Pre-collision technology

A few recent rear end collisions on interstates, including one where a 29 year girl who was unhurt but burned alive in her car caused me to do a little research. While you can purchase an automobile with such technology in your car, that protects you from crashing into someone else. Some of these horrific accidents are caused by someone crashing into you.

Can you see this tech being mandatory in the next decade?

No, not mandatory. Too few high speed rear enders anyway. Most of them are drunks or over-tired truckers. Little warning time and often no options to avoid impact, only brace or release brakes or something.

It would be a cold day in hell before I allowed even more computer interference to be mandated upon me.

I cannot stand any of that crap. As a boy from the Buffalo area and a participant / fan of motorsport, I've trained extensively in car control and spin recovery. All that computer malarkey severely impacts my own control. It's the worst feeling in the world having something happen and have your car suddenly start doing stuff you don't understand and aren't expecting.

ESC, TC, ABS, to hell with it all. My dashboard is awash in orange and red from all the warning lights. I pulled the fuses on them all, nothing but complete manual control =D

Heck, that is what Trailways did eons ago with power steering. Drivers loved power steering but on icy roads they had no feedback and where in a skid before they knew it, so the company tore out all the power steering and the drivers had sore arms but felt better about it.

Quote: Fleastiff

No, not mandatory. Too few high speed rear enders anyway. Most of them are drunks or over-tired truckers. Little warning time and often no options to avoid impact, only brace or release brakes or something.

Well there may not be that many high speed rear enders, but when there is one the impact is devastating. This young girl was sitting in a traffic jam on turnpike, and somebody did a high speed rear end, sandwiched her in between two cars so the doors wouldn't open, and burned her alive in front of onlookers.

Quote: Face

It would be a cold day in hell before I allowed even more computer interference to be mandated upon me.

I can appreciate your pride. I don't think drivers like you are the intended target.
The other accident that happened the next day was a 95 year old man driving to Florida who hit a line of cars outside of Washington DC at 70 miles an hour. He killed all three people in his car. Ironically, they were driving to Florida for a funeral.

Its unfortunate.
More money is available for modifications to Interstates than to other roads.
A drunk, inattentive or asleep driver coming up fast on an obstruction is a hazard.
Often following traffic is following too fast: look at all those who are going "road speed" and plow over a break in the pavement or into some massive pile up in the fog.

No one ever seems content to go the same speed as the traffic ahead of them but do it a mile back; its always climb up on their tail and then go the same speed.

Roll Under bars on trailers help minimize brain injuries, lights and reflector tape supposedly help too, but sometimes nothing helps to slow the oncoming traffic due to alcohol or inattention induced by fatigue.

Quote: Pacomartin

I can appreciate your pride. I don't think drivers like you are the intended target.

It’s not entirely a pride thing, really and truly, those things endanger my safety.

I’m not saying they’re a waste. It really is remarkable how they’ve managed to work those things out, and have been able to do it cheap enough to put on an “every man’s” vehicle and not just Beamers and Mercs. My ex-wife had a late model Dodge Nitro with Traction Control (TC) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and I was amazed at how it worked. When trying to do just a standard drift, I couldn’t get but 5-10 degrees of yaw before it shut me down. The throttle would cut, the brakes would engage independently of each other, and time after time it set me back dead straight the way I was going. For about an hour I tried to defeat it, working up to the most intense Scandinavian Flick I could pull off to try overcome the CPU’s compensation, and every single time it shut me down. For the millions of people who fear the snow and never drive unless they have to, never getting out and practicing and preparing and thereby endangering us all, I’m all for it.

But my personal commute plus vehicle plus habits make that stuff dangerous. Just yesterday, there were three separate occasions in just my 40 minute commute to work where if I didn’t have the ability to transfer weight forward and break the rear end free to rotate my truck through the corner, I would’ve understeered right off the side of the road and ditched it hard.

It’s because I understand both how helpful and how dangerous they can be that I’d freak about any mandates. It’s already getting hard as it is. Even though many cars, including my exes Nitro, have a little button to “disable” it, the only difference I noticed was a warning light illuminating on the dash. I noticed no change in performance at all and I still couldn’t break that Nitro loose. Even in my Silverado, I had to pull fuses to completely disable my own electric nanny, but I wonder how long that’ll be a viable option. The more computerized things get, the more integrated thing will be, and I can see all the nanny stuff being tied to, say, the ignition, just to force you to keep it on for insurance purposes or some such nonsense.

I’d lose my mind. And I’d be dead by January.

…And I apologize. As always, I got off on kind of a rant =p

Directly to your point, I’ve seen such things tested on BBC Top Gear. One was a GPS guided program, which probably doesn’t have much practical use. A lap of a test track was blazed by the Stig, which was saved in memory. Clarkson hopped in the car, engaged the program, and the car ran hot lap after hot lap with no driver inputs whatsoever. Kind of cool, but I don’t think detection was a part of said program. Kind of pointless, since roads have animals and other vehicles on them.

The radar stuff, that might be more applicable. If I remember correctly, it was radar-enabled cruise control. You just ping a car, set a distance to follow, and the car automatically keeps that distance. It slows, you slow. It accelerates, you accelerate. If the car comes to a stop, you’ll roll to a stop right behind it. It was kind of neat. But I’d be concerned about foul weather driving. What if you were negotiating a turn with some sort of radar nanny, and without you expecting it, the car suddenly begins braking or accelerating? I ain’t keen on dying, but I’d be downright furious if I was killed.

I think a mandate would only happen if it could be proved without a doubt that it’s completely effective and needed, kind of like seatbelts. This I can’t see happening.

Speaking of evasive driving, this was at the top of Youtube today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQdW6yS5o4

I've had some close calls, but that's pretty much in the OMG collumn

Quote: rxwine

Speaking of evasive driving, this was at the top of Youtube today.

I've dodged deer, dogs, and dumb ass drivers. I'm not sure dodging a commercial airliner is possible =/