Are driving aids dodgy?

[flake99please]

Cruise control has been the only 'feature' I have cared to use. It has been very handy on the Motorway slog from Edinburgh to Leicestershire (& back) in the past. Ive since sold my car, as this journey was the only driving I was doing 3-4 times a year when we went to visit family. The train will be taking the strain from now on.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Auto wipers, auto lights, and 'light your way' delay off after turning off engine. Speed limiter all the time, adjust according to road speed limit, and cruise control on motorway, adjusting speed as required - if I'm catching the car in front in an average speed 50 limit I'll adjust down as needed. It makes a long motorway journey a lot less tiring. Proximity sensors too. Use all of these

 

[Pale Rider]

Even my old Vauxhall has cruise control and I have used it.

But I don't like implied assumption of driving to a speed limit rather than driving at speed appropriate for the conditions.

 

[Bazzer]

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

I remember the first time I experienced it, in a hire car. I ended up stopping on the hard shoulder of the M62 thinking there was a tyre fault. The colleague I was with also felt it. Very off putting and it took a while for us to realise what it was and I turned it off. When she drove on the way back she didn't like it and also turned it off.

Mrs B's car can self park. She has never used it, claiming it's too much to think about, re positioning etc. I must admit the two or three times I have used it, it is buttock clenching

 

[Julia9054]

Al's car also has an automatic handbrake. Definitely suspicious of that.
And a rear view camera when you put the car into reverse. My youngest likes to run round the back and stick his face in it so we get his massive grin on the screen inside!

 

[youngoldbloke]

Must add that I've never used the feature in my Peugeot that tells you if a space is long enough for you to park, and I've never really trusted the hill start delay - though it works every time!

 

[DaveReading]

And don't get me started on the electric handbrake thing. Wtf is that all about?

I'm with you on that one. I'd never encountered a push-button handbrake until hiring a car in Italy recently. Nobody from Avis had a clue how it was supposed to work.

I worked it out eventually, but a number of ensuing hill-starts were accompanied by a distinct smell of burning clutch lining.

 

[Dave7]

Cruise control is good when you're on a long motorway haul. I also have parking sensors, which are great.

I've not yet used the speed limiter - I don't have a lead right foot.

Apart from when driving in France I dont think I have ever used cruise control. Motorways are so congested it is just not worth trying. IMO of course.

 

[annedonnelly]

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.

I'd be looking to take the relevant fuses out. I dread the thought of what gadetry might be standard by the time I buy a more modern car.

 

[screenman]

I think the problems may not be with the vehicles

 

[Biff600]

I have an E-Class Mercedes and it has more gadgetry than a dozen Apollo space rockets !!




.........but I still can't get my bike in the boot without major surgery !!!!

 

[Drago]

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

On most cars you can overcome the limiter by mashing the pedal hard into the floor. There's often a shut-off switch (Ford's, Cits and Pugs have them) that takes an almighty stamp to activates, and it over rides the limiter. But I'm like Reg, fuel is too expensive and life too precious to go on everywhere.

 

[Profpointy]

I think the problems may not be with the vehicles

Yebbut the folks above, me included, have been driving for decades. To then have to figure out how to use or overcome a so say labour saving feature is a bit cockeyed. It is actually making the job of driving harder not easier.

 

[Dave7]

Yebbut the folks above, me included, have been driving for decades. To then have to figure out how to use or overcome a so say labour saving feature is a bit cockeyed. It is actually making the job of driving harder not easier.

Have to agree with that 100%. I just want to get in the car and drive. My 65 plate Astra has so many options that I just do not want.

 

[I like Skol]

I think the problems may not be with the vehicles

I am very much a get out the handbook and explore ALL the features kind of guy with a new car. I like to know how it all works and how to get the best of it without damaging anything.
The big problem is not the drivers! The problem is how different a car from one marque is to something from another manufacturer. It is almost impossible to jump into a strange car and know what even the basic controls are. As an example, my wife had a current Merc C class recently as a courtesy car and it took us both working together a few minutes to work out how to engage drive in the auto gearbox after it had been delivered! It just wasn't obvious or intuitive.
It shouldn't be that hard. In my opinion it is a failure of the designers.