Are driving aids dodgy?

[Pale Rider]

There's a recent story about car drivers expecting cars with driver aids to drive themselves.

I had my first experience of this in the shape of a loan car from my local Vauxhall dealer.

Bowling down a dual carriageway at 60mph, there was an odd steering sensation as I attempted to move from lane one to lane two to overtake.

Rather as if there was a shallow kerb in the middle of the road, which there was not, but I did have to fight the wheel a little to make the lane change.

Turns out the red light I had been seeing blinking on the dash was some sort of lane keeping feature.

Left to its own devices, if the car is about to wander into the next lane, the steering self-corrects to keep it in the existing lane.

Needless to say, I attempted to answer the obvious question: what if I let go of the steering wheel?

The car stayed in lane one, effectively taking a shallow right hand bend by steering away from the nearside kerb.

Very naughty of me to try it, and after a few seconds I was beeped at and told to 'take control of the steering wheel'.

Have you any experience of the latest driver aids in cars?

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...d-autonomous-driving-aids-tesla-nissan-report

 

[Drago]

Mrs D's old Pious had a self parking feature. Never tried it, because I know how to park a car.

 

[Julia9054]

Mrs D's old Pious had a self parking feature. Never tried it, because I know how to park a car.

@Almartino 's car has this too. He can do jazz hands whilst parallel parking. I'm too suspicious to try it. It has cruise control so you can take your feet off whilst on the motorway. Not trying that either.

 

[Levo-Lon]

My kia has loads of warning aids.
I only use the overtaking function which beeps and shows warning in the door mirror on the side its warning you about, excellent on a busy motorway.
It only works when indicators are used So not fitted to BMWs or Audis obviously.

The stay in lane is a bit odd and i dont use that.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I've not tried the latest driver aid tech, but I once engaged the speed limiter to 70mph on a DCW with average speed cameras, but then forgot to turn it off. I then accelerated furiously from 60 to overtake and was met very abruptly with no power. It scared me. I'm all for safety features, but I think anything like that should not operate above 30mph. There are too many poor drivers (perhaps in my example I was one of them) who forget to turn on/off these aids and it's the surprise aspect that is the danger rather than the aid itself.

I also know someone who had perimiter sensors (?) on their car, and if he forgot to turn them off (they where on as a default when you started the car) he would drive close to a parked car and the car would do an emergency stop

 

[biggs682]

@Pale Rider the lending dealer should have pointed those kind of features out to you before driving away me thinks

Only driver aid we have is the other half who is always aiding me whilst i drive

 

[Julia9054]

There are too many poor drivers (perhaps in my example I was one of them) who forget to turn on/off these aids and it's the surprise aspect that is the danger rather than the aid itself.

I can operate the bits of a car I learned with. Extra buttons just confuse me!

 

[welsh dragon]

I have no wish to drive a car with with driving aids. I have no doubt the next car i buy will probably have some though. Is there any way the extras can he turned off? Might be a stupid question i know.

 

[welsh dragon]

There was an article on the BBC website yesterday about the differance between assisted and autonomous cars and what people might think they are capable of doing or not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44439523

 

[I like Skol]

I too prefer to drive the car myself. If I need the modern aids to make driving possible or safe then IMO I shouldn't be driving.

 

[Pale Rider]

There was an article on the BBC website yesterday about the differance between assisted and autonomous cars and what people might think they are capable of doing or not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44439523

Same tale as the Guardian one in the OP.

The lane keeper in the Vauxhall could be turned off, and I noted it was disabled when you used the indicators when changing lanes - obvious moral there.

The Vauxhall also had little red lights on the door mirror glass to indicate when something was in the 'blind spot'.

That seemed a good idea, but like @meta lon, I expect I would turn off the lane keeper if I had one.

 

[stephec]

I've has cruise control for about fifteen years now, it's great on long journeys.

Heading up to Glasgow there are times when you don't have to touch the pedals on the M74 for a quarter of an hour or so.

It also makes roadworks with average speed cameras much more pleasant as well.

 

[Pale Rider]

@Pale Rider the lending dealer should have pointed those kind of features out to you before driving away me thinks

I'm not generally in favour of nannying, but given the amount of tech on this car it was a bit ropey just to hand me the keys and say: "It's the red one over there."

 

[gavroche]

I like my driving aids, after all, that is what they are. My wipers are always on auto, I use cruise control all the time and rear parking sensors. I don't like stop/start though so I switch that off. I don't use auto lights either .

 

[Profpointy]

There's a genuinely interesting and tricky question in all this. If you have an aid you do tend to rely on it. If you have the "someone in blind spot" warning does that lead you to not look properly? And does it detect, say, cyclist or small children - or perhaps the sensor has broken one day.

My car has cruise control, but I find I drive worse if I use it in say a 50mph roadworks section as I end up going too close to the car in front. Ok on a long empty motorway I guess, but you don't get that all that often. A 50mph max feature might be ok though - but noting the poster upthreads overtake embarrassment point

Some of this dependa on what you are used to. I truly hate automatic transmission - and acknowledge the dislike isn't wholly rational, though the extra cost and unfixability is rational. And don't get me started on the electric handbrake thing. Wtf is that all about? Admittedly I'm a bit of a luddite, and dread having to get my next car at some point where even 10 year old cars will be full of all this shyte.

That said, a truly self-driving car where you could have a snooze or read a book - now that would be worth having