Collision Avoidance System.

[Ming the Merciless]

Or he could have been wearing the wrong shoes

or the wrong trousers, if it was Wallace.

 

[Dogtrousers]

or the wrong trousers, if it was Wallace.

I think that overall this is probably the most likely explanation

 

[presta]

A few days ago I approached a tee junction to emerge onto a main road. I arrived at the give way line smartly, but not at daft speed and stopped at the line.

Travelling along the main road was newish Volvo Car, possibly a V90. My first thought was the driver massively over-reacted and slammed on pulling up to a halt resulting in the car behind him giving him a cheeky blast on the horn. The old fella driving gesticulated in my direction and suggested that I was the number 1 best driver he had seen that day. I gave him a wave and pulled out before he set off again which I don't think improved his day.

My first thought he was just overreacting and panicked, but pondering it, I began to wonder if the Volvo was fitted with some sort of collision avoidance system that stepped in?

Being someone who is rather parsimonious when it comes to cars, my vehicles are too old and basic and don't have such systems?

But I'm curious? Could these systems have caused this reaction by detecting my car. It very nearly resulted in a collision to the rear of the Volvo. The junctions is a bit odd in that it's quite wide where the give way line is, but the throat is narrow and people parkin the throat meaning I was approaching the give way line at more of an angle than usual.

I had a similar incident 10-15 years ago, before any auto braking, I was cycling up to this give way line, and deferring my braking so that I could slip in behind the approaching car without having to slow down. The driver thought I wasn't going to give way, did an emergency stop, and so I had to do the same.

Which I suppose begs the question if one could maliciously cause the system to activate on passing cars.

Wot, like this you mean?

I think the vehicle behind was a sprinter van, so possibly didn't have the braking performance of a new Volvo on emergency mode

I used to work with a guy who had an old Austin 7 with mechanical brakes, he said it was a PITA to drive in the rush hour because whenever he left himself enough room to stop, someone would always jump in and fill the gap. A good demonstration of Risk Compensation: the benefits of safety technology are always enjoyed as an increase in performance rather than a reduction in risk.