet burn. The more it is used, the more problematic it will become in some societies, in others that are more socially cohesive certainly but in remorselessly socially conflicted and combative societies a real problem is created.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    6. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      Like hipsters getting out of their containment cities and fucking up the countryside? I agree. Public transportation needs to stop at the city limits.

    7. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I both work in this industry and own a vehicle made by someone we don't compete with.

      People think it's like a Movie or TV show they watched.

      Where is the repository to submit an issue? As someone that deals with CANape and ADAS systems all day long, where can I get the .a2l file for my car? Without me cracking it open to see, what embedded chipset(s) are you using? What ADAS level are these? What ASIL level is your entire stack? Can I see a basic block diagram (Simulink) of the system?

      If anyone at Subaru is reading. The 2019 Outback with EyeSight adaptive cruise control doesn't detect a stopped vehicle as a 'vehicle' ahead of it.

      Also, stop treating the 'keep your lane' feature like a bang bang controller. Estimate a dead center path and keep it centered on that. You'd also probably subconsciously train the drivers to keep it in the middle of the road instead of bouncing from side to side.

      Most of these complaints would probably be addressed by giving product demos. At some point I'm going to string up a tarp and see exactly how braking acts. I've pushed it to my "Holy shit stop" limit already.

      Also, the icons are confusing as shit. I know some UX team spent years on those, give me a better way to know you see the car in front of me than some blinking light. Half the people on the road would drive with an oil light on, and do.

      They also need to standardize on some name. Every company has a cutesy marketing term for what their product does.

    8. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by complete+loony · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is the "right way" to test those braking features; The Collapsile Crash Test Robot Car

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    9. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of..

      I can think of a problem it doesn't solve right off the bat: people loathe it. A car takes you where you want to go when you want to go there. Public transportation takes you only where it goes when the schedule says it will. People hate that.

    10. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      May you die on the road as you deserve!

    11. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by vtcodger · · Score: 1

      And lane keeping is less of a priority if there are no lanes.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    12. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I don't know, if active comma avoidance is, available for your vehicle but if, it is you, should get it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    13. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      It's a false dichotomy. Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car. But car owners may sometimes choose to use public transit in certain circumstances -- for instance, traveling to the downtown area of a large city without having to worry about traffic or paying for parking.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    14. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by 4im · · Score: 1

      What makes you say a "professional" driver is any better? From my sole visit to the USofA back in 1991, I distinctly recall a bus driver who couldn't handle the buses stick shift. Seriously? Any youth having passed the (automobile, not bus) driving test home (in Europe) would've fared better, if not legally. And this guy could legally have had a bus full of people killed.

      I'm quite convinced that the more tech you build into the cars/buses/trucks/whatever, the less the driver will actually retain competence to drive them. Just have a look at all those news about people following a satnav system into a river or somesuch... just don't ask them to read a map or follow road signs. It's quite the same with all the other helps... and physics aren't laws you can break.

    15. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of..

      I can think of a problem it doesn't solve right off the bat: people loathe it. A car takes you where you want to go when you want to go there. Public transportation takes you only where it goes when the schedule says it will. People hate that.

      Which isn't a bad reason, as 'where' is sometimes a short list and 'when the schedule says it will' can counts as being really amazing--one bus route I occasionally used was more often off schedule than on, and on one memorable occasion I managed to hop on one that had managed to run far enough behind that it was turning up when the other bus on the route was scheduled to turn up...which we'd not have known if that bus hadn't happened to be running on time. (There were two buses on the loop, and they were supposed to be 30 minutes apart. In practice? LOLNOPE.)

    16. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.

      No. Humans are fallible and non-deterministic. Good drivers are also a setup for failure.

    17. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would you rather be shot one time or ten times?

      We don't have self-driving cars that we can trust without supervision yet and when we get them it is still going to take decades before manual driving is phased out.
      I will probably not be alive when the last manually driven car is taken off public roads. (I assume leisure driving is still going to happen on private roads.)
      Until then I'd rather have stricter requirements for drivers to reduce the number of accidents.
      The problem is that there are areas where it isn't viable to live without a car so failing people on their driving test is considered "impractical".

      A solution might be some sort of tiered driving license.
      Where I live it is possible to get a driving license for tractors at a much younger age so that kids can help out on the farm a bit earlier.
      This has led to cars being re-built into "tractors" that can't go faster than 30mph so that farm boys who can't wait to have a car have something to drive.
      Something like that could be a viable way to handle people who can't drive since the lower speed limits the damage they do a bit.
      It isn't ideal but if you want to improve a flawed system the solution is seldom to change everything at once.

    18. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like hipsters getting out of their containment cities and fucking up the countryside? I agree. Public transportation needs to stop at the city limits.

      I live in a place that have functional public transportation that reaches the countryside.

      Hipsters NEVER go out to the countryside, everyone knows that there is jack shit to do there.
      What happens is that the farm-kids that are to young to have a car takes the bus into the city instead.
      I guess it is more interesting to hang around the bus stop with the other kids than to sit at home and look at the pigs.

    19. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      maybe the problem is your English:
      1) you love driving - fine, nobody cares
      2) public transportation - getting people to places they need to be

      read until you notice the difference.
      FWIW you can keep your guns, and go to church too, they are also unrelated with public transportation

    20. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Chrisq · · Score: 2

      It's a false dichotomy. Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car..

      That depends on a lot. If you include costs then owning and parking a car in a lot of cities that have good public transport infrastructure doesn't make sense. The cost of a parking space could exceed that of many long taxi journeys and hiring a car for a holiday. Add to that the cost of car purchase and maintenance and not owning a car could well be a better option.

    21. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      I suspect every driver is a bad driver on occasion. Humans aren't machines, even the best-trained professionals make the occasional mistake. I know I do, despite several advanced driving courses and a rigorous attitude to driving (no distractions, etc.).

    22. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, water is wet and people are idiots. Blaming "bad drivers", implying that you're not one, only shows that you're part of the problem. You're further reinforcing this by blathering about "loss of traction type situations", yeah, how about we deal with the real problems first?

      People like you, who think they "aren't bad drivers", and thus thinks they are capable of speaking on their cellphone without a hands-free, texting and whatever while driving. People like you who overestimate themselves are a much, much worse problem than people who can't deal with slippery roads.

    23. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Drethon · · Score: 1

      public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

      Traffic jam vs subway.

      Traffic jams in my city show up about once a month and cost me maybe 10 minutes on a half hour trip. No subway where I am. Busses only come within three or four miles of my house, even ignoring that the bus route requires switching busses in mid trip, walking a mile to the connector and waiting an hour for the next bus.

      Personally I'd love to ride the bus to work and use the time to get some work done, but in the past 15 years, public transportation here has not improved in the slightest.

    24. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      Hi Snowflake, We dont care about your personal needs. We don't owe you anything.

      Right now big corporations make money selling you personal vehicle and convince you with billion dollar ad budgets that this is the best option for you. Things could change in a jiffy.

      Public transportation is funded using tax dollars by local municipalities. They can sign unvoidable 100 year contracts. They have the authority to collect taxes to pay for their obligations. Their elections have very low turn out. If the biggies find a workable way to access the tax dollars they will drop you in a jiffy. Your personal car that works on your schedule will cost 10 times more to buy and run. If that happens, and if you are still forking over that kind of money for your notion of "freedom" then I might take you guys seriously.

      We dont owe you anything. And if your personal transportation costs go through the roof, either by oil crunch, or by excessive taxation, I wont give a rats tail.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    25. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe not where you are. Here in the North we get training on loss of traction. I was taught to pump my breaks (this was the days before ABS) and when fishtailing to use the engine to slow down while turning the wheel in the direction I want the car to go. Most people stomp on the brakes and spin out of control because they panic and start jerking the wheel around.

    26. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by necro81 · · Score: 1

      I've used all my mod points, otherwise I'd happily mark you "+1 Informative" That is totally rad!

    27. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Cool and in the meantime I am going to work hard to make sure that leaches like you don't get a chance make these changes. People who don't pay taxes and are not educated should not be voting. With a few more SCOTUS appointments maybe we can make that happen.

      You probably do pay taxes are are qualified to vote but that does not matter without the rabble you won't win.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    28. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.
      Public transport is usually not affected by traffic yams, and depending where you actually want to go to: 3 times faster. E.g. My town Karlsruhe to Paris ... or Frankfurt.

      Living in a 3rd world country with a 3rd world attitude about cars and public transport simply makes you forever stuck in your self fulfilling prophecy.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    29. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      The biggest change I've seen in public transportation is when they removed a bunch of stops, so you have even farther to walk to the bus stop.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    30. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      I pay lot of taxes.

      And I don't resent it.

      It is the price we pay for having a civil society.

      My view on taxes: The Government is the largest venture capitalist. Only it has the deep pockets to invest very widely and wait for it to bear fruit. It invests in ALL the citizens, it invests in the entire country's infrastructure. It does not know who is going to hit a home run and become a super duper billionaire. It does not know which company can take advantage of the infrastructure of roads, bridges, networks and the research done in public universities. But it invests indiscriminately everywhere. It has to. It is the law. It can not prefer any one segment of the society or industry over other.

      Then, ... , when someone hits a home run, when some corporation earns a billion dollars and is valued at a trillion dollars, .... it comes dunning for dividend. The taxes, paid by the corporations, is not a penalty for taxes, just the dividend that rightfully belongs to the investor who made it possible.

      To that snowflake dissing the public transportation, I just pointed out that he is just a little fish in a big pond. There are sharks out there. Who think exactly like him, in a very self centered way. They will eat him alive. These sharks eat lots of little fish. I have sympathy for some of them. Not for others. He falls into the category I feel no sympathy.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    31. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
      Correction:

      The taxes, paid by the corporations, is not a penalty for taxes ^H^H^H^H^H success

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    32. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.

      No. Humans are fallible and non-deterministic. Good drivers are also a setup for failure.

      And machines are peferct and godlike.

      To err is human, to really fuck up requires a computer, as the old cliche goes.

      As recent tests, including this article, show is that computers are not as good as a decent human driver... not a good one, just a mediocre one. This is because computers cant handle fuzzy logic, to put all the "intuition" things that drivers do instinctively into absolutes that computers are good at dealing with would require computers that might fit onto a small articulated lorry. Not to mention infallible all weather sensors which do not yet exist. Computer systems are far too dependent on pre-existing data and are terrible at operating on sensed information alone. Hell, some automatic transmissions depend on being pre-loaded with topographical information to operate efficiently (so their MPG goes through the roof when travelling somewhere without this information).

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    33. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I suspect every driver is a bad driver on occasion. Humans aren't machines, even the best-trained professionals make the occasional mistake. I know I do, despite several advanced driving courses and a rigorous attitude to driving (no distractions, etc.).

      I don't believe there are bad drivers. "bad" implies that its somehow not their fault and cant be improved, nothing could be further from the truth.

      What we have are lazy and/or arrogant drivers. These are drivers who could do better, but wont bother and are completely unwilling to change.

      Whilst I agree that every driver has bad moments, bits where our attention falters. However the differences between a good driver and a lazy or arrogant driver is:
      1. A good driver makes mistakes infrequently.
      2. A good driver tries never to make the same mistake twice.
      3. A good driver will recognise when they've made a mistake.

      Lazy, arrogant drivers will never admit to making a mistake and as a result, will make the same mistake with alarming regularity.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    34. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you find any adaptive cruise systems that do work like? How exactly would it be able to blindly stop because the vehicle in front of it stopped? The driver SHOULD be paying attention to handle this.

    35. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Hire a well-paid, attentive train driver, hold him to the flame, and be done with it.

      Ahahhhahhhhahh! You're going to make me die from laughter.

      https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-driver-cellphone-bus-1.3757131

    36. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      > Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert. show me a viable public transport alternative.

      True enough - I've yet to find public transportation as entertainment on my 4 wheeling adventures.

      But now I have these ideas of all-terrain buses.....

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    37. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

      many people do not like to travel in close company with many other people of unknown quality and nature.

      Particularly sick people. Nothing like getting on a bus with people sneezing and hacking away in confined quarters.

    38. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Traffic jams in my city show up about once a month and cost me maybe 10 minutes on a half hour trip. No subway where I am. Busses only come within three or four miles of my house, even ignoring that the bus route requires switching busses in mid trip, walking a mile to the connector and waiting an hour for the next bus.

      Personally I'd love to ride the bus to work and use the time to get some work done, but in the past 15 years, public transportation here has not improved in the slightest.

      I tried taking the local Public transit buses. There was a stop right outside of my office, and I live 2 miles from work. Coupled with a stop right in front of my house, this should be great. But the timing was that I had to either leave work a half hour early, or wait a half hour for the next bus. Then the bus took a grand tour around campus and town before heading to the burbs. Then a shopping center, then tour of the neighborhood next to mine.

      finally, I was frustrated and got off and walked the last half mile to my place. I was home before the bus pulled up to the stop at my house. This was 7:00 p.m., two hours to get home from two hours away.

      Walking takes around a half hour.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    39. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      If you're driving offroad you're probably not going to be confused about blind spot monitoring features.

      Though I've found a backup camera to be a real lifesaver.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    40. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Taxi. Uber. Lyft.
      Only qualified drivers.

      The biggest problem with these systems is that a driver's reaction time is much quicker when they are already 100% engaged in the driving. Enabling these lets the drivers partially disengage their attention--which means it will take them even longer to reengage--but when something in one of these systems fails it's probably already too late!

      Think about airline pilots. The level of training they get--they know their systems backwards and forwards--they test repeatedly until they pass at 100%. They practice all known failure scenarios so that when one occurs IRL they have already dealt with it before and it's not a complete surprise.

      How many drivers have taken an advanced handling course? Ever drifted? Corrected from a slide? Learned how well their particular vehicle handles in extreme handling situations? And yet we expect technology to compensate for barely-adequate driving skills and save them from themselves in an emergency, fast-reaction, unexpected, unpracticed scenario?

    41. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by hey! · · Score: 1

      You're quibbling. Nobody is suggesting public transportation as an alternative for 4x4 offroading.

      We humans are creatures of habit; we automatically compare the best case for the way we habitually do things to the worst case when we contemplate doing something differently.

      Of course under ideal conditions for driving it's better to drive. If you're driving from your house to your reserved parking space twenty minutes away on uncongested roads, it's going to be impossible to even imagine a more convenient public transit option. But there's a lot of stuff about driving that sucks too. Traffic jams. Cops. Accidents. Road construction. Insurance. Breakdowns. Finding parking. Theft and vandalism. Snow in some places. And until you have fully autonomous cars, driving is downtime; you can't read or really pay attention to entertainment.

      A public transit system that (a) has frequent service and (b) is reliable and (c) has all-day service isn't a problem to schedule your travel on. Take NYC's subway. Sure the MTA is far from perfect, but it's a much better way to get around than driving and much cheaper than Uber. But an ultra-dense urban city core is the ideal scenario for public transit.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    42. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Also, stop treating the 'keep your lane' feature like a bang bang controller. Estimate a dead center path and keep it centered on that. You'd also probably subconsciously train the drivers to keep it in the middle of the road instead of bouncing from side to side.

      Or perhaps you'd just subconsciously train drivers to go other activities while the car drives itself smoothly instead of weaving without them at the wheel. Until the car really can drive itself, I'd prefer that the car act as an erratic backup to bad drivers rather than something that fools them into feeling safe taking their hands off the wheel.

    43. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Public transport systems are often poorly maintained, poorly run and not as reliable as they should be (outside of Japan of course) and the people, well, many are not well trained to use public transport because destructively competitive societies see no value in manners or polite behaviour.

      So... you ARE talking about just the USA then.

    44. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Pubstar · · Score: 1

      This. Whenever I go to a concert in Downtown LA or Hollywood, I just drive down to the Park & Ride and take the subway out. Less hassle and way cheaper. Also there is no way to get home on public transit at 1am when trying to get home.

    45. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      That depends on a lot. If you include costs then owning and parking a car in a lot of cities that have good public transport infrastructure doesn't make sense. The cost of a parking space could exceed that of [businessinsider.com] many long taxi journeys and hiring a car for a holiday. Add to that the cost of car purchase and maintenance and not owning a car could well be a better option.

      MOST of the US is not super urban with the population piled onto of each other like NYC, nor the glut that is Los Angeles......

      I've never had to experience hours of driving to a job due to traffic, I've never had to pay for parking where I work, they provided free parking at the joist, etc.

      If you have a 'real job', owning a car isn't that great of a dent in your budget, and with routine car (change oil, etc), it will likely last you quite awhile.

      and most of the cities across the US, just don't have viable public transport....not if you need to go door-to-door, and are on a very strict schedule.

      Above all that, I always have owned fun cars, I like to drive....and when I don't feel like parking downtown, etc...I Uber. Considering I live in New Orleans....I'll likely be drinking too when going down here, so Uber again, is the superior choice, since it is door-to-door.

      Aside from that, an occasional ride on the street cars is ok, but nothing you depend on if you need to get somewhere on time, etc.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    46. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by nasch · · Score: 1

      when they fail for what ever reason, the car should stop moving.

      Hell no. I don't want to have pull over on whatever road I'm on whether there is a shoulder or not and call a tow truck because a lane departure warning system had a hiccup. Or if the car continues but then won't restart after it's turned off, maybe I won't be stuck on the side of the road but it's still an enormous inconvenience and possibly very expensive for a system I might not even care about. We don't even make cars fail to run when the seat belts aren't buckled, and that is far more important than adaptive cruise control. Just no.

    47. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      But an ultra-dense urban city core is the ideal scenario for public transit.

      I could not STAND to live in an ultra dense city core...ugh.

      I prefer having a non-attached home, with a back yard so I can do fun things like have crawfish boils for friends, have my smoker for BBQ, even set up targets for my crossbow, raise a garden, etc.

      I can't stand to live stacked up on top of each other.....and sharing walls where I'd annoy someone when I turn my stereo up to enjoy.

      Nope, I'll take my suburban life and the cars that do with it.

      Thankfully, in the US...it is a large enough and diverse enough country with different areas to live in, with different density, cultures and weather.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    48. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by bigpat · · Score: 1

      > having a human in the loop is a setup for failure.

      No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.
      The problem at least in the USA is that the driving test is pretty much only focussed on your ability to follow road signs and laws. it does almost nothing to test your actual ability to properly control the vehicle itself, especially in loss of traction type situations.

      That's the problem? You speak as if you can test for a bad driver? How many times do people drive and not get enough sleep, or are sick, or have a heart attack mid trip with little or no warning... oh and how do you account for the learning process of either becoming a better driver or learning bad habits?

      You can probably envision a world with far fewer and just the most capable drivers on the road. I can envision a much better and safer system where people are not driving at all.

    49. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by doom · · Score: 1

      Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car.

      Yes, it's very important to fuss with registration, make insurance payments, and live with a vehicle taking up space and outgassing pollutants even when it's not in motion.

      The alternative of planning your life entirely around public transit, biking and walking has absolutely no downsides, except for increasing your expected lifespan by years.

    50. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by nasch · · Score: 1

      I don't believe there are bad drivers.... Lazy, arrogant drivers will never admit to making a mistake and as a result, will make the same mistake with alarming regularity.

      That sounds like bad drivers to me.

    51. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by doom · · Score: 1

      leaches like you

      So, you're not one of those drivers that insists the taxpayer bankroll your "free" highways and parking? And I certainly hope you don't expect anyone else to breath your exhaust without paying them proper compensation.

      By the way, ti would be really cool if we would stop getting involved in wars in countries with oil. Those have been kind of expensive.

      And those guys at Exxon who suppressed evidence for global warming, I wonder if they might be guilty of a crime of some sort? Ah well, at least no one calls them "leeches".

    52. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 2

      People loathe public transit (in the US) because, for the most part, we refuse to do it well. Where we do it well, people love it. The New York Subway is a great microcosm of this: it has been run well, and it has been run poorly. When it is run well, New Yorkers swear by it, despite the drawbacks inherent to putting a mass of humanity in a tube underground. When it's run poorly (like right now), people swear at it.

      We've gotten this idea that things just happen without effort, so if something takes effort to do right, we say "Screw it - that doesn't work" instead of "How can we make this work better?" That attitude is what's going to kill our civilization.

    53. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by doom · · Score: 1

      People "love" their cars, but hate everyone else's cars, and they "love" driving only because there's a long list of costs involved that they don't have to pay for, including threats to everyone else's safety... (they're also, by the way, grossly incompetent about doing cost accounting, underestimating the time it takes and the money they spend in nearly every single case).

      Interestingly, the younger folks seem to have gotten over the "love affair with the automobile", it's only geezers like yourself who are clinging to culture wars of the past.

    54. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, where you live affects which transportation mode is best for you. That's not surprising.

      When my wife and I lived in the city, sometimes we'd look in the fridge and see there was no cream for our morning coffee. Then we'd ask ourselves whether we wanted to go downstairs to the bodega to buy some, or around the corner to the French bakery to have freshly baked brioche and a pot of jam with our coffee. The first time that happened after we moved into our suburban house, I realized that I'd have to get in my car and drive ten minutes to buy cream. So I learned to drink it black.

      What I'm saying is that people are more adaptable than they think. Cities, suburbs and rural areas all have their advantages and disadvantages. The extreme concentration of cities has the offsetting advantages of convenience. In NYC "marijuana delivery boy" is a job. Wherever you live, you have to take advantage of what is offered. If you live in the country, you should hike, fish and hunt. If you live in the city you should go to museums, the theater, and weird little shops and restaurants. Suburban life is by far the least interesting life there is; we moved there mainly for the schools.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    55. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      Why is this a binary thing? In dense, urban environments a good mix of subways, buses, and cabs/vans works pretty well.

      In rural areas, subways and trains make no sense at all, buses only make sense for certain routes, and cabs can't be kept busy enough to rely upon.

      We need a mix of transportation options, just like we need a mix of freight delivery options. We have a mix, and I think it could due with a bit more of the trains and buses options - but it's not a panacea unless you want to abandon sparsely populated areas (and presumably food production?).

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    56. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, because the guys driving the public transportation NEVER mess up.

      "There have been several other derailments in the UK due to trains entering speed-restricted sections of track at excessive speed; the causes have generally been inattention by the driver due to alcohol, fatigue or other causes. Prominent cases were the Nuneaton rail crash in 1975 (temporary speed restriction in force due to trackwork, warning sign illumination failed),[21] the Morpeth accident in 1984 (express passenger sleeping car train took 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) restricted sharp curve at full speed; alcohol a factor; no fatalities due to the improved crashworthiness of the vehicles)[22]'

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailment#Train_handling_effects

    57. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      When my wife and I lived in the city, sometimes we'd look in the fridge and see there was no cream for our morning coffee. Then we'd ask ourselves whether we wanted to go downstairs to the bodega to buy some, or around the corner to the French bakery to have freshly baked brioche and a pot of jam with our coffee. The first time that happened after we moved into our suburban house, I realized that I'd have to get in my car and drive ten minutes to buy cream. So I learned to drink it black.

      I tend to cook a lot at home, I enjoy it.

      I also plan to where I rarely if ever run out of anything I need on a daily basis, with pantry, large fridge and deep chest freezer....I buy in bulk, etc.

      But like you said...different parts have different ways of living.

      I couldn't imagine shopping for food every 1-2 days...I go once a week. I study what's on sale that week at the various grocery stores, I run out on either Fri or Sat usually, and hit whatever stores I need for what's on sale (I base my menu on what's on sale usually, and about every 2 weeks or so, I work a trip into Costco on that day too.

      At this point I'm set usually for at least a whole week, sometimes maybe more.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    58. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody in their right mind proposes public transportation in the desert. Public transportation has place in cities, where it can help prevent traffic jams. Try getting from one end of LA to another end of LA and then try getting from one end of London to another end of London at rush hour.

    59. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I love driving, especially offroad in the desert. show me a viable public transport alternative.

      This comment is idiocy and you know it.

    60. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sooo true.

      I mean I live in Canada, we have harsh winters... yet ... no test at all or even course to tell you how to handle your car when it slips out of control.

      Another thing I find stupid... but thats really just in my province, I don't know about other parts of the world.
      But almost all our publicity for driving is either about alcohol or speed. But nothing to helop people drive better.... no tips, no trick, no reminder (of rules and or ways to drive better)

      Dont drink and drive and dont speed up is all you need.
      But telling people, who never had driving classes, that it's illegal to change lane in an intersection... no thats useless...
      Telling people it's illegal to parc your car closer than 5m of the street corner... nope thats useless (even tho it help other driver to see incomming traffic)
      Telling people that a school bus that stops on the other side of a street (that are devided by a "cutter" ) you still need to stop and wait for the kids to go out and cross. Nope that useless....

      All kind of things could help people be better at driving... but no... alcohol and speed are the only thing you should know are not good when driving....

    61. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      LOL

      Public transport is great when you have lots of people trying to go to or from the same places and those people are travelling light.

      It sucks pretty badly when you are trying to travel between two points in suburbia. It sucks terribly when you want to go out into the countryside or when you want/need to take more than a handful of stuff with you. I haven't got around to learning to drive yet (it's expensive) but i'm painfully aware that I will have a major problem when my dad is no longer able to drive.

      (and no, I'm not in the USA)

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    62. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Walking is the right answer in your case, then.

    63. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      > The alternative of planning your life entirely around public transit, biking and walking has absolutely no downsides

      Thats fine of you live in the middle of a busy city which is well served with public transport and parking is a pain etc, but from the rest of us where the nearest bus-stop is miles away, we need to get kids to school etc, and we LIKE driving and enjoy roadtrips..... your hipster attitude needs to get a freaking clue and not presume to speak for us.

    64. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by doom · · Score: 1

      You need to get a clue and either (1) move to a real place or (2) fix the place you're living, because it's broken.

      This is not "hipsterism", this is just reality: the suburban dream is a bust, it was always a bad idea, and now it's a bad, unpopular idea.

    65. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      And machines are peferct and godlike.

      The word you're looking for is deterministic. Computers are perfect and godlike in their deterministic nature.

      To err is human, to really fuck up requires a computer, as the old cliche goes.

      You misinterpreted the cliche. It is still very much targeted at the human operator.

      As recent tests, including this article, show is that computers are not as good as a decent human driver... not a good one, just a mediocre one.

      And you've missed the point there too. Computers get better in a collective. Their deterministic nature means faults can be fixed and remain fixed. Right now in some situations humans are better drivers, in other situations computers are better drivers. But there is one thing that is 100% certain: Computers will continue to improve and humans have reached their limit. Actually I'm inclined to think that humans will actually get worse with an ever increasing set of distractions competing for a driver's time.

    66. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Well stopping for passengers takes time - buses have schedules to meet, you know!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    67. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      The alternative of planning your life entirely around public transit, biking and walking has huge downsides in that you are prevented from going anywhere a lot of time. +30C outside? Stay at home - too hot to walk, bike or sit in a bus with no AC, hope you don't have to go to work today. -30C outside - stay inside, since it's too cold now, hope you don't have to go to work today. A rainstorm - stay inside as the bus stop has no roof, hope you don't have to go to work today. Want to take a two 4U servers (40kg each) - hire somebody to move them, as sure as hell you won't fit them on your bike or carry them even to the bus stop in one go.

    68. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      Yes, the Party does not owe you anything. If you want a personal car, pay 5000 rubles (monthly salary around 300 rubles for a good factory worker, 100 rubles for not-so-good one) and wait in line 5-10 years to get it. No, borrowing money from a bank is not allowed.

      But why do you want a personal car anyway? The bus picks you up right near your home and delivers you at your work place at the correct time. After your shift ends, the bus will pick you up and deliver you home. There are food shops near your apartment, you can walk there. All approved destinations have bus routes to them. Why would you want to go anywhere else anyway?

      So, yea, the people in my country have lived trough 50 years of this. As soon as cheap used cars from the West became available (after the fall of the USSR), everybody bought one. And even while in the USSR, anyone who was able to get a car did so, even if it meant waiting in line for 5 to 10 years if you wanted a new car (and that's after you got a permission from your workplace etc).

      Also, in the USSR, you were provided with an apartment for free, however, the size was limited - it was determined that 5m^2 is enough room for one person, so 5 people would live in a two room 25m^2 apartment. There was no option to move to a larger apartment without having some connections (even if you had the money you saved for, say, 20 years).

      Also, in the USSR, the government provided a job for everyone. When you finished university, you had a few choices provided for you - you could usually stay in your home town or you could move to another town. If you chose to move, then you would get an apartment for free. If you chose to stay, then it was assumed that you will continue living with your parents so you do not need an apartment.

    69. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never taken a bus in the USA.

    70. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      >> the taxpayer bankroll your "free" highways and parking?

      Last time I checked, motorists are already paying through the nose in tax for that, such as tag tax and tax on gas. In fact the usual case in most states is that there's enough for the government to repurpose most of what they collect ostensibly for exactly that on something else.

    71. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      > You speak as if you can test for a bad driver?

      Of course you can. Your argument that you can't test if someone has the ability to control a vehicle is ridiculous.

      Once they legally have to have the ability to control the vehicle, then you can punish them for not doing so.

      > I can envision a much better and safer system where people are not driving at all.
      Sorry but I simply don't agree with your sentiment that always trading more personal freedom for a little extra safety is automatically a good thing.

    72. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      > Humans are fallible

      So is technology.

    73. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      So is technology.

      No it's not. "fallible" means capable of being wrong. Technology is very easy to setup so that it's never wrong. It may be programmed to do something incorrectly but that is a human fault not the fault of technology. Technology is infallible due to determinism. Humans are fallible precisely because they are non-deterministic when presented with the same information.

    74. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      > Technology is very easy to setup so that it's never wrong.

      Baloney. Your assumption is that there is no such thing as a hardware fault or fundamental design error, or nothing ever lost to converting and processing an inherently analog world to an inherently digital processing environment.

      And you'r right about bad software really being the fault of the programmer, but that doesn't stop it getting out anyway, including in several cars I've already owned.

      I can pretty much guarantee that who's fault it really was is really not the concern on someones mind that is about to be killed by a faulty self-driving car.

    75. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Obviously not.

      But you obviously never took a train form Paris to Karlsruhe or Frankfurt or Stuttgart. Or opposite direction.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    76. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      I pay a lot of taxes state and county to support the roads I drive on. I pay a lot in federal gas taxes. A lot of people are net recipients of tax. By some estimates as many as 47%.

      As a payer - yes I should get say in how that tax money is allocated. If you don't pay you should have no say. I would argue that one man one vote isn't justified either. Those who pay the most should get more votes. Maybe not liberally; perhaps log scale or something but more influence. Ideally we'd create a situation where tax payers could vote to lower their tax burden by spreading it onto others at the price of diminishing their influence.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    77. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      No but I've driven from Paris to Germany, because the train didn't even go anywhere near where I needed to go.

    78. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Your assumption is that there is no such thing as a hardware fault

      I said no such thing. Quite the opposite. Hardware faults are the most trivial of things to work around.

      or fundamental design error

      Let me repeat in case you missed it the first time: "It may be programmed to do something incorrectly but that is a human fault not the fault of technology."

      or nothing ever lost to converting and processing an inherently analog world to an inherently digital processing environment

      Hardware faults are the most trivial things to work around.

      Seriously you're acting like you've never worked with a truly highly reliable system before. No parallel processing? No multiple voting? No self checking with redundant failovers? Seriously we're not talking about overheated Raspberry Pis here.

    79. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      That must have been decades ago :D
      Paris is now very well connected to all mayour cities in Germany.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    80. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      I wasn't going to a major city.

    81. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      No, actaully hardware faults are NOT trivial to work around AT ALL, especially if you're talking about a system that is safety-critical.

      Yes.Fundamental design error may ultimately be a human fault but wierdly enough, knowing that doesn't actually make the person in a car currently heading straight at a wall at 70mph any happier.

      Also, you need to get a clue about inherent loss due to converting something from the analog into the digital domain. It is NOT a hardware fault. Its an inescapable law of the universe.

      > Seriously you're acting like you've never worked with a truly highly reliable system before

      Sure I have. Does a complete avionics system for a new military aircraft count in your mind?

    82. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Obviously.

      But most likely could have gone to the closest majour city and then switch train and have a rented car at the end.

      Obviously there is no train to every 500 inhabitants town all over europe.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    83. Re:And this is why I am for public transportation. by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Far easier, quicker, more fun and more convenient to drive. That way I also have a vehicle to use once I'm there.

  2. I've quit caring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At this point, driverless cars can't come fast enough.

    1. Re:I've quit caring by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Well that cruise control confusion has been around a long time. It was a big deal when cruise control was new and some drivers actually believed that they could take their hands off the wheel and do other things. The prevalence of such stories has gone down over time as people got educated but never really went away completely.

      Some people will just insist on doing their makeup, looking at the phone, or plucking nose hairs while commuting.

    2. Re:I've quit caring by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      At this point, driverless cars can't come fast enough.

      Replace lazy ill-informed hubris-filled humans with bots designed by lazy ill-informed hubris-filled corporations. Genius!

    3. Re: I've quit caring by Type44Q · · Score: 2
      There was an urban legend back in the 80's of somebody who supposedly thought that "cruise control" meant he or she could completely step sway from the wheel of their motorhome while rolling down the highway.

      I dispute the likelihood of this story being accurate... for the simple reason that we didn't have Millenials back then.

    4. Re: I've quit caring by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      You can be a millenial at any age...

      While it's urban myth that someone was killed doing this, it's not farfetched to have someone remove their hands from the wheel and then be surprised that the car started veering to the side. Ie, if they have technology to keep the accelerator pressed (and you can feel that it's depressed on those earlier cars) then it's not a leap to think that there's some mechanism that holds the steering wheel straight.

    5. Re: I've quit caring by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      You can be a millenial at any age...

      Obviously.

      Text simply lacks the "tone" needed for 'proper comedic delivery" (in person, my humor comes across as a bit more playful and a bit less biting...). ;)

  3. in other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    most people are mumbling idiots and should be kept in camps

    1. Re: in other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you are a shinning example and should be the first one in.

    2. Re: in other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kddzyds4fGo&t=20s

  4. Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    and generally only the higher end cars have these features anyway. This is a first world problem for the top 10-20%.

    I will say this, I got caught on the freeway in the rain once. Real rain, the kind where you just get the f*** off the road and wait it out because you can only see 5 feet in front of you. I kept having numbnuts in Audis and BMWs pass me at 70 mph because the had driver assist features that kept them in the lane. I did manage to get off the freeway without getting creamed, but those shmucks don't seem to realize that somebody in a 20 year old car can't do what they do.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by commodore64_love · · Score: 3

      The Lane-keep Assist can't see through pouring rain either. Those Audi and BMW drivers are endangering themselves and others.

      Of course, this isn't really a problem with just new cars. Even in old cars, my fellow Californians drive in mountaintop snow as if it's still a sunny day! Coming from the snowy northeast, I think it's insance to see people doing 80 mpg when it's snowing, but Californians don't know any better.

      - In all of these cases, they just have no clue that they should "slow down" in dangerous conditions. Some don't even turn-on their headlights when it's raining & hard to see. Probably a lack of thinking.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    2. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People also have different definitions of what is a dangerous condition. Old car with bald tires ends up going 45 in a light drizzle while a maintained RTD bus passes them (highway).

      Lane assist.. If it is as good as the braking detection it is dangerous on a clear dry day. The thing doesn't notice the vehicle ahead is in a turning lane and you are not, Emergency Brake!!!

      Adaptive cruise... don't get me started.

      From my experience this tech was not ready for release and anyone relying on it is playing with fire.

    3. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by balsy2001 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I watch a TED talk by the head of googles driverless car project. He said in the talk that you cant partially automate a car for exactly this reason. Has to be all or nothing. Google new this years ago. See here https://www.ted.com/talks/chri...

      --
      GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    4. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      You can barely see the line markers in light rain especially as it starts getting dark, I'm surprised it would work in heavy rain at all.

      As for first-world problems, I do remember some cars where you actively had to fight the steering wheel because it would randomly jerk left or right by itself.

    5. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Having to fight the steering wheel on dodgy road surfaces is called "tramlining"
      It's a combination of wheels, tires and suspension geometry that causes it. The front wheels follow cracks in the road surface.

    6. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can I poop in a "fully automated" car?

    7. Re: Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe youâ(TM)re just not s good driver and you donâ(TM)t drive a quality car.

    8. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But hybridisation is the new black!
      It is more profitable to insert longer methods to the final product utilising current/left over stock.
      Take for instance:
      * EV vs EV hybrid.
      * SSD vs SSHD
      * PV to battery vs PV to grid

      Factories/utilities are designed with long life spans in mind. If tech changes too quickly it then becomes unprofitable to continue such trends (which has been happening now for a couple of decades at least). Their answer: prolong the transition by intigrating the whole thing bolted onto or in parts at the cost of the environment and end user.

      The factories of the future will not be able to resist change as easily as they have been getting away with today in colluding against the publics interests unless it all ends up with one super power owner of everything. Which is where capitalism, eventually, ends up at.

    9. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lane-keep and radar cruise can see through the rain better than I can. Unfortunately, it disengages entirely in very heavy rain - thanks Toyota. 2014 Prius Five. Maybe Tesla does a little better?

    10. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rain like that lasts at most a couple of minutes at most, usually only a few seconds.
      You were likely the dangerous one because I bet you decided to "correct" everyone else's driving by getting in the left lane and going 30 mph below the speed limit. I see jackasses do this all the time, and then they put on their four ways to let everyone know they are an idiot.

      If you don't like driving in the rain, get off the road. Not everyone is from the desert where it doesn't rain, and you deciding to correct other people's driving is what is causing the accidents.

      Sure people going 70+ ARE also problems, but its not your job to regulate their speed. All you are doing is making it MUCH MORE dangerous for those driving reasonable in the rain. And you saying you had a hard time getting off the freeway tells me you were going slow in the left lane and people were having to do dangerous things to pass you on the right. You SHOULD have been in the right lane if you felt unsafe driving, but you decided to be a road vigilante instead and caused your own problems.

      Let me repeat, because I know you have a learning disability (I've seen your posts before). If you don't like driving in the rain, don't get on the freeway when its raining, and don't get in the left lane going slow to regulate other people's driving. You are endangering EVERYONE else and YOU are being the asshole in that case. So much so in FL you will be ticketed for doing this because it is proven to be unsafe.

    11. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by necro81 · · Score: 1

      Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years and generally only the higher end cars have these features anyway. This is a first world problem for the top 10-20%.

      These kinds of higher-end features have a way of making it down into less expensive models over time. Hell, many of them, like airbags and ABS, have become mandated equipment. So being aware of this as a problem, even a "first world problem" now, and understanding how to mitigate it, will become more important over time.

      It is already happening. My in-laws replaced both their cars recently, and specifically looked for these features. They ended up with a Honda Accord and a Rav4, which are most definitely not "higher end cars". (They did have to buy the higher trim levels in order to get these features.) This is becoming mainstream.

    12. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The new Rav4 will have Toyota Safety Sense standard. But my old Rav4 doesn't even have ABS. These cars will last 15-20 years at least, with the features changing constantly over time. That puts trying to get everyone on the same page when it comes to understanding what these things do squarely in herding cats territory - everyone's experience will be different and most of them will be out of date. What we need are performance standards and standardized terminology. And warning signs on cars that have any automatic control stuff activated. Honestly, I would much rather see cars get automated "accelerate and keep up with the car in front of you or change lanes to the right when safe" than automated braking. I get enough people in front of me slamming on the brakes for no reason as it is...

    13. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I watch a TED talk by the head of googles driverless car project. He said in the talk that you cant partially automate a car for exactly this reason. Has to be all or nothing. Google new this years ago.

      LOL ... I don't give TED talks, but I've been saying this all along.

      See, they keep saying "Oh, it's driverless ... but in the event of an emergency the driver takes over and it's their responsibility" -- which is a bullshit dodge to say they want self-driving cars, but when the car decides it has no idea what to do it's going to pass off to the driver, who will not have time to take over.

      Either the driver is 100% driving the car, or they are a passenger. There is no room to say "you have 4 seconds to not crash because the computer has no idea what to do".

      The problem is the people making the cars don't want liability, they want to be able to say "that's all on the driver".

      Nope, sorry, if I'm driving I don't need your shit. If I'm not driving, you are 100% responsible for your shit.

      You literally can't have a mixed model, because if the 'driver' is not looking because the car is driving, it's not possible for them to take over in the event of an emergency.

      This is fairly obvious to anybody who thinks for even a minute about the implications of this ... and this has already been proven by Uber, when their backup driver failed to take action.

    14. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by JD-1027 · · Score: 1

      I have a hard time believing that partial automation isn't a net win.

      I would imagine that these "driver assist" technologies are helping reduce accidents or their severity. Or are we meant to believe these car companies are adding these features that are causing more accidents?

      Partial automation only has to slightly decrease accidents for it to be a win.

      So if any single one of these driver assist technologies saves one single accident from happening (total net accidents), he's been proven wrong.

    15. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by bigpat · · Score: 1

      I watch a TED talk by the head of googles driverless car project. He said in the talk that you cant partially automate a car for exactly this reason. Has to be all or nothing. Google new this years ago. See here https://www.ted.com/talks/chri...

      I disagree to some extent. You can and should automate the absolute safety features. Making a car try to not hit other things will reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities.

      I think from there is the leap point. If your car is very very good at preventing you from hitting things, then it can also be relied upon by a navigation system to go in a certain direction and towards a destination without hitting things. Then worst case the navigation system screws up and you have to manually intervene to direct the car where to go.

      I think however collision avoidance systems need to reliably prevent collisions that would otherwise be the drivers fault and additionally help mitigate collisions that wouldn't be the drivers fault. Practically speaking they will be held to a higher standard than humans are.

      From that sociological perspective the system should be able to do everything a human actually does to avoid a collision (not just what we think we do after the fact through false memories).

      The social problem it seems today, as reflected in the headline and discussion, is that a system can be scientifically proven to make driving 30% to 40% safer and the headline and most of the story is apparently about the downside risks rather than the opportunity to save thousands or even tens of thousands of people through wider adoption of this technology. 30% of a big number is a big number.

      Put another way and it seems that people are recognizing that the technology makes driving safer and they are slacking off a bit. Unfortunate, but even with this human factor they are reporting a 30% to 40% risk reduction which is huge.

    16. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Dare+nMc · · Score: 1

      > I have a hard time believing that partial automation isn't a net win.

      It is,if it doesn't alter the drivers behavior. For example my brother has lane assist, auto braking, adaptive cruise; now because his vehicle is safer he thinks it is ok to have one more beer, and work or party an hour or 2 later as his car has always saved him from any minor accidents. He paid the extra $10k for a lifestyle change, not because he cared for the extra safety feature.

      If the driver is drunk, texting on the phone, or watching a movie; the partial autonomy clearly will make them safer than doing the same without the feature. But it isn't going to make them safer, than if they only drove when they could pay 100% attention to driving. Especially since they are sharing the road with people without these features. So if my brother isn't paying attention and not slowing and his system has to slam on the brakes suddenly, instead of a more gradual, or a lane change; the cars behind have to react faster as well.

    17. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Dare+nMc · · Score: 1

      > is that a system can be scientifically proven to make driving 30% to 40% safer and the headline and most of the story is apparently about the downside risks rather than the opportunity

      No, I think the story is more about how people think these systems replace the need for them to be as aware. IE my car will stop for me, so I can now text and drive. Or watch that viral video; or drive while tired or drunk in the rain. Or drive faster even when my vision is obscured. IE if I trust the system to save me, and then take more risks that more than wipe out the safety benefits.

      You are correct about having the systems do more, the question is if the system cannot mitigate the risks of accidents that are not the drivers fault (IE slow down further back than necessary to avoid being rear ended if the car in front doesn't move as expected) Should it be advertised as preventing collisions when so many people won't understand this isn't a license to completely leave the driving to the semi-autonomy when convenient.

    18. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't read it that way... I read it that increased safety made people less vigilant, but still overall there was a 30% lives saved benefit despite people getting lazy with safety... which is fine if the net effect is saving people. You don't keep people safe by requiring eternal vigilance, you keep people safe when the system is fail safe.

    19. Re:Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      I think that the collision avoidance systems should require consumable parts for each activation. If you know that activation of such system prevents a crash, but still costs, say, $20, you would not start relying on that system.

      As it is right now, it can be relied on to stop the car in time, until it doesn't.

    20. Re: Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by bigpat · · Score: 1

      So you want to introduce additional cost and delay (all additional decision making causes delay) into collision avoidance?

      That's unethical and dumb.

    21. Re: Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      Nah, it's like a seatbelt or airbag. Both will reduce injury to you in an accident, but since the car will need straightening out anyway, nobody drives around bumping into things just because (well, that's why I use a seatbelt and an airbag).

      A collision avoidance system that requires consumable parts would help to prevent an accident, but people would still drive the car like it doesn't have that system. So, the system would save you when you make a mistake, but you are still encouraged to not make the mistake.

      As it currently is, someone could start relying on that system ("oh, the car stops automatically, I do not need to use the brakes") and then the system fails or the person drives a car that doesn't have it and boom.

      And there is no additional decision making - if you see the obstacle (stopped car, tree, pedestrian), you stop the car yourself or go around. If you don't (and the collision avoidance stops the car), then you didn't decide anything.

  5. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Try taking a train in the US. It's seriously fucked up.

  6. Idiot proofing for distracted drivers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To quote some guy: "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." Seems appropriate here.

    The more idiot-proofing safety features we add, the less attention people pay when driving.

    Next time you drive pay particular attention to other drivers, and despair at how little attention they are paying to the road, other cars, bikes. They will occasionally glance up from their oh-so-important device in a vague fashion, but that's about it.

    1. Re:Idiot proofing for distracted drivers by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      To quote some guy: "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." Seems appropriate here.

      Your first mistake is believing that software engineers strive to build idiot-proof programs.

      They will occasionally glance up from their oh-so-important device in a vague fashion, but that's about it.

      Your second mistake is thinking that software engineerd aren't primarily building those oh-so-important devices (and in-car entertainment systems).

      Report Status: WONTFIX; working as intended.

    2. Re:Idiot proofing for distracted drivers by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Some do of course, and the idiots in question aren't always customers but can be other people in the vicinity. Ie, customer wanted us to turn off the power LED on the devices that are put up on telephone poles, because the customer said that in their state people like to shoot at boxes with LEDs for target practice.

      And there are better idiots being generated of course. One radiation therapy machine put on two buttons to initiate the process far apart on opposite sides of the console to ensure that two operators were present, to avoid operator error on the dangerous machine. At one site when servicing a machine the technician noticed that the operator used a weight to depress one of the buttons.

    3. Re:Idiot proofing for distracted drivers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you see the irony in asking someone to pay attention to how little attention other drivers are paying to the road, the next time they are driving.

  7. Driving test in the USA is a joke too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I got my license in the UK. It was very difficult, 3-point turn, emergency stop, hill start, reverse around a corner.

    When I moved to the US, I studied the written material for over a week. The written test was about 20 multiple choice questions. The driving test was about 10 minutes, drive around the block, stop at an intersection, pull back into the DMV.

    Recently I got my motorcycle license. I took a 2 day driving course on a 250cc, which I passed plus a written test. Now I'm allowed to drive a 1000cc sports motorcycle.

    1. Re:Driving test in the USA is a joke too by Leuf · · Score: 1

      The guy who administered my driving test took points off for shoulder checking. "You won't be able to do that when you're old." And yes I used my mirrors first.

    2. Re:Driving test in the USA is a joke too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF I lost points for *not* doing that (quick head check before pulling out) in my (Australian) driving test. Did the guy doing your test not understand the concept of a blind-spot?

    3. Re:Driving test in the USA is a joke too by 4im · · Score: 1

      The guy who administered my driving test took points off for shoulder checking. "You won't be able to do that when you're old." And yes I used my mirrors first.

      Sounds like that guy should be fired from that job, he's very obviously incompetent. Also, he should be forced to drive a motorbike - he'll learn to curse all those people not looking over their shoulder (which he passed) before changing lanes, at least until he'll have been killed by one of them.

    4. Re:Driving test in the USA is a joke too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I got my license in the UK. It was very difficult, 3-point turn, emergency stop, hill start, reverse around a corner.

      When I moved to the US, I studied the written material for over a week. The written test was about 20 multiple choice questions. The driving test was about 10 minutes, drive around the block, stop at an intersection, pull back into the DMV.

      Would help if you had said when and where in the USA you got your license, when I got mine 20 years ago I did have to do 3-point turn, emergency stop, hill start, etc... and all on a day with snow on the ground as well.

    5. Re:Driving test in the USA is a joke too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Virginia, but that's the other problem. No two states are the same.

      Try driving in Texas without learning that traffic entering/exiting a highway has priority over traffic on the road. You must give way to somebody crossing your path at high speed (hopefully they indicate).

      And don't get me started on 2-way stops on a 3-way junction. You have to intuit if the other entrances have to stop or not based on signs you can only see the back of.

      Get a CDL in one state and you can't move to another state without re-taking the tests, even though it's an internationally (at least on the continent) recognised license and you've had oodles of training, etc.

      What state was your excellent testing done in then?

  8. Seems to me in their Advertising by oldgraybeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the individuals are not even bothering to check behind them, or check their side mirrors, etc.because the safety devices in the cars would warn them. The industry has been dumbing down driving. I have always seen this as a problem. You tell individuals buy our car and you won't need to worry about something they won't.
    Also if the safety devices may be perfect, How are driver less cars to work at this point in the development cycle. I believe in driver less cars but feel they are further in our future than most think.

    Note the Tesla driver putting his car on auto pilot and then watching a movie before his wreak. Can't say that was really Tesla's fault! They say your supposed to be poised with your hands hovering over the wheel and aware of the situation and be ready to take control. In that case I would just be doing the driving to help me stay aware and awake.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

    1. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by oldgraybeard · · Score: 1

      Missed a word
      "Also if the safety devices may be perfect"
      should be
      "Also if the safety devices may not be perfect"

    2. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      > Note the Tesla driver putting his car on auto pilot and then watching a movie before his wreak. Can't say that was really Tesla's fault!

      I call that natural selection. If anything we need much more of it.

    3. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiots like him are welcome to select your family as "collateral damage", then. I don't want them anywhere near mine.

    4. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      driverless cars work in limited, pre arranged pre setup pre programmed stretches of travel where nobody decides to fuck with them with traffic cones or whatever.

      Anyhow, generic self driving has been hyped through the moon, not least due to tesla using it to raise funding(oh our cars are "ready" for it!)..

      assists are relatively simple to code. braking assist is useful. but if people are so fucking stupid as to not look at a road, I think they would read the newspaper while driving even without assists.

      however the blind spot warning kinda took me by a surprise. I mean it's right there in the name that it warns of anyone in the blind spot. It's not like it's a lane change warning, so, uh, why the fuck wouldn't they check the NON BLIND spot when changing lanes?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by houghi · · Score: 1

      To me the Tesla accident is very much the fault of Tesla. They market it as "Autopilot" being very well aware that people would think that would mean that you do not need to do anything.
      And why not? They are not pilots, so no need to know what a pilot knows.

      Marketing companies are paid to know what impacts specific words have, so they MUST know what "autopilot" means to the general public.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Cars have been getting easier to drive ("dumber" as you say) for decades. Automatic choke, automatic gearbox, traction control, ABS, auto-dimming mirrors. It's generally not a problem if it is done right.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's generally not a problem if it is done right.

      They do it wrong so often, though. All of those things, in fact, including the choke which was replaced by the air bypass system, and more recently by throttle by wire. Those things fail all the time. Most ABS sucks rocks in gravel, which is especially sad because it's not that hard to make it work properly. Traction control is usually garbage, it can make you lag hard when trying to pull into traffic across a little bit of dirt in the gutter, creating a dangerous situation in traffic. And auto-dimming mirrors often don't behave properly around dusk.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the system is only doing the job part of the time and relying on the driver to do it the rest of the time, it's not done right. Take automatic headlights. People think "I'll just put my headlights on auto and never have to deal with them!" Then they drive in blinding rain with just enough light to keep the headlights from engaging and they're not only a serious hazard but also breaking the law in several states. On top of that, some cars don't have automatic anything, some have automatic headlights but don't turn them on when the wipers are running, and some have automatic headlights that do (or can be configured to) turn on when the wpiers are running. Get used to the kind that does everything and driving one that doesn't becomes a lot more different, without anything obvious indicating the difference (like a manual gearshift). Anything automatic should clearly annunciate when it is enabled (as passenger airbags do) and should have an obvious way to turn it off (traction control, I'm looking at you). Once the functionality has been standardized and anything without the standardized version has antique plates, then you're out of the woods and don't have to worry about making people dumber. But until then, there's a serious risk associated with automating tasks that a driver would ordinarily be expected to do.

    9. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the systems do their collision avoidance job well, then it is perfectly fine if the drivers pay less attention. That is ultimately the point. The issue is that some systems aren't good enough yet to be relied on in some circumstances. But still they are apparently seeing a 30% to 40% reduction in deaths and actual accidents... I think we are losing the forest for the trees if we are worrying about driver "attitudes" rather than results.

    10. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, you can get hung up on particular words as much as you like, but if you think getting in a car and letting it drive itself, in a highly dynamic environment where things can and do happen suddenly which may or may not require your intervention is the same as flying an aircraft in an environment where there is very little to bump into is the same thing, you're an idiot. Not two ways about it, you've gone full on retard.

    11. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by oldgraybeard · · Score: 1

      "seeing a 30% to 40% reduction in deaths and actual accident" sure about that?
      Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year

      Deaths per year
      2013 32,893 decrease -3.3%
      2014 32,744 decrease- 0.9%
      2015 35,485 increase 10.5%
      2016 37,461 increase 5.6%

      Just my 2 cents :)

    12. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'd say a lot of new cars are getting harder to drive. Or maybe harder to operate would be more correct. Things that beep at you, lights flashing at you, messages that pop up on various screens demanding your attention which all serve to distract you from the main task at hand. Stuff like operating touch screen interfaces and navigating though menus using buttons takes your eyes off the road. "Infotainment" systems are a disaster and a major distraction, and seem overall to be poorly designed in most every car so equipped. Even basic things that should be simple have been made complex like the gear shifter, requiring extra attention to operate it correctly and to make sure its in the right mode.

      In comparison, my 20 year old car seems to be designed around the idea that the car needs to keep distractions to a minimum. It subscribes to the "dark and quiet" philosophy - in other words in normal operation the dashboard stays dark and the car doesn't make noise - if you start getting lights or the car starts beeping at you, it's only because something is seriously wrong and needs immediate attention. The gauges are laid out simply and easy to read. The gear shifter is a simple intuitive lever that you can operate without looking or thinking about it. The controls are designed to be operated by touch with various nubs and shapes on the buttons so you can identify them by feel without looking at them. Every button and switch only does one thing so you always know what it will do when you use it. Systems like the climate control are automated - granted the automatic climate control is kind of brain-dead, but it's good enough that I can just set it and let it do its thing and not have to fiddle with it at all for weeks at a time.

      I find it's really quite different going between my car and a newer car. With the newer car it's almost information overload at times as I'm constantly having to give attention to various things inside the car demanding attention, and constantly having to process what is important and what's not important. Whereas my older car stays out of my way and lets me focus entirely on what's outside the car and driving.

    13. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Knew a guy that would pull a wide trailer and didn't have extended side mirrors. Asked him how he was able to check if the lane was clear before getting over and he said. "I used the automated system. I put my blinker on and start getting over, if something is in they way I hear a beeping noise"

    14. Re:Seems to me in their Advertising by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      In my opinion, the only place for a menu system in a car would be for completely non-essential functions. Stuff like AC, temperature, fan speed, volume, radio presets, next/previous track (or ff/rw for tape) etc should have dedicated buttons, so that the driver can use them without looking at the screen.

      I saw this in one car:
      1. If it's cold outside, a message "it's cold outside" pops up every so often on the screen. Unless you dismiss it, you cannot change the station, adjust the fan speed etc. Not only the message is kind of pointless (if the car is outside, then I'll know it's cold when I get to the car, if the car is in a heated garage, then when it cools down enough to display the message, I'll be far from home and not dressed warm enough anyway.
      2. If the windshield wash fluid gets low, a light turns on. That's much better than having to check the fluid level every once in a while or finding out that you have no fluid when you need it. However, not only the light comes on, a message appears on the screen every few minutes as well. Why?

  9. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    not sure about the car company but i'm with you on everything else.

  10. Interfacing and insturction is too vague by vix86 · · Score: 1

    The problem with this stuff is that the interaction with the tech is too vague unlike say Cruise-control. The operation of cruise control is very straight forward, arm it, set your speed, and brake or cancel when you want to stop. These other systems provide little in the way for you to understand the limits of the tech and get a feel for them. The manufacturers want some of these systems to function similar to air-bags or anti-lock brakes, but people want to rely on them more actively than this.

    I believe Home assistants (Alexa, Siri, Google Home) also have a similar issue in a way. I've watched my parents that are almost in their 60s now interact with the Google Home assistant. There aren't any readily available manuals to help you understand how to work with the Home Assistant so I've often caught them trying to talk to beyond what its capable of. ex: They expect G.Home to maintain conversation context. They expect it to be able to handle some actions without using very specific commands ("Ok Google, turn the living room lights all the way up."). They expect it to work out of the box on things like Reminders. They expect it to be able to tell you what it can and can't do ("Ok Google, are you able to turn my sprinklers on?").

    1. Re:Interfacing and insturction is too vague by terrycarlino · · Score: 1

      And Google home is generally very capable of working in that way. It will tell you if it can't work your sprinklers or that it can. I have noticed that it sometimes fails to recognize a command for turning on devices if the word order is wrong. "(OK Google, turn the living room lights on" vs. "OK Google turn on the living room lights.") but other times it has no problem at all ("OK Google turn off the lights" and "OK Google urn the lights off" both seem to work.)

      In many ways Google assistant/home is suppose to be adaptive and learn along the way based on your interactions. This is fine for home control and a search engine, not so good for running a one and a half ton machine at high speed around other machines.

      The point is that autonomous cars have to be an either or proposition. Either the human is 100% in control, with minimum assistance, so they remain 100% engaged, or they are 0% involved and superfluous to the operation of the vehicle, which at that point is autonomous, and may be used to transport children and non-drivers.

      In between does not work.

  11. All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Got a new car with all this shit in it recently.

    - Adaptive cruse control sounds good in theory, but what it means in practice is that you stop paying attention to how fast you're going only to suddenly realize as people blow by you on the left that you've been stuck behind someone doing 15 below the speed limit for the last half hour. To get regular cruise control you have to hold down the cruise control on-button for about 5 seconds every time.

    - The thing that beeps at me when it thinks I'm not going to brake in time can't be turned off without also turning off the emergency stop thing. I'd rather leave that part on I suppose, but I've strongly considered turning it all off just to stop the fucking beeping.

    - The thing that beeps at me when it thinks I'm drifting out of my lane can be turned off thankfully.

    - Finally, the thing that beeps at me because I don't use my seatbelt can still be fooled by wrapping the seatbelt around the back of the seat and keeping it fastened like that forever. Thank god cars still aren't smart enough to see past that trick.

    Side note: Somehow all this garbage came standard, but I'd have needed to buy a more expensive model to get keyless entry.

    1. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by PPH · · Score: 1

      Somehow all this garbage came standard, but I'd have needed to buy a more expensive model to get keyless entry.

      Which models have none of this garbage?

      On the other hand, I will stick with my version of keyless start.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chief takeaway here is, "I'm an idiot who thinks he's too special to use a seatbelt."

      Thanks for sharing!

    3. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - Finally, the thing that beeps at me because I don't use my seatbelt can still be fooled by wrapping the seatbelt around the back of the seat and keeping it fastened like that forever. Thank god cars still aren't smart enough to see past that trick.

      ...and I think we just found "exhibit A" of driver stupidity. Putting on a seatbelt takes about 2 seconds, is habitual in most people by the time they're old enough to shower and dress themselves and could well save your life... but you'd rather wrap it around the back of the seat to avoid an irritating beep? *facepalm*

    4. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      - Finally, the thing that beeps at me because I don't use my seatbelt can still be fooled by wrapping the seatbelt around the back of the seat and keeping it fastened like that forever. Thank god cars still aren't smart enough to see past that trick.

      So you drive illegally, risking the lives of everyone on the road with you. Don't think your feedback on safety features is very valuable to anyone, then.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    5. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seatbelts are only secondary laws (i.e. it's only an add-on fine if you get pulled over for something else) in 15 states, and in New Hampshire it isn't mandatory at all except for children.

      Also - and I haven't actually verified this - I don't believe a statistically significant amount of traffic fatalities result from injuries inflicted by the flying body parts of non-seatbelt wearers.

    6. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by ledow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Whether or not it's the rule, you're a fecking idiot not to.

      For a start, airbags are about one tenth as effective without them.

      And the reason that countries have it against the law for even your passengers to not wear seatbelts is: that them being fired into you at 130+mph when you have a head-on crash kills them, you and people around you. You survive the impact because of your own belt and airbag and crumple zones and then the fucking 60kg lump behind you hits you at 130mph and shoves you into the remains of your dash and wheel and airbag. You can literally launch people through the windscreen at that speed.

      This guy sounds like EVERY point he brings up is to demonstrate exactly how he's the PRECISE category of person the article is aimed at. All kinds of warnings and he wants to turn them all off and ignore them, rather than drive such they aren't activated, and without even the basics of a seat-belt.

      I honestly, genuinely hope the guy hits a static lamp-post or something - anything that'll show him he isn't the better judge of speed and distance, and why you want to wear a seatbelt whether it's law or not, and without hurting anyone else but himself. But, no, he's the type who'll take out a family coming the other way because he drifted out of lane, spent 20 seconds shutting off the warning, then it was too late to brake because he wasn't paying attention.

      P.S. you get in my car, you put the belt on. It's not optional. I don't care if you're 8 or 80. Even though adult passengers have their own responsibility in my country (myself and any children are my responsibility as the driver). Literally, you take it off, I'm stopping the car. You refuse, you're walking. You "unclip" later in the journey, I'm stopping again.

      Not because I'm a 20mph-everywhere kind of guy - because I ain't gonna visit you in hospital, or pay my insurance excess for you to try to claim your injuries against me, or deal with the paperwork of you being dead and proving that I advised you otherwise. I also ain't going to let your kids see you do that if you're with me.

      No belt, no drive. It was the first English that my Italian relatives/friends (including kids) learned from me, because they're quite lax over there and when I was driving, even if it was "nono"'s car, they were having their belts on. There was no negotiation possible.

      P.S. the fucking beeping warnings are there for a reason.

    7. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      P.S. the fucking beeping warnings are there for a reason.

      Think about security popups. Is it productive or counterproductive for a program/OS to urgently warn the user every single time they do something that might theoretically put them at risk for a virus infection or other bad stuff?

      If your car's constantly beeping at you, the message received by the driver won't be "Boy, I should really drive more safely.", it'll be "How do I turn off all this fucking beeping?".

    8. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seatbelt laws arent about safety... theyre about revenue.

      Evidence: Motorcycles.

      If DOT were really that concerned about driver safety, motorcycles wouldve been outlawed decades ago. I can drive around drunk as hell, seatbelt flapping in the wind, changing cd's & eating cheeseburgers & talking on the phone all while driving & still wont be in 1% of the danger that motorcyclists are in ALL THE TIME.

      If driving without a seatbelt is so damn dangerous that it deserves a fine, riding a motorcycle should get you 10 years in jail.

      But no, we dont give a shit about motorcyclists because we dont give a shit about safety. Seatbelt laws are about $$$ ...and nothing else.

    9. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, this is the main thing keeping me from buying a new car.

      My car beeps when i leave the keys in & the headlights on & thats it.

      It doesnt have a tv in the dash, it just has a few knobs & switches.

      It doesnt have airbags hiding in every orifice waiting to blow my head off.

      It has gas & brakes, a clutch & a steering wheel. The rest is up to me. If i want to live i have to pay attention & drive carefully.

      And thats just fine, if i wasnt up for all that, id get someone else to drive me.

    10. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not the mechanism. The mechanism is a vehicle that undergoing collision avoidance maneuvers can put the driver under forces that pull the them out of the control position, and now the car can't be controlled. The seatbelt holds the driver in position better in that circumstance and possibly they are able to maintain some control or regain control and avoid making things worse.

      Side note: why wouldn't you wear a seatbelt?

    11. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by krray · · Score: 1

      > - Finally, the thing that beeps at me because I don't use my seatbelt can still be fooled by wrapping the seatbelt around the back of the seat and keeping it fastened like that forever. Thank god cars still aren't smart enough to see past that trick.

      Why in the hell would you even do this? Are you really that fucking stupid?? Simply put: seat belts work.

    12. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by ledow · · Score: 1

      Looks at computer desktop - sees no security popups. Not because I've turned them off but because the things I need to use them for are rare and require specialist attention.

      And, sorry, but if a little old granny or a mother in a hurry gets a constant beep in their car, they're going to ask someone about it. Because the vast majority of people's cars do not beep all day long every day.

      And when you can't turn that beeping and the flashing seatbelt light off in any other sensible way besides... putting on your seatbelt, guess what people are going to do?

      As per your virus question - yes it is. Because just one action will wipe out your PC. Strangely, I consider that a really odd analogy, because nobody I knows tolerates that shite either, and they bring their computers to me to check. And your computer isn't anywhere close to being a ton of metal moving at 70mph within inches of others, where the tiniest deviation can result in instantaneous death.

    13. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      In my country, it is mandatory for passengers to wear seatbelts. However, if a cop stops you, the passenger without a seatbelt has to pay a fine himself.

      But I know of a more weird practice. USSR made cars have seatbelts that do not retract, so a lot of people just put the seatbelts on and did not fasten them. That way it looks like you are wearing a seatbelt to the cop. I never understood this - I mean, you do 99% of the work, so just finish it.

    14. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Kudos for a descriptive and concise post.

      My concern, though, is that anything you have said needed to be said at all.

      Any driver that does not have the same policy as you described simply should not be on the road. And it scares the crap out of me that there might be drivers out there like that.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    15. Re:All I want to know is how to turn this crap off by Trogre · · Score: 1

      What the hell are you talking about?

      Go look at some pictures of car crashes where seatbelts were and weren't worn, then get back to me.

      They absolutely are about safety. There are extremely rare cases where a seatbelt has been detrimental to safety (the George Lucas crash is an oft-cited example), but these are in the vast, vast minority.

      Motorcycles are completely different, and are only a threat overwhelmingly to the rider rather than those around them. In an accident a motorcycle rider is generally thrown some distance from the crash site, and protected by their helmet.

      You may as well have said:
      Life boats on cruise ships aren't about safety... they're about revenue.
      Evidence: Jetboats.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  12. Try rewording the warnings: by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    "WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."

    Politicians and marketers learned you have to be short, blunt, dramatic, and over-simplistic to get anybody's attention these days.

    1. Re:Try rewording the warnings: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This! Post of the year: humor + reality. The orange person is merely a symptom, a mirror.

      A variation of your message:

      "WARNING: Objects in mirror may destroy objects in your pants."

    2. Re:Try rewording the warnings: by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      "WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."

      That'll just encourage women and especially MTF transgenders to use it improperly.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    3. Re:Try rewording the warnings: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So... 70% chance of having a REALLY good time then?

    4. Re:Try rewording the warnings: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Politicians and marketers learned you have to be short, blunt, dramatic, and over-simplistic to get anybody's attention these days.

      SAD!

    5. Re:Try rewording the warnings: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."

      That'll just encourage women and especially MTF transgenders to use it improperly.

      Those transgenders won't be 'transgender' for long if they keep misusing the device!!

      magic word: arisen [how funny!]

  13. Another Problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The assistive technologies increase the average response times of the drivers according to German research. The response time can be as long 6 to 8 seconds, with 90% drivers taking 12 to 15 seconds to check mirrors and become fully aware of the traffic. The out of sync brains need to re-synchronize with the speed of traffic, probably. Maybe an automatically administered UN-forbidden stimulant with some repeating electric shocks could help? Everything for safety is the word on the street, after all.

  14. There are probably lots of reasons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Disclaimer: Opinions follow

    1. Technology is magic - Joe consumer doesn't seem to understand just how far apart technologies are. "Hey Alexa order more toilet paper" is just as magical to them as self driving cars.

    2. The tech industry - to hear them tell it we've entered the AI age, machine learning, buzzword buzzword buzzword. But most of what is being called AI is really just really clever data analysis

    3. The media - the media makes my previous points worse by playing up the buzzwords and "technology is magic" ideas

    4. Personal responsibility - Joe consumer overestimates the capabilities of technology and places too much trust in them on the assumption the manufacturer is looking out for the consumers best interest. See also: Skepticism

    5. Skepticism - Joe consumer doesn't think skeptically. Most of these systems are considered to be assistive. Look at the words used "warning" "avoidance" "alert" even "assist". These words are used to shift responsibility from the manufacturer to the owner/operator. And the owner's manual... The owners manual is mostly a place for disclaimers and more warnings. See also: Personal Responsibility

    6. RTFM - this is the combination of my previous thoughts. It is your responsibility to understand the capabilities and limitations of the technology and the stakes. It is perhaps less problematic to not understand how Siri and your iPhone work than it is to understand how the assistive systems on a massive, high speed projectile guided by distracted and minimially trained humans work.

  15. Control groups? by RhettLivingston · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some of these numbers seem about like what I've observed of drivers who probably don't have these technologies. Within the past week I've had at least 4 drivers I can remember, including a bus driver and a truck driver, switch lanes while I was beside them. I doubt I drove more than about 80 miles total during that time - all in city traffic. I don't think the vehicles I remember were new enough to have blind spot monitoring or that I was really in a blind spot. Also, I drive about the same speed as the other traffic, so I was not approaching fast or anything that could have caused the issue. None of them looked.

    Also, I've seen people going down the interstate reading newspapers, reading books, shaving, etc. most of my life. They were likely using plain old-fashioned non-adaptive cruise control. I don't know that 29% feeling comfortable doing other things while using their adaptive cruise control is a significant increase over regular cruise control without seeing the control group data.

    AAA is all about changing people's behaviors. Even if these technologies show no increase in problems, they would still publish this story because they see a potential for improvement if people change. And they would always leave out the control group because they want to shock people.

    In general, if a technology requires driver education to be effective, forget it in this country. The only question that matters is whether the statistics indicate there is a reduction in accidents with the technology. If there is, use the technology. The fact that some get killed who might not have without it is irrelevant. Only the average matters when looking for societal progress.

    1. Re:Control groups? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel extremely comfortable receiving road head with regular cruise control on (it prevents the constant speed surges) Does that count as another activity?

    2. Re:Control groups? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      AAA is all about changing people's behaviors.

      They certainly changed my behavior recently. Been a customer for 20 years and got stuck on the side of the road in a hazardous location. They claimed they had dispatched someone and they would be there within an hour, when they in fact had not even found anyone who was willing to come and get me. Luckily the problem was heat-related, and I was able to make it home and cancel my AAA membership.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Control groups? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Lane departure warnings should improve drivers who don't indicate a bit. At least they will get some feedback every time they do it.

      Of course every car I've seen that has it lets you turn it off.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Control groups? by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Good point. Though, perhaps the next level of evolution is to both make some noise and automatically turn on the indicator. It wouldn't be the required distance before the lane departure, but it would be something. You'd have to make sure there is no way to just have automatic indicators without an annoying warning noise though, otherwise you'd have the unintended consequence of everyone just thinking they don't need to manage their own indicators anymore.

  16. Re:tpms and tcs by PPH · · Score: 1

    Heck these days most men are oblivious too.

    It involves moving a couple of these levers, IIRC.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  17. Stopping on the road is very dangerous by raymorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > the car should stop moving.

    FYI, that's one of the more dangerous things you can do. You're quite likely to get rear-ended or T-boned. Some people's default reaction of stomping on the brakes whenever something unexpected happens is a leading cause of accidents.

    1. Re:Stopping on the road is very dangerous by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      This is an area where we are already seeing improvements. Vehicles are being developed and equipped with automatic braking to prevent collisions. They don't always prevent collisions (particularly over rated speeds) but they tremendously reduce the impact velocity, and thus serious injuries/deaths.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    2. Re:Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some people's default reaction of stomping on the brakes whenever something unexpected happens is a leading cause of accidents.

      Victim-blaming much?

      There is exactly one person who is at fault when a rear-ending happens and that is the person who didn't keep enough distance to react when the car in front stomped on the brakes.
      There are plenty of situation where coming to a full stop as quickly as possible is the only viable and safe option.
      The situations where avoiding the obstacle by other means is safe are fewer since it often involves switching over to an oncoming lane or going into an area designated for pedestrians.

      The way roads and traffic rules are designed is such that braking or coming to a full stop is the recommended action and the only thing that is always supposed to be safe.
      Unfortunately there are bad drivers that doesn't keep enough distance to react so there is a risk of them running into you.
      They are a much larger problem than speeders, but guess who law enforcement goes after.

    3. Re: Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah the cause is the idiot behind that not leaves enough distance to be able to stop when that happens. Leaving the distance also let's traffic flow better and decrease the congestion problems so there is really no excuse to not keep the distance other than the obvious that you are an idiot

    4. Re:Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My 2018 Honda Accord has a pretty nice adaptive cruise. The only real safety issue I've seen with it is its tendency to continue aggressively slowing the vehicle when a car in front is turning off the road even after the car has finished leaving the lane. It will sometimes do the same thing if there is a car in an adjacent lane whose shadow is cast into my lane.

      In both situations I've found I have to apply minimal gas pedal to briefly disengage the system as otherwise the car hard breaks.

    5. Re: Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah the cause is the idiot behind that not leaves enough distance to be able to stop when that happens. Leaving the distance also let's traffic flow better and decrease the congestion problems so there is really no excuse to not keep the distance other than the obvious that you are an idiot

      The main reason to decrease the distance between me and the car in front of me is so that some idiot like *YOU* doesn't try to cut in, creating a far more dangerous situation.

    6. Re:Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While the other vehicles should make sure not to hit a stopped car that is sitting stopped in the middle of the highway, it doesn't change the fact that in no circumstance should a car ever stop there. It is way too dangerous and will lead to more accidents, likely deadly ones. Anyone doing that should be castigated for terrible driving practices unless their vehicle is literally unable to get off of the road at all.

    7. Re:Stopping on the road is very dangerous by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      If the only place to get off the road to is the ditch, then sure as hell I can stop on the road. Unless you say that I shoudl try to run over a moose.

  18. Side mirrors are for eliminating blind spots by jwbales · · Score: 0

    Too many drivers adjust the side mirrors to give essentially the same view as the rearview mirror. Doing so creates blind spots.

    Side mirrors should be adjusted to give a good view of cars approaching in the side lanes or driving in the side lane outside one's peripheral vision.

  19. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I took my driving test over 20 years ago, despite being second in the queue it took nearly an hour to actually get to the test.

    The girl ahead of me got back from the about 10 min driving test, was in the parking lot, and as the instructor was getting out she floored the wrong pedal and ran over the instructors foot.

    It wasnâ(TM)t too serious of an injury fortunately for him, but the DMV had to call out an ambulance to make sure by policy. They also had to call in another instructor, thus the huge delay.

    The most terrifying part was after my return from the test, my mother who was waiting inside overheard that the girl ahead of me actually passed and got her license!

    I remember being so scared of failing the damn thing was the main reason for scheduling so early in the day. I actually figured it would be the best chance for the instructors to not be as pissed off dealing with a bunch of kids all day.

    I kinda wish back then I knew how low the bar really was just to save myself the stress.

    Of course in hindsight I actually wish the bar was much much higher than âoedid the person you run over die? No? Hereâ(TM)s your license!â

  20. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by almostinsane · · Score: 0

    I'm in.

  21. Re: And this is why I am for public transportatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Soooo..... we had truly world class public transit until 2 years ago when Trump got elected and immediately set out to destroy our fabulous public transit system?

    And this kind of stupid shit gets up voted?

  22. Re: And this is why I am for public transportatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lol, in California you can drive if legally blind.

    My dmv story: I was taken my written and saw an ancient (not merely old) lady who could barely hold the pencil get walked through the written by a dmv staffer. And for bonus points, she did not speak English and could barely see, although technically probably was not legally blind yet.

    Hint: she passed the written with a 100% score despite being mostly non responsive to the kindly dmv person filling out the test for her.

  23. Re: All I want to know is how to turn this crap of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lmao! You paid a ton of extra cash to get the higher end car you did not want full of crap you hate to get a single feature you could have added after market for a few hundred bucks?? Lolololololololol

    Do us all a favor and continue to not use your seat belt. The Darwin awards are calling you!

  24. Re: All I want to know is how to turn this crap of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd have needed to buy

    >what is reading comprehension

  25. He did though. Trump is nothing but a traitor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He did though. Trump is nothing but a traitor.

  26. Re: And this is why I am for public transportati by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And, given that story, since California regularly gets ranked as having the toughest or near-toughest drivers license standards in the USA, you can understand why the rest of the country has such dangerous roads!

  27. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thatâ(TM)s why I favor handing out marijuana and similar recreational relaxing drugs on public transportation... people love that!

  28. I agree, it's not black and white by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Relying entirely on one car is never as good as owning 2 or 10. Car owners may sometimes choose to use one car in certain circumstances.

    I was responding to the never part, which is clearly wrong. Showing examples where a car is better - is it too much of a stretch to call that a strawman?

    1. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're going to pick on the wording, notice that it's 'never as good as also owning a car.' In the US, the public transit systems range from 'okay if you do not need to be anywhere in a reasonable amount of time ever' to utter sadistic jokes to simply being a myth. (My wife grew up in a town where it was the last: It did exist, but there are near-extinct species that are seen more often. I've been through a town going from utter sadistic joke to sometimes usable--but most residential areas just plain have no access.)

    2. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      You do realise changing the wording changes the meaning. It's almost as if the words have meaning.

      I don't doubt different places have different public transport. Choose to buy a car, of a few. Or chose to live somewhere with better public transport and/or closer to your work/transport etc.

    3. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Totally agreed. I love walking into my garage and having to decide whether to take my supercharged V8 SUV or my supercharged V8 convertible sports car to work today, then driving in air-conditioned luxury past all the hipster millenials that choose to cycle or stand at the bus-stop in the Arizona heat.

    4. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Just wait until autonomous driving. You can take one, have the other drive itself, and then choose again for the trip home.

    5. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      How about this:

      If I decide to go to a certain place, I can go to my car NOW (no need to adhere to any schedule), which is a few meters from my house. While in the car, I have AC, heating (if I need either) and the music of my choice at the volume of my choice without having to use headphones. I also can carry more items in the car than I could carry to/from a bus. I can usually drive very close to my destination (especially if the destination is another house or a shopping mall, meaning there's parking very close to it). I can even keep some items in my car all the time in case I need them - no need to carry them to/from my house each time. I can also sit in the car - no need to give up my seat for an old lady etc. And in my car I am either alone or with people I know.

      To use public transport, I first have to go to the bus stop etc - the bus does not stop near my house. Then I have to wait for the bus. I can only carry as many items as I can physically carry to the bus in one go - the bus is not going to wait for me to bring 5 2U servers from the office (even if I was trusting enough to leave 4 servers unattended in the bus while I go and bring the fifth one. The bus may not go directly to my destination - I may have to get out at some intermediate bus stop and wait for another bus. Even if it goes directly to the destination, it may take more time than driving (if there is no traffic jams or the area does not have dedicated bus lanes). While in the bus (and waiting for the bus), it may be too hot or too cold. After the bus arrives at the bus stop that is nearest to my destination, it may still be far from the destination.

      The only advantages of public transit IMO is that in some limited cases (peak traffic) it may be slightly faster than driving and it may also be cheaper than paying for parking or maintaining/fueling my car.

    6. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      While riding the subway you can use a dictionary and look up the word 'never'.

    7. Re:I agree, it's not black and white by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would give you time to get back to your sucking your boyfriend's knob. Git.

  29. technology is not your problem by Torvac · · Score: 1

    lack of rules, proper education and loads of stupid people, and this is not only car safety problem. why can i drive 230+ km/h (~140 in retard units) with my old shitty golf5 on the autobahn? better and stricter rules and lots of mandatory driving lessons for everyone.

  30. most car driver are inconsiderate by aepervius · · Score: 1

    And that include my family and friend. Most drive very aggressively, as much above the limit they can get away with, many ignore stops and crossing lamp at night, think they are the king of the road and two wheeler should just fuck off (bicycle, bike, moped) and that right of way or stop dont exists if the other road has a bike only. Everyday there us at least 20% if the driver bypassing me at less than a foot between us. I love truck driver on the other hand. So far in decades i had only one monkey too much near my bike. So hearing that they understand as much security measure as they understand rule if road is unsurprising. Most driver should only be allowed autonomous vehicule frankly.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  31. tl;dr by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    Most drivers can't drive.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  32. NTSB's solution for airplanes applies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After an accident a few years back, NTSB issued a recommendation that airplane pilots fly manually even when they could otherwise fly in autopilot, otherwise when things get complicated and the plane does have to be piloted manually the pilots don't know enough to actually fly the plane. This is a clear case where NTSB state that there is such thing as too much automation. It's not surprising the same thing would apply to driving.

  33. People by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People are lazy and stupid, news at 11!

  34. Not a surprise by DrXym · · Score: 1
    Drivers are not technically minded and they don't know all the ways that a system could fail. Should we be surprised that they judge the system from the way it behaves when it appears to work and not by the way it could disastrously fail?

    And that's a problem that extends into self driving cars or cars with semi-autonomous functions. The car appears to do more or less the right thing for the most part and naturally the driver becomes less and less attentive. The problem is that even the smartest automated software is only edge case away from catastophe and a driver MUST be attentive to mitigate from that risk.

    The problem is that car manufacturers aren't doing enough to ensure they are. We see that every time a Tesla runs into a semi or whatever because the driver was staring at the pretty clouds or playing with their phone.

  35. Door to door hybrid situations by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert, show me a viable public transport alternative.

    That is an entirely different class of situations. Here you're not considering "driving" as a mean of transportation to get from point A to point B, but as a hobby.
    That's beyond the point of this discussion.

    BTW: horse-riding is probably an example of a type of hobby where you enjoy getting around scenery, while offloading part of the driving to some (natural, non-artificial) intelligence.

    Now back to track:

    Until a train or bus can immediately pick me up right from home on my schedule not theirs, and drop me right at the door of wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

    This has been extensively developed in some countries (e.g.: Switzerland) and has some fancy name like "hybrid transportation".
    - The logic is that a very good train system links the big cities and other cities accross the country, with a very decent density of time slots.
    - Then there are several car-sharing options (either classical stations based, or more recently free floating are starting to appear in some cities). that help you get fast from your door to the train station and from the arrival station to your destination's door. Studies show that such system decrease the reliance on owning cars (1:4 according to study done by ETHZ).
    (In addition to cars there are even other possibilities :
    - there are both clasical multi-station based bike/e-bike stations, and free-floating e-bike/e-motorscooter
    - a year-long ticket for your own bike on train is rather cheap)

    So even if you're not in a city center with a tram or a bus right in front of your street that can get you to the train station, you can still quickly and conveniently get to wherever you want.

    Also keep in mind that local train drive usually at somewhere between 150 and 180 km/h, whereas highways' official speed limit is 120 km/h.
    (Train seldom drive at the max 180-200km/h speed supported by the hardware. Also means that whenever there's a problem or delay, the trains can simply catch up the delay by driving faster. Delay are a very rare thing here around).

    So given your critera of "I want to arrive as fast as possible" :
    - such hybrid plans will get you faster : you don't need to wait hours for some bus because you live in the outskirts, you can drive yourself to/from train station at both end-legs of your journey (the nationnal train system's app even integrates these hybrid solutions when giving you routes)
    - the train will be much faster between the cities even if completely neglecting any traffic jam on the highway.

    And to go back to the article's subject:
    - this also reduces the amount of time/kms that are driven by stupid humans in the loop (As mentionned by the top poster).
    - Instead sizeable chunk of the trip (the train part) will be driven by a highly specialized human who has a lot of train and is assisted by tons of modern safety features in modern trains. (Though we still have a couple of short stretch of regional train where the driving is still done 100% manually).
    - Also, this specific part - driving mostly straight on the highway - is the part which is done at a high speed and where the stupid human car owner is the most likely to get bored and commit the mistakes mentioned in the summary (letting a simple class 1 do the driving alone)
    (As opposed to short in-city slow trips in desnely packed city traffic).

    ----

    Last few things :
    - I'm considering only long distance commuting, which is the type considered usually by proponent of the "door-to-door" car owners.
    - For in city (same city) commuting, (even i

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  36. I prefer to not be dead by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > Victim-blaming much?

    I prefer to not be dead. I don't want it to be the other guy's fault that I'm in a crash, I want to not be in a crash. Your inability to think on terms of the consequences of your actions, instead framing everything as you decalring what other people should do tells me something interesting about you. More on that in a moment.

    > There are plenty of situation where coming to a full stop as quickly as possible is the only viable and safe option.
    The situations where avoiding the obstacle by other means is safe are fewer since it often involves switching over to an oncoming lane or going into an area designated for pedestrians.

    In a word, shoulder. The shoulder is where you can pull over to the side and you will neither be in the oncoming lane nor in "an area designated for pedestrians". You will be next to the car that was in front of you, rather than intertwined with it.

    In more words, those who study these things, such as the school at A&M, and probably every tactical driving instructor in the world, disagree with you. The numbers are - going around the problem is safer twice as often as slamming on your brakes. If this seems counter-intuitive and you want to see it for yourself rather than read a study, watch a NASCAR race once. You'll notice the million dollar, best drivers in the world NEVER slam on their brakes when a crash is happening in front of them. They always steer.

    Not sure how to go around the problem because it's a high speed crash in front of you and you don't know which ways the cars will end up going? Again NASCAR has the solution for you. Two cars crashing at high speed can move in unpredictable directions, but they WILL move. The one place they WON'T be, the guaranteed clear path, is where the cars are right now. Guaranteed they won't still be there two seconds from now. Aim for where the car is - it'll move, if it's going 60 MPH right now. This why you'll see NASCAR drivers steer "the* a crash rather than trying to go *around* a crash that's immediately in front of them. Of course if they are in the extreme left lane and the crash is on the extreme right they won't jerk the wheel to aim for the impact point.

    So what we know about you:
    Even when in reply to me pointing it out, you're unable to think about the consequences of your actions, blaming others while insisting on continuing to cause yourself problems.

    You point out what *other* people should do, rather than have any concept of your own actions having results.

    What you tell other people to do is wrong - it's an objectively worse idea.

    Your suggestion is simple so you don't have to think, about how to do it or what the actual results are.

    I bet I can tell which party you vote for. :)

    1. Re:I prefer to not be dead by jbengt · · Score: 1

      I don't want it to be the other guy's fault that I'm in a crash, I want to not be in a crash.

      Agreed.
      However, regarding shoulders, in the city there are no shoulders, there are parked cars. (and double-parked cars) In the area I live, many of the highway shoulders are unpaved and too narrow for a bicycle to use safely - pulling off to the shoulder would likely end up with your car in a ditch. And in many places on the expressway that have decent sized shoulders, shoulders have workers, disabled vehicles, stupid people driving around traffic, and, around here, signs that say "shoulder driving allowed for buses".
      Also, driving to where the cars are "now" is a patently stupid idea, especially if it's a rear-end crash. Really, if you can't tell where the cars are going, you can't tell where to steer; they might stay in front of you. You're much better off stopping, and if you can't, you're too close.

    2. Re:I prefer to not be dead by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      I only want to point out that stopping when you're six inches off someones bumper and following at the appropriate distance for speed are not comparable. Swerving around an obstacle can be the best course of action, but coming to a stop is easier and safer for most people to avoid over steering and other accidents. BUT you need to STOP trying to defend someone that rear ends another car. The rear ender should have either been driving with enough distance to stop, or should have swerved around the stopped(stopping) vehicle.

    3. Re:I prefer to not be dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BUT you need to STOP trying to defend someone that rear ends another car. The rear ender should have either been driving with enough distance to stop, or should have swerved around the stopped(stopping) vehicle.

      Bingo. You run into someone's ass, you are at fault, end of fucking story. I've gotten drivers licenses in multiple states, and all of them have had detailed instructions on proper distance from a vehicle in front of you based on speed of travel. Super simple fucking stuff.

      As for the rest, arguing over, "But you should do this! You should do that! You should do this!" is rather stupid, and serves only to illustrate why lolAI drivers aren't going to be viable for common use for quite some time. Turns out, an activity that requires constant, complex human attention is pretty hard to automate.

    4. Re:I prefer to not be dead by edtice1559 · · Score: 1

      If this seems counter-intuitive and you want to see it for yourself rather than read a study, watch a NASCAR race once. You'll notice the million dollar, best drivers in the world NEVER slam on their brakes when a crash is happening in front of them. They always steer.

      The goal of NASCAR driving is not to drive the safest way possible. If it was there would be a 15mph limit on the race track. Also on a NASCAR track, you can go around an obstacle without having to worry that there will be an oncoming car. Also, you are 100% familiar with the track, so you can calculate much quicker. In a road driving situation, if there is a sudden stop ahead, slamming on the brakes carries a known risk. You've pointed it out well. Trying to go around on a shoulder? What if there is a bicycle you haven't seen yet? In the oncoming lane? What if a vehicle is just entering the intersection ahead. Hitting the brakes may or may not sacrifice expected value but, even if it does (as you assert), it reduces variance. Even an introduction to game theory would tell you that you don't risk dying or killing a pedestrian in order to avoid an accident that is sure to result in property damage and painful but non life-threatening injuries. Notice that we have auto-braking but not auto-swerving technology.

    5. Re:I prefer to not be dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TLDR: Your average driver does not drive in the same direction on the same x miles of road over and over again with lots of safety precautions nor do they have sirens or flashy lights to alert other drivers so yes the safest reaction for any driver is to slam on your brakes and stay in your lane. Go ask your insurance company about how they determine who is at fault, they will concur on my conclusion.

      Full comment:
      So much misinformation! and irony as well!

      "I prefer to not be dead. I don't want it to be the other guy's fault that I'm in a crash, I want to not be in a crash. Your inability to think on terms of the consequences of your actions, instead framing everything as you decalring what other people should do tells me something interesting about you."

      But you have done the same thing, you claim that trying to avoid the crash is better than coming to a complete stop in your lane.... yet you fail to acknowledge that by leaving your lane you are going to enter and area that is more than likely unsighted to you and thus can have negative impacts on the people who could be in that area that you are about to travel through at a high rate of speed?

      "In a word, shoulder."

      not every road has a shoulder thus it is not an option everywhere and without traveling on the sidewalk, hitting parked cars or going into oncoming traffic the safest option is coming to a complete stop in your lane. The other notable fact is that very rarely is any shoulder a hard (paved) shoulder, most are gravel shoulders and leaving the paved road for a gravel shoulder is a very easy way for you to loose control and quite possibly roil over in a ditch or into the tree-line.

      "In more words, those who study these things, such as the school at A&M, and probably every tactical driving instructor in the world, disagree with you. The numbers are - going around the problem is safer twice as often as slamming on your brakes. If this seems counter-intuitive and you want to see it for yourself rather than read a study, watch a NASCAR race once."

      two things: Your nascar comparison is the shittiest comparison in the world, it is foolish at best to compare how drivers act in a closed course scenario where all traffic is going in one direction, with large barriers on the side of the road, and guaranteed no pedestrians on said road to how people should drive on public roads. The circumstances are 100% different and thus you cannot logically argue that people should drive the same in both cases

      second, regarding tactical driving instructors: those are people who train LEO's and other emergency care professionals, they have incredibly different training requirements and general driving scenarios than your average driver. for one, emergency personnel normally have flashing lights and sirens thus reducing their chances for a crash

      So the irony is that you are harping on someone for telling people how to drive yet you are doing the exact same thing. You extrapolate how trained drivers and emergency personnel are taught to drive (which is fundamentally under different circumstances than your average driver) and then you expect every driver to drive that way. For the record, you would be right, IF every road was one way with 4 foot concrete barriers, catch fences and no way for pedestrians to be near the road.

      I know that you will never want to admit that the previous poster was right, but unfortunately they are. All you need to do to prove it is to go talk to the insurance companies, they make it simple in the sense of figuring out who is at fault, the second you turn the wheel to avoid something in your lane, any collision that you are involved in outside of your lane is your fault. That is how the laws are written to take into consideration that there are an infinitely complex number of permutations of scenarios that could happen and there is no way that any driver has the reaction time to accurately judge a scenario and act accordingly thus the single safest reaction for any driver is to slam on your brakes and stay in your lane.

  37. Re: All I want to know is how to turn this crap o by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Context, bitch. He bought the car: Got a new car with all this shit in it recently.

  38. Typo: steer THROUGH the crash by raymorris · · Score: 1

    I had a typo. For a high-speed crash in front of you, professional drivers often steer THROUGH the crash.

    If you watch professionals you may be surprised how often they steer through the middle of a crash rather than going around it. That's because they know that crashing cars may bounce off to the left and right, but they WILL move from their current positions, so aiming for where the car is now guarantees it won't still be there two seconds from now.

  39. Which is why it needs to be all or nothing by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Which is why it needs to be all or nothing. Either fully automate everything, or else keep the human actively responsible for everything.

    We humans are not good at partial attention. At least most of us aren't.

  40. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I take multiple forms of public transit daily to and from work in a major metro area and it has delays, failures and human issues all the time. Your reasoning is highly flawed.

  41. Blind spot... by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

    Blind-spot monitoring:ÂNearly 80 percent of drivers don't understand the limitationsÂ

    Funny, I was guessing that nearly 80% of drivers don't understand there is a blind spot at all.

    1. Re:Blind spot... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I guess they just don't see it.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    2. Re:Blind spot... by ai4px · · Score: 1

      And I'll go on a limb and say that 80% of drivers don't understand the blind spots around other vehicles and linger in them.

    3. Re:Blind spot... by hey! · · Score: 1

      It always amazes me the degree to which drivers trust their lives to other drivers.

      There's no avoiding doing that *some* times, but there is such a thing as pushing your luck too far.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  42. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People are bad at Physics. Is this news?

  43. Automation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More automation doesnt lead to more safety... it just leads to more dependence on automation.

    The FAA can tell you all about it.

  44. I'm guessing most drivers by nasor · · Score: 1

    Most drivers probably don't understand how anything in their cars work.

  45. Depressing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Civilization will be crippled if we teach people they need to rely on things, rather than improve themselves

    Make people smarter, then work on making technology smarter

  46. Lack of driver dependence or experience by swb · · Score: 1

    I bought a Volvo with blindspot warnings about 10 years ago. I've never found it helpful mostly because I spent 25 or so years driving cars without blindspot avoidance. I've basically ingrained blindspot checking into my driving behavior and retraining myself to rely on the technology and drop manual checks seems hard, and by itself it doesn't add much to manual blindspot checking.

    It could also be a function of the implementation. Mine uses orange lights in the car near the region where you look at side mirrors. Despite being more or less in your field of vision, they're not easy to "see". My wife's 2015 Acura uses an audible system with dash display (combined with the turn signal being turned on? I don't drive it enough) but the audible alert seems more beneficial than needing visual indicators. I've also driven rentals with the alerts embedded in the side mirrors which makes it hard to avoid.

    Overall though, if you've learned to drive safely and deal with blind spots manually a new technology really doesn't appear to add much value and can be a distraction.

    Collision avoidance has been great, though, I'm pretty sure it's saved me once or twice. Distance sensing cruise control I think would benefit all drivers and might even be useful as an automatic function because it maintains a constant speed and constant distance.

    1. Re:Lack of driver dependence or experience by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      I doubt that I'd find blind spot warnings to be of much extra help either. The few situations that might help are probably amongst those that it can't handle such as when people gun it out of a line of traffic behind you into a gap beside you right as you're trying to switch into the same faster lane or when someone comes into the blindspot from a direction that is out of the field of view of the mirror.

      But, I'm human, and there are times that I have to drive when I am very upset or angry and adrenaline has a way of trashing the normal careful habits because it trashes thought. Having an audible tone during rare times of distraction could save me from a mistake, though car manufacturers have to cater to all and should have both audible and visual on anything critical.

      Also, when thinking of these things as good drivers, I think we must keep in mind the small percentage of people who are actually good drivers most of the time. We cannot always defend ourselves from the mistakes of others. So we should also think of what we'd like the others to have in their vehicles.

  47. 25% don't check before changing lanes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My experience tells me that number does not change between drivers that have blind spot detection & those that don't.

  48. Suing someone isn't defending them by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > BUT you need to STOP trying to defend someone that rear ends another car.

    Where exactly did you see me defending anyone who read-ended another car?

    In fact, I sued the guy who t-boned me. The thing about suing them is that it helps to be alive while suing. It's hard for me to blame the other guy when I'm dead. So I'd rather not be killed by their fault.

  49. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I'm afraid of getting attacked and don't understand how incredibly low the likelihood of that actually happening is.

    I make most of my decisions based on fear, but it's not my fault, it's that society is scary and nobody has any manners anymore"

    Puhlease. Public transport may have the occasional crazy person or late night mugging, but it's in the whole very safe and reasonable. The guy three rows ahead of you babbling to himself isn't going to hurt anyone.

  50. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Type44Q · · Score: 1
    Whether the transportation is public or private is entirely orthogonal to whether or not there's an [attentive] human in the loop.

    (Were you trying to be funny, Pope, or did you just get ahold of some bad weed??)

  51. Time to Kill These "features" by DatbeDank · · Score: 1

    I have a relative who works as an actuary for an insurance company. She constantly goes on how these new "safety" features are unreliable and are the reason why premiums are going up around the country.

    They're the first safety add-ons that truly make driving more dangerous for the 1 out of 10 times it doesn't work. The same argument does not apply to power steering, antilock brakes, and stability control. Why? Because these systems provide a consistent experience each time they engage.

    The newer ones? Not so much, in fact they engage in a more fuzzy manner. If the manufacturer has to say "check your blind spots because sometimes the sensor won't see something" then it's a half baked safety feature that will kill someone and make all of our insurance rates go up.

  52. Ban Automatic Everything by Zorro · · Score: 1

    Go back to 100% manual everything and force drivers to DRIVE THE DAMN CAR!

    Going up hill downshift.

    Stop sign, stop and back to First Gear and smoothly release the clutch.

    So easy even you grandmother could do it.

  53. [OFFTOPIC] AAA by doom · · Score: 2

    The AAA lobbies for road building (as opposed to public transit, bike/pedestrian facilities, etc), claiming that it's large membership is behind them. If you don't want to support their lobbying efforts and are just looking for road service, there are other organizations out there...

  54. BLIS is a worthless feature. by Mr3vil · · Score: 1

    Blind spot monitoring is so useless if you know how to adjust your mirrors. Every rental car I've driven that's had a BLIS system didn't tell me anything the mirrors couldn't tell me faster. Then again, I adjust my mirrors on anything I drive to where I don't see the side of the vehicle in them, I had to learn that trick on my own. They didn't teach that in driver's education.

    1. Re:BLIS is a worthless feature. by ledow · · Score: 1

      If you can't see the side of the vehicle, that means that you don't notice when it moves out of alignment creating anything more than the theoretically infinitely-fine angle that you left between the car being visible and not in the mirror.

      Thus the blind-spot can build over time and you'll never notice unless you literally adjust every time to see the vehicle and check you can see everything.

      You should be able to see your door handle. And not much more. That lets you see if the rear doors are open, that you can view anything behind you coming into the spot that would be the blind spot, and see if your mirrors are going out of alignment (which can happen within a journey, don't forget, you only need a strong wind or a loose bolt).

      Everything else you "can't see" is outside an arc traced from the rear of the vehicle to somewhere alongside it - to get there someone needs to have passed through your visibility.

  55. Dude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most people don't understand anything as complicated as a bus schedule, but we let them pilot 6,000 lbs. of steel hurtling down the road at 80 mph - almost 2 Megajoule's worth of kinetic energy. Let that sink in.

  56. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try taking a train in the US. It's seriously fucked up.

    As opposed to which magical place on the planet where people don't complain about the trains running on time?

  57. Name that effect by doom · · Score: 1

    It's a pretty well-known effect-- or at least, it's a commonly strongly suspected effect-- that safety equipment can perversely encourage accidents by providing a false sense of security and encouraging risky behavior. Clearly we need a name for this effect in order to encourage discussion of this possibility (and, of course, intimidate people who haven't learned the name yet). As far as I can tell, it hasn't been named yet, so if anyone has a good, catchy idea, the glory may be yours.

    A friend of mine argues that if you want to encourage safe driving, we should replace the air bags with an iron spike pointed at the drivers chest. Of course, we're both cyclists, and there could be a bit of animosity lurking behind that idea.

    1. Re:Name that effect by ai4px · · Score: 1

      Good point. It has to do with safety as well. In industry we keep getting more and more safety rules and safety devices that provide a false sense of security. The accident rate is maintained at nearly the same level in the 1930s when people working high steel didn't wear harnesses. They knew if they fell they were dead, so they were careful. Today we have safety gates that can't possibly stop a PIT vehicle but people believe they will and are complacent. Addition of safety gear doesn't always make you safe! We've had incidents where I guy was wearing a harness and lanyard because the safety rule said you had to have a harness on over 4ft up, but there was no place to tie off. His lanyard draped on a shaft, tangled and beat him to death. More recently the company I work for required us to wear reflective vests 100% of the time. A vibration tech was in the power house setting up his equipment and when he stood up, the pooched arm hole in the vest caught a 1/4 turn condensate (steam) valve and scalded his ribcage. If he'd had on a bright yellow tee shirt it wouldn't have happened but because the vest has reflective stripes it is "safer".

      Never the less.... implementing safety systems doesn't always make us safer. In many cases it makes us complacent and less safe. Law of unintended consequences.

  58. Cruise control by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Is the ONLY automated system I use. Heck, I won't even own automatic transmission, which is becoming harder to find. All these "creature comforts" are taking away your attention on the road. Add distracted driving from eating, messing with a radio/phone and it's a wonder we don't have as many accidents as we do. I'm still one of those ones that keeps BOTH hands on the wheel, when not shifting gears. Driving these days, takes MORE attention, not less, and, relying on "technology" can get you in trouble, ESPECIALLY if you do not know its limitations.

    1. Re:Cruise control by hey! · · Score: 1

      Blind spot car detection is a great safety net, particularly in situations where you're dealing with traffic with poor lane discipline. If you're moving from the center to the right lane and someone in the right lane is going *much* faster than you, he can move into your blind spot in the fraction of a second it takes to flick your attention between either mirror and the forward view.

      But it's not going to help you when you pass a car on the right and the car behind you tries to pass him on the left, for example.

      So overall I think blind spot detection is a big plus, as long as you don't rely on it.

      I'm also a stickler on two-hand steering, except for backing up. But I think there's no practical reason these days to prefer manual over automatic, even though I still drive a stick. I think the world should standardize on automatics, or at the very least require electronic clutches. This would allow people to brake with their left foot. Studies have shown that moving the right foot from the gas to brake accounts for over half of a driver's braking reaction time.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  59. Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make cars either be 100% Gen-5 Automated, or make them be 100% user-operated. Nothing in between, so no room for confusion.

    Let's also bring back the manual transmission and make it mandatory in every vehicle, just so I can laugh at idiots blowing their flywheel as they try and fail to text, drive and shift all at the same time. Electrics, unfortunately, lack a transmission, so maybe those could use some sort of software-based transmission simulator that just bricks your car if you're not paying attention.

    1. Re:Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or we could just stop letting women drive.

  60. Re: And this is why I am for public transportatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL only an American or African would ask such a stupid question. I have personally taken trains in dozens of countries all better than the US. The only fair excuse in the US is that it's such a large geographic area that mass transit wasn't worth the investment for decades.

  61. How many know how to use Backup cameras? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have had to remind two former students that backup cameras do not show you if a car is coming from the side. Even though it says just that in the display monitor.

    I am not surprised as more complicated technology is added that it makes bad drivers worse.

  62. Re: And this is why I am for public transportation by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

    If you enjoy driving then you are less likely to get bored of it or misunderstand the saftey features.

    If the commuters that would rather be texting or whatever had an alternative that was inexpensive and fast, they would take it.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  63. R A Y M O R R I S = L Y I N G N A Z I F A G G O T by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12520486&cid=57184660

  64. Re:[OFFTOPIC] AAA by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    We got a bus and are converting it to an RV so we are going to probably go with FMCA which covers both the RV and normal cars. AAA offers RV roadside, but it's garbage. People have horror stories with both Good Sam and FMCA, it's true, but everyone who has tried to use it with an RV has horror stories with AAA.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  65. R A Y M O R R I S = L Y I N G N A Z I F A G G O T by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12520486&cid=57184660 - HANG THIS LYING NAZI FAGGOT RAY MORRIS

  66. But Even If You Do Understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not sure that "understanding the limitations of a safety system" is really the issue here.

    If you begin using some safety or self-driving feature and it seems to work, you are going to be impressed and start to relax. The system has your back. Your mind wanders. You file your nails, or read a book, or listen to some tunes. Eventually you are only "checking in" on the car every few minutes.

    You've lost your situational awareness and are no longer performing the expected role of a monitor, ready to step in. If a situation catches your attention with 30-60 seconds advance notice, you can take control safely. Much less than that and you are going to be caught totally off guard.

    My issue is that these systems can enable the driver to disengage and stop performing the active task of 'driving'.

  67. Re:[OFFTOPIC] AAA by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    The AAA lobbies for road building (as opposed to public transit, bike/pedestrian facilities, etc), claiming that it's large membership is behind them. If you don't want to support their lobbying efforts and are just looking for road service, there are other organizations out there...

    And why wouldn't they? It's the Automobile Association of America. Their purpose is to promote the use of the car in everyday life. So naturally that involves more roads and less public transit.

  68. 80 mpg? by Petersko · · Score: 1

    "I think it's insance to see people doing 80 mpg when it's snowing..."

    Damn. Where can I buy one of those?

  69. Re:[OFFTOPIC] AAA by doom · · Score: 1

    Because there are people signing up for road service who don't know they're also buying into a political agenda, and they should probably ask 'em before they claim they're representing them.

    And like I was saying: if you just want road service and aren't interested in someone lobbying in your name, then you should look around for alternatives, they're definitely out there.

    You see, I know this may be hard to grasp, but many car drivers are driving cars out of present necessity, rather than out of some sort of ideological commitment...

  70. Re: And this is why I am for public transportatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Soooo..... we had truly world class public transit until 2 years ago when Trump got elected and immediately set out to destroy our fabulous public transit system?

    And this kind of stupid shit gets up voted?

    You do? You did?

    Of course you fail to name WHERE thus you should be branded with Trump's own "fake news" label

  71. I WONDER WHY? by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    One of the dozens of commercials that the auto industry have put out.
    They all share some similar features:
    1) A woman is driving
    2) She is putting on makeup, talking with a friend, or doing something else that makes her not even glance at the road occasionally.
    3) The car then suddenly stops, and the woman realised that it just saved her life or someone else's.
    4) The narrator then start talking about how if you drive this car you will never get in an accident, and can spend your time "driving" doing more important things than watching the road.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.