Are driving aids dodgy?

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Profpointy

Legendary Member
it's a ball ache when you get a hire car with all this shyte on it. likely you've landed at an airport, tired, its dark and you just want to get to your destination / back home. Then find that basic features are not where they've been for the last 70 years but aome wazzock has decided to overcomplicate it. There are basically 6 controls on a car plus lights indicators and wipers. Just stop monkeying around with them.
 

wisdom

Guru
Location
Blackpool
@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 :laugh:
Big plus one on that statement.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
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.

You managed to work out how to use a computer and found your way around the net, cars are easy.
 

dodgy

Guest
I've had a few cars with driving aids, last car was an Octavia that had quite a few.

Park Assist (self parking) - used once to demonstrate to brother in law
Lane Assist (keeps to your lane) - worked about 50% of the time, not to be trusted
Adaptive Cruise Control - Keeps a set distance from you and the vehicle in front, for me it was the standout assistance feature and one I would always want in future cars. It's brilliant. BUT You need to understand how it works, it will only keep you a safe distance from cars in front that are moving. This should be drilled into car buyers by the dealer (The BBC website has a video of a Tesla falling foul of this).

Current car has Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) but none of the other stuff. ACC is great for relaxed driving across France for instance.
 

jayonabike

Powered by caffeine & whisky
Location
Hertfordshire
Bought a beemer 2 weeks ago. Love the auto wipers, lights, memory seats, parking sensors, run flat tyres, voice activated everything, auto dip wing mirrors when engaging reverse and I’ve set the engine speed warning to 130 mph, although it's good for 155. (Of course I’ve never taken it over 70 mph, that would be illegal and down right dangerous and morally wrong)
 

Kestevan

Last of the Summer Winos
Location
Holmfirth.
Just bought a new(ish) car with loads of driver toys.
Based on previous experience I'll use the speed limiter when the motorway is down to 50, and not bother with the rest... although the blind spot sensors and parking cameras/cross traffic warning will stay on - I'll still be looking behind me before pulling out though.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
You managed to work out how to use a computer and found your way around the net, cars are easy.

I'm an IT consultant, and I have no beef with keeping up with technology per se. However making something previously perfectly Ok more difficult to use to no good purpose would not be something I'd be pushing to my clients and so I'm unimpressed when that is sold to me as "progress". In a related note I used "words" today when microsoft had seen fit to "improve" the menus on heading numbering on their word processor. FFS I'm writing a simple document, it just needs to work. I am not that excited by word processors as some kind of funky technology akin to a sexual experience. Years ago each improvement really helped my work, and it was worth investing the effort to learn all the new features. These days it's just a balls ache when I've actually got work to churn out
 

NorthernDave

Never used Über Member
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

As has been said, it was very remiss of the dealer not to run through the controls and safety equipment with you before loaning the car - I've seen people sacked for that.

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.

When they were installing the "Smart" motorway on the M1, I had to drive for over 30 miles at 50mph on a near empty motorway while they were "testing" the signs - cruise control came in very handy that day.

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 !!!!

The current Merc E-class runs more lines of computer code than an F-35 fighter jet.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
Prof, I do not think we will agree on this one as I like the aids, I hate driving and anything that makes it easier is fine with me.

Out of interest what year cars do you think we're best.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
By way of benefit, my oldish executive car Saab, has auto dip mirror, so I don't dazzled at night by headlamps behind. I don't need to learn to work it, it's just a nice little feature. I have driven a car with auto wipers - mostly worked, and you could overide so again - a helpfull little thing. Anti lock brakes or traction control - yes helpfull as you don't need to work out what do do. On my motorbike gives me the (potential) confidence to just grap a handfull in extremis rather than worry about a front wheel lock up - if I can overcome my instinct. Likewise automatic advance / retard- sure, it just deals with it - albeit automatic chokes and the last carburettered cars were a disaster.

Anyhow, many of these things make a previously simple task more difficult, but others just work.
 

Mr Celine

Discordian
Our last car had rain sensitive wipers which did my head in. When replacing the car I confirmed first that this could be overridden and work as a conventional intermittent wipers.
Unfortunately I subsequently discovered that the auto dimming rear view mirror can't be turned off. This is even more annoying. What's the point of a mirror if you can't see what's behind you?

I had a hire car with an electric handbrake but couldn't do a hill start without rolling backwards and ended up having to heel and toe the brake and accelerator.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Semi related but I recall someone telling a tale of the auto tyre pressure sensors on his car. At first sight a rather good feature, but apparently one had gone wrong and it was many hundreds of pounda to fix, but get his, apparently because he had them it became an MOT fail if they were faulty, so the very exisitance of a so say safety aid became a huge pain. It is a 2nd hand story, but troubling
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
My drinking buddy recently bought (well, leased) himself a new car (Honda CRV with all of the "toys").

Last time I saw him, I asked him how he was enjoying his new car. His answer "I am not enjoying it, too many beeps, and warnings!".
 
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